Girl A by Dan Scottow (easy books to read in english .TXT) 📕

She nodded at the collar.

Charlie stepped towards his wife.

‘And the note?’

Beth smoothed out the screwed-up ball of paper and handed it to Charlie. He grimaced as he saw the blood.

Beth watched as he read, his eyes widening in horror.

‘My God. Are you okay?’

‘No. No, I’m not. I’m scared.’

Charlie sat at the stool next to Beth, placing an arm around her shoulder. He pulled her into him.

‘We have to tell the police now. This has gone far enough,’ Charlie whispered. ‘You know that, don’t you?’

Beth shrugged his arm from her. She turned and stared into his face.

‘Whoever this person is, they are threatening us. They have done… God knows what to our dog…’ Charlie’s voice wavered for a moment, but he cleared his throat, regaining his composure.

‘I can’t,’ Beth replied in an almost inaudible whisper.

‘You’re being ridiculous. This is madness. Our family… our children are at risk. We are at risk. What’s it going to take for you to listen to me?’

‘I just can’t,’ she said again, louder this time.

‘We have to!’

‘You’re not listening to me, Charlie. I can’t!’ she screamed.

‘Why? For God’s sake. Why are you so averse to talking to the police? They can protect us. We are an innocent party here.’

‘Because I’m her.’ Beth’s voice was quiet again now, as if she didn’t want anybody to overhear.

Charlie blinked. Once. Twice.

‘What?’

‘I am Kitty Briscoe.’

And Beth Carter’s life as she knew it, it ceased to exist.

29

Charlie stared dumbfounded at his wife. His mouth hung open.

He stood from his stool.

‘Charlie, please! Sit down. Let me explain.’

He walked away, but Beth grabbed at his shirt, pulling him backwards.

‘Explain what? That you’ve been lying to me. Pretty much for our entire life together? Or how you were involved in the murder of a two-year-old boy when you were a child and kept that a secret from me too, perhaps?’

‘Please.’

Charlie sat beside Beth. She touched his leg.

‘Don’t,’ Charlie spat. Beth snatched her hand away.

‘Charlie, look at me.’

He wouldn’t. He stared ahead, jaw clenched, understandably upset. Angry, even.

‘I don’t… get it. How can that be you? And why have you never told me?’

‘How would I? How do I begin to tell you that? It’s not exactly first date material.’

‘No. But now, with everything that’s been going on. You’ve had every opportunity to tell me. And you chose not to. I even asked you straight out, and you lied. You lied to my face, Beth. You swore on your parents’ graves.’ Charlie paused, remembering his web searches the day before, the lack of results about a fire with two casualties, and something dawned on him.

‘Was any of that even true? Your parents? The fire? I tried to find it online. I couldn’t get anything. Now it makes sense. Because it was all bullshit, wasn’t it?’

‘No, Charlie. It wasn’t. That part was true. My parents died in a fire when I was eighteen. I wasn’t at home, and the house burned down with them asleep inside.’

‘How am I supposed to believe a single thing you tell me anymore? You’re clearly an accomplished liar.’

Beth stood, pacing across the kitchen, staring out into the garden, before turning to look at her husband.

‘You have to understand. That girl… Kitty Briscoe. I was her. But that’s not me now. I’ve spent my whole life trying to get away from her. I may not have gone to jail, but believe me when I say I have served a life sentence. I still am.’

She crossed back to the island, sitting down again beside Charlie.

‘That newspaper printed my name, my photo. They ruined my life. My parents’ lives. We had to move away. Every time we got settled, someone found out who we were, and we had to up sticks and move again. It was a nightmare.’

‘How could you…’ Charlie couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence, but Beth knew instinctively what he was asking.

‘It wasn’t me. I swear to you. I wasn’t even there. Yes, I helped Kieran Taylor take him from the fair, but I had nothing to do with what happened to him. I ran away, I left him at that hotel with Kieran, and he was alive the last time I saw him.’

‘Why didn’t you tell anyone? You went home and kept quiet. That boy was lying there for days. His parents anguished, not knowing if he was alive. And you carried on as normal.’

‘Charlie, I was seven. Just think about that. I was only slightly older than Daisy. Kieran Taylor was eleven. He told me Billy was fine, and I believed him because I didn’t know why he would lie.’

Charlie finally looked at her. His face red, angry.

‘It doesn’t matter now anyway, Beth. That’s not even the issue. What hurts is that you have lied to me every day of our lives. Everything you have ever said about yourself. Your family. Your name! Where you come from. All lies. Do you understand how that makes me feel?’

‘Yes.’

‘No. You don’t. I don’t think you’d like it if the shoe was on the other foot. We’ve always said as long as we’re honest with each other we can get through anything–’

‘And we can!’

‘No, Beth. No. We can’t. Because… can’t you see? We have never had honesty.’ Charlie paused. ‘At least, you haven’t.’

‘But everything else has been genuine. My feelings about you. The kids. None of that is lies.’

‘Of course it is. It’s all rubbish. I don’t even know you. I don’t know who you are.’

‘I’m the woman you married. That little girl, Kitty Briscoe, she doesn’t exist anymore. When you look at her, you’re looking at a life through windows that were boarded up decades ago. She’s… dead. I erased her.’

Charlie laughed humourlessly, standing. He strode across the room to a wall mounted cupboard, pulling the doors open. Suddenly, the man she loved seemed so distant from her.

She watched as Charlie took a bottle of whisky and a glass tumbler from the cabinet. He half-filled the glass, downed its contents, and refilled it. After emptying