Pop Goes the Weasel | страница 131

Steve was so insistent. So determined that she should do something else. Something safe that would allow them to start a family together. He had swallowed enough anger, enough anxiety, enough fear. Now it was up to Charlie to decide what life she wanted.

Except Charlie didn’t know. Couldn’t decide. The only thing she did know for sure was that she hated being alone in this big house.

He was under siege. They had had to disconnect the doorbell and pull out the phones in the end, but still the barrage of enquiries didn’t stop. Journalists shouted through the letterbox, banged on the doors and the windows, asking for comments, for a photo opportunity. They were remorseless, merciless.

Robert had taken refuge with his parents, Monica and Adam, in their bedroom upstairs. They’d sat on the bed together, trying to block out the sound of the commotion outside by cranking up the radio. No one had really known what to say at first, too shocked to process the day’s events, but finally Robert found his voice.

‘Did you know?’

His first question had been tinged with bitterness and anger. Monica nodded, but was crying too much to speak, so Adam falteringly told Robert what he needed to know. His parents had known who his mother was when they’d adopted him, but they’d never wanted to know the details of her crimes, fearing that their horror would seep into their relationship with their cherished child. As far as they were concerned, the child was innocent. The slate was wiped clean and by good fortune and the Grace of God both he and they had been given an amazing opportunity. They had always referred to him as ‘their little blessing’.

Robert didn’t feel like a blessing now. After a couple of hours of fraught, painful discussion, Robert had retired to his bedroom, needing to be alone. He had lain on his bed, his iPod turned up to the max, trying to block out the hysteria of his life. But he couldn’t, and hadn’t slept either, so he’d just spent the time staring at the clock making its slow progress through the night.

Had Helen done this to him? He’d worked out who Helen really was even before Emilia Garanita told him. He’d shrugged Emilia off when she’d collared him at the convenience store, but not before she’d laid out the basics. Helen was his aunt, his mother was a serial killer. As far as he could see, Helen had tried to protect him… but still she was the only person who knew his real identity. The only one who had a personal interest in him. Had she brought the walls crashing down on him?