Faith - Lesley Pearse [197]
‘You have been helping her?’ Belle shrieked. ‘When you last came here you said you wanted to offer your condolences!’
‘That is what I came for,’ Stuart said, but he kept his eyes on Charles because he guessed she’d never told him that he’d called. ‘But I also didn’t believe Laura killed her. Anyway, to answer your question, Charles, I spoke to someone who had witnessed a document for Jackie, and I had to check up whether she had lodged it officially or not. That took me to the lawyer who handled the purchase of Brodie Farm.’
‘So you’ve been poking your nose in our family’s business to help that scumbag?’ Charles sneered.
‘It is quite obvious from a letter left with the will that Jackie didn’t consider her a scumbag,’ Stuart retorted. ‘Actually, she left me the impression that was her view of you!’
‘How dare you!’ Charles hissed at him.
‘I dare because I can guess what you did to enrage Jackie,’ Stuart said. ‘It wasn’t just that you’d been sponging off her for years, was it?’
‘I don’t know what you are suggesting, but you can get out of this house now.’ Charles rose to his feet threateningly.
‘I’ll go when I’m good and ready.’ Stuart stood up too. ‘You killed Barney, didn’t you? But you were too much of a coward to stop and face what you had done. You just shot off to London to lie low.’
‘That’s a bloody lie,’ Charles shouted and leapt towards Stuart.
Stuart caught him by the shoulders, forcing him back to arm’s length. ‘I know what you did,’ he snarled at him. ‘You killed the boy, you could easily have killed Jackie too, but all you cared about was your own skin. You disgust me. Why didn’t Jackie turn you in? I bet she wanted to, but she couldn’t bear the thought of Laura knowing it was a relative of hers that did it.’
‘That slag didn’t give a toss about the kid,’ Charles flung out, trying to get away from Stuart. ‘She was a junkie whore, she dumped him on Jackie all the time so she could screw more men and take more drugs. But you know all that, she chucked you out so she could find a rich man to fuck.’
Stuart’s blood came up and he head-butted Charles. His legs buckled under him and as Stuart bent to yank him up again, Belle screamed.
‘Are you proud of your old man?’ Stuart shouted. ‘He’s the reason your sister turned against you. You’ve got nothing now, and I’m going to make certain the whole world knows why.’
Stuart was looking down at Charles, not watching Belle, when something very hard hit him on the back of the neck and he toppled forward on to the other man. He was stunned momentarily, and as he tried to get up he saw Belle was holding a white marble rolling pin in her hands and her face was contorted with rage.
‘You won’t be saying anything about us,’ she roared at him. ‘You’re finished!’
She brought the heavy rolling pin down on his shoulder before he could move out of the way. He staggered under the force of the blow and Charles seized the opportunity to get to his feet. ‘Enough, Belle,’ he yelled. ‘Let him go.’
‘Let him go!’ she screamed derisively. ‘I haven’t finished with him yet,’ and she lifted the rolling pin again to hit Stuart.
He managed to dodge that blow, but still dazed from the first one, he didn’t know Charles was behind him until he locked him in a half nelson.
‘You always did think you were better than anyone else,’ Charles hissed in his ear. ‘But you won’t get the better of me. You’re leaving here now, and don’t you ever come back.’
He began pushing Stuart towards the door into the hall. Stuart didn’t struggle because however undignified it was to be forcibly thrown out, it was better than being killed, which for a moment or two he had thought was Charles’s intention.
Belle brushed past as Charles forced him to the front door. ‘Open it,’ Charles ordered her.
Stuart felt a cold chill when he saw that Belle had a curious, almost gloating expression on her face. She wasn’t attempting to open the front door, but stood with her back to it. Then he saw what she was holding by her side.
A large French cook’s knife.
In fright he tried to free himself from Charles’s grip just