Little Boy Blue

129

The door closed behind her and Helen heard the key turn in the lock. It was strange how different it sounded on the inside. Out there, among colleagues and friends, the turn of the key had always sounded like a job well done. In here, it was like a death knell.

Helen sat down on the bed and stared at the walls. Her mind was turning on a thousand points, searching for the weak points in Robert’s scheme, but she could find none. She knew already that there would be no help coming from Gardam. If he’d wanted to save her, he would have done so by now. No, this was the perfect get-out for him – if she reported his assault now, who would believe her? Still, Helen wondered if he was enjoying her destruction. Or did it hurt him, knowing that he would never see her again?

She heard footsteps and looked up. The door remained closed, but a newspaper slid under the gap at the bottom. The footsteps moved away and Helen could hear the custody officers laughing. It wasn’t hard to see why. Their gift to her was a copy of the Evening News. Picking it up, she flicked past the sensational headline to the inner pages. Much of the paper was devoted to the story, but the crowning glory was Emilia Garanita’s profile piece of her. It was entitled: Fall from Grace.

Helen binned the paper and lay down on the bed. The fight had finally gone out of her. There was nothing to do now but lick her wounds.

Robert had waited for his moment, then struck with devastating effect. He was a man possessed – his loneliness, bitterness and rage altering him beyond all recognition. He had stayed alive purely to gain vengeance for his mother and Helen had paid dearly for her sins. Robert had taken from her everything she held dear. Her reputation, her job, her friends.

And, worst of all, her freedom.