Something Missing - ONC 2024 (EDITING)

Chapter 10 - Unexpected Meeting

'I didn't kill her, Donna. Leave me alone.' Finally, the door opened a crack and Donna spun round, stared at the small and deceptively unassuming woman who was looking at her with a bored expression on her face. Carly Hill looked like she was taking the piss. Laughing at her.

The audacity.

After what Donna had found out.

'If I had to guess anyone killed her, I'd say it would be you. Judging by how you were acting last night. That Spanish copper plainly thought you were deranged, and she was right.' Carly sighed.

'Me?' Donna snapped, shoving past her into the flat. Her hand clenched round the knife. Instead of withdrawing it she shoved the handle down so hard that she felt it rip a hole in her coat. 'How fucking dare you?'

'It was after I told Erica about you, wasn't it,' Donna said, marching into Carly's flat. She took in the cheap Live Laugh Love décor, the lack of bookshelves, the whiff of ammonia from Carly's cage of pet hamsters in the corner of the room. It didn't fit the posh address or the bougie interior of the building, none of it did. So where was she getting the money? There could only be one place, Donna thought. 'She didn't believe me. She thought I was being - what's that she always said? Victim blamey. Cynical. Typical Donna, suspicious of anything. But then she realised. Too fucking late as usual, but she realised you were full of shit. And you couldn't have that.'

'You think I'd kill someone over that? She was the latest in a line of people that didn't believe me,' Carly snapped. 'The police were here just now. After this weird vendetta you've developed, you should be thanking me that I didn't drop you in it.'

'Drop me in it?' Donna slammed Carly's door. A dream catcher hanging from a peg on the door swayed from side to side. The sight was so jarring and irritating.

'Yeah,' Carly said, her voice triumphant. The superior tone sickened Donna when this worm had no right to do it. No right at all. 'I could have told them Erica was looking for a new co host for the podcast and that she'd asked me to do it, I could have told them how upset you were. I could have told them the fact Erica told me she was scared of you. But I didn't, because I'm a nice person. Something you're not even capable of.'

'So it was me?' Donna snapped. Slowly, very slowly, she withdrew the knife from her pocket. It felt like she was King Arthur taking Excalibur from the lake or whatever it was, the weapon felt so heavy. 'It was her crazy jealous cousin and all that shit she found out about you was just a coincidence?'

'What shit?' Carly gave a dismissive little sniff. 'Nobody can prove anything. Especially not you.'

****

Rita gave Matteo a pat on the back. He was still sobbing his heart out but maybe - maybe - he had calmed down. She noticed that none of Federico's three cats had come to comfort him; maybe they felt something like the mixture of pity and anger she did. Her feet wobbled slightly as she stood up. She had the urge for a cigarette. Although she had given up for years, the Henry Dixon case had provoked her to start smoking again and now she was reluctant to give up this coping mechanism. Her heart was in her throat as she stumbled towards the back door.

A cat brushed against her legs. Pepperoni.

She opened the door and stepped out into the garden. She lit the cigarette and her breath felt choked up in her chest. Although it wasn't healthy, this effect was probably due more to her anxiety than her smoking, she knew.

Matteo was shouting at his dad from inside. 'Don't tell the police, Dad, please! Don't tell them!'

'Rita,' Alfonso said. She had not noticed him following her outside. 'Are you OK?'