Chapter 6

The Last Dance

The room appeared to be empty at first sight. So I very gently pushed the door to open the gap a little and enlarge my field of vision. I'd just got to the point where I could see a man's foot on the floor, when everything went black.

As I slowly regained my senses, I discovered that I was lying on the floor of the room I'd been trying to peer into. I had a pain in my head that informed me I'd been struck on the back of it. How long I'd been unconscious I had no idea. Slowly my eyes focused on the inert body lying before me. As my mind and vision cleared, I realised that it was Bill Simmons who lying there not a couple of feet from me.

I think I lifted myself onto one elbow, to get a better look and convince myself that I was correct in the impression I'd had that he was dead.

"Yes, John, he is dead!" Angela's voice came from behind me somewhere.

Stunned, I looked around to see her sitting on the other side of the room, holding an automatic pistol in her hand.

"What happened?" I asked, not really knowing if I was asking about Simmons, or what had hit me.

"I - or rather as far as the police will be concerned - you shot him!" Angela replied. "Yeah, I think that it shouldn't be too difficult to convince them that you came here looking for revenge on Bill for stealing your once loving wife away from you. You had a gun and were intent on killing both of us. You shot Bill first, but unfortunately for you he had a gun in the desk here. I managed to get to it whilst you had an altercation with Bill, and in panic I shot you in self-defence. It wasn't quite the way I'd planned things originally, but it serves the same purpose. You'll both be dead and it'll save me organising an accident for Bill later."

I know, that what Angela had said did register in my befuddled brain, but I had other things I was worried about.

"Where are the children Angela?" I demanded.

"Don't worry about them, John. They're in a nice boarding school in Kent, quite safely out of the way."

"You won't get away with killing Bill or me that easily, Angela!"

"Oh, I think I will. I've had time to think this out. This gun is an automatic and as far as the police know, I never fired a gun in my life before. I intend to spray bullets all over the room in a very random fashion. I've thought about this carefully. It will be one of those random shots that will kill you. It'll be an accident of course, just a poor frightened, defenceless, panicking housewife defending herself from a very jealous, vicious, murderer of a husband, who's already been convicted of killing Mary Simmons. I think I can convince a jury of that, even if I can't convince the police."

"But why? What's the point in all this? Why was it necessary to kill Mary and frame me for it in the first place? You and Bill Simmons could have just run off together."

"Oh, Johnny, you never did understand me, did you? I didn't give a shit for Bill Simmons. Christ, he was never very good in bed, I can assure you of that. Hey, maybe that's why Mary was always running around on him. You see Johnny; it was the money I always wanted. With all of Mary's money as well as yours, I can enjoy the nice life I've always dreamed of, down in the south of France."

"Is that what all this was about - money? You and Simmons framed me and sent me to prison for seven years, just so that you could get your hands on Mary's money!"

"I'm sorry, darling, but that's about it. I was bored and I wanted to live the high life. There wasn't much sense in having you bumped off. I couldn't have lived the life I've always wanted on what you had."

Suddenly it struck me, that if I hadn't safely squirreled all that money away abroad; I could have been the one who got killed in the first place. Angela had always been a spendthrift so I'd siphoned off as much as I could get away with, to avoid arguments over her excesses.

"You know at one time I did think about taking out a big life insurance policy on you, John." Angela continued, "But I'm pretty sure that would have made the police suspicious if you'd suddenly turned up dead. And then poor old dumb Bill there, started making passes at me. You know he had nothing. It was all Mary's money, so it wasn't too difficult to talk him into it."

"So you planned it all?"

"Yes, you didn't think Bill there, had the brains or the nerve to murder Mary, did you?"

"Christ, Angela, you stabbed Mary Simmons? Holy shit, you killed Sheila Thomas and George Cafrey as well. And it was you who tried to run me down the other day. That's why I couldn't see who was driving the car that night; you were so low down in the seat."

"Yeah, the girls at school always did call me short-arse!"

"You know you're not going to get away with this, Angela, not this time."

I was stalling for time by then. I reckoned the boss and Bernie couldn't be far away. I don't know why actually, but I had the distinct impression that they were outside the door in the passage. The problem was Angela was sitting on the other side of the room, away from the door and she had a gun pointing at me.

"Oh, I think I will. John Carpenter, the convicted murderer, gets let out of jail and hunts down his ex-wife and her new love. I can see the headlines in the Sunday papers now. I should imagine that I'll lay my hands on whatever money you had left after the divorce as well. After all, the children are your next of kin. That, and all Mary's money that dumbo Bill here, put in numbered Swiss bank accounts. I've got all the numbers and pass words, by the way." Angela waved a piece of paper she was holding in her other hand at me. "Bill was hopeless at paperwork. I should be set-up very nicely for the rest of my life, thank you."

"There's one thing I don't understand, Angela. Why did you wait until I got out of jail? Why didn't you and Simmons just run off and disappear whilst I was in prison?"

"Darling, Bill was a dumb idiot. That's one thing that I knew you never were..."

"Except when I married you!" I cut in.

"Whoa, that wasn't a very nice thing for a loving husband to say, John," Angela said with a weird smile on her face, "Anyway I knew that you'd track me down one day. You're no fool, although it was a bit stupid of you to come sneaking around here on your own. Anyway I had no intention of spending the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, waiting for you to be standing there, one day."

I knew that if I attempted to move or stand up, Angela would probably shoot me straight away. I had to distract her somehow and keep her talking long enough for the boss and Bernie to realise what was going to happen and, I hoped, do something about it. I put my hand to the back of my head and felt the large bump there where I assumed Angela had hit me and knocked me out.

"Jesus Christ, girl, what the hell did you hit me with?" I asked as I did so.

"A wooden rolling pin, the normal 'little woman's' weapon. Remember I'm just a scared little housewife who married a crazed killer. What was that?" Angela asked, as there was a distinct noise outside the window.

That was my cue to be ready to move, I figured that the boss or Bernie was trying to divert Angela's attention. Then suddenly the whole damned window burst inwards. I was to find out later that Bernie and the boss had thrown a garden bench seat through it.

As best I could, I tried to dive behind the couch, but at almost the same instant Angela fired the gun in my direction. The damned bullet must have come through the arm of the sofa and hit me a glancing blow on the side of my head, although I never felt the impact. I just had vague memories of someone, who I later discovered was Gary shouting.

"Armed police! Put your weapon down or I'll shoot."

Then all hell broke loose and there were a multitude of gunshots that appeared to be coming from all around me; then silence! I'm not sure if I was unconscious or not, but I lost track of things after that for a little while.