Then I can let go of my anger. I can and I will.
Once I know the truth, all th
is will be over.
She was surprised when her phone rang again, this time from a blocked/unknown number. Williams must have switched phones.
‘Derek?’ Nikki picked up again. But it wasn’t Derek Williams.
At first she didn’t recognize the voice on the other end of the line. It was hard to make out anything through the sobbing, deafening, gut-wrenching howls of pain that echoed through Nikki’s car speakers like the soundtrack from a horror film. But after a few seconds, she knew.
No. That’s impossible. It can’t be!
But it was.
‘Dr Roberts?’ Brandon Grolsch gasped. ‘It is you, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, Brandon, it’s me.’ Nikki’s heart pounded. ‘Where are you?’
‘I need help.’ He began sobbing again. ‘I think they’re going to kill me!’
‘I can help you, Brandon,’ said Nikki. ‘But you need to tell me where you are.’
‘OK.’ He inhaled deeply. ‘I … I’m. I’m at the corner of …’
There was a loud thud.
Then the line went dead.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Nikki sat at the bar at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills sipping a ‘mocktail’, in this case a Moscow mule minus the vodka, and trying not to look nervous.
Her overnight bag was at her feet. She’d only packed a small weekender. She had no intention of being hounded out of her home for good, by Luis Rodriguez or anybody else. But after the unnerving call from Brandon Grolsch, she’d decided to take Derek Williams’ warnings seriously.
What will Derek say when I tell him Brandon’s still alive? she wondered. At some point she knew she would have to tell the police about Brandon as well. But Williams deserved to be the first to know. Besides, she wanted his take on it before she took another step.
Williams was late, which wasn’t unusual, although Nikki’s frayed nerves could have done without it tonight. She wanted to hear whatever he had to tell her about Lenka first, before she broached the subject of her call from Brandon. The terror and misery in Brandon’s voice still haunted her, as did the abrupt end to his call, and she still had no idea what to make of any of it.
Had Brandon really been involved in Lisa and Trey’s murders? Nikki didn’t want to believe it. It didn’t square in any way with the boy she remembered Brandon Grolsch to be, the lonely, troubled but intrinsically gentle individual who had turned to her for help when nobody else would help him, and who was still turning to her for help, although at this point God only knew what Nikki or anyone could do for him. And yet his DNA was there, on the bodies. That’s what the police said, anyway. It was so hard to know whom to trust.
Nikki looked up at the clock on the wall: 7.22 p.m. Williams was officially late now. Where the hell could he be?
She’d made an effort with her clothes tonight, and looked understatedly sexy in a pair of charcoal gray cigarette pants and a jade green silk blouse, low enough to reveal a hint of cleavage in her lace La Perla bra. Obviously not for Derek Williams’ benefit. As ridiculous as it sounded, as ridiculous as it was, Nikki wanted to look her best when she heard the full story about Lenka. It was as if Doug’s mistress were still alive, and in the room, and the two women were in some sort of stand-off or competition.
This ghost of a woman had robbed her not just of her happiness in the present, but of all her precious memories from a happy past. The opportunity to lay her to rest at last was a momentous occasion, one worth getting dressed up for.
Since her unexpected confession to Gretchen about Lenka’s pregnancy, and the real circumstances under which she’d learned of Doug’s affair, Nikki had had precious little time to question herself on why she’d chosen to conceal this information from Derek Williams. Was she embarrassed? Even now, after all this time and in the wake of so much tragedy? Embarrassed that another woman had so effortlessly provided Doug with the one thing Nikki couldn’t give him – a child – and that she’d been so terrified by that prospect, she’d done nothing whatsoever about it. Until the fates intervened …
Would Williams have uncovered the truth himself by now? Was that his big ‘news’? Or did he have other information, new information, something that might finally help Nikki make sense of Doug’s infidelity and all the terrible things that had happened since?
Impatient, she texted Williams’ number.
‘Where r u? Getting worried.’
Williams’ phone buzzed on the desk as he pulled on his pants, the fabric sticking to his legs still wet from the shower.
‘Coming,’ he typed back hastily to Nikki. ‘Sorry.’