The Confession by Charlotte Bigland

Author:Charlotte Bigland
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2023-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Half a million pounds to anyone who knows how to react to this situation. I try to run through as many different options as possible in three seconds.

‘What are you doing here?’ is what I settle on asking, trying to insert some righteous indignation into my voice. ‘Employees only after the gates close.’

It works, somewhat, for Too-Old-For-This-Shit Flatmate crumples her brow in surprise.

‘You were smashed. I followed you to check you were OK.’

Shit. I’m supposed to be drunk. Very drunk. I sway a little and, as I sway, I try to figure out whether Too-Old-For-This-Shit Flatmate saw me kill Devlin. She’s still a fair way from me – two dozen metres or so – and she’s a little out of breath, suggesting she ran to catch me up, that she was further behind. It’s also dark and Devlin, bless him, kicked the bucket in mercifully quiet fashion, so … might I get away with this?

‘Yeah, uh, sorry about that. Needed some fresh air to sober up. And I’m behind with my gravedigging. Thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.’

The words of a mad woman. I know it, and Too-Old-For-This-Shit Flatmate knows it, too. Still, I grab my shovel and begin frantically piling dirt over Devlin’s body, wanting to completely cover it, in case she moves close enough to see into the hole.

But she stays still, watching me. Once again, I’m overcome by the metallic smell of Devlin’s blood, and I shovel quicker, desperate to disguise it with the petrichor smell of dirt.

‘Were you … was someone else with you?’ she asks.

I pause, and plaster a strained smile across my face. ‘Nope. Graveyards are pretty creepy though, definitely the kind of place your imagination can run away in!’

I think I see her nod. She zips her jacket all the way up to her chin, and opens and closes her mouth a couple of times.

‘Sorry to be a bitch, but I really am going to have to use my gravedigger credentials to insist you leave. We open at eight-thirty tomorrow morning. You’re welcome to come back then.’ Said no drunk person ever.

Too-Old-For-This-Shit Flatmate nods again. Her eyes scan the cemetery for a few more seconds, before she says, ‘Sure. Get home safe.’

‘You too,’ I say, piling another shovel load of dirt onto the dead body below me.

Avoiding her is the only thing I can think to do. What’s my other option? Killing her? Nope, better to keep my head down and hope Too-Old-For-This-Shit Flatmate is secretly as dense as Manbaby Flatmate, and is none the wiser to my homicidal hobbies. I leave the flat as soon as the sun rises, and head straight to the cemetery, hoping to clean up what I started last night.

I’m too late.

‘I hadn’t finished this plot. Didn’t think you’d be burying anyone here until this afternoon,’ I say once I reach Employer #1, who’s lowering a casket into Devlin’s grave.

‘You what?’

‘This plot wasn’t ready.’

Employer #1 shrugs. ‘I know. Finished it off this morn. Was alright. Yer a talented grave digger.

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