Donna paid the rent promptly, sending a cheque every month from a specially created building-society account so her real name never appeared. It was quite a drain on her resources, but she did not mind because she could not risk the cottage being let when Weston was released. She needed to be sure Charity Cottage would be available.
She stayed there at intervals so people would not wonder why it was empty for such long periods, and she made sure she was seen in Amberwood, although she kept her distance from people. During the winter months she set up a time switch for the lights so anyone seeing the place from the road would assume it was occupied. She kept the inside aired and clean and the little fenced-off garden neat.
At the hospital she kept her ear to the ground for mentions of Antonia’s release.
It was as well she did this, because one summer came the news that the bitch was being released early. Good behaviour, remission and time served prior to the trial, said people at the hospital. It had all been added up and what it amounted to was that Antonia would be out this coming autumn–the end of October, in fact. Wasn’t that marvellous? She would need a few weeks to recuperate of course–somewhere to readjust to the world–but perhaps by Christmas…They went about beaming, and Donna hated them for liking Antonia so much. She hated the dumb-witted, insensitive prison authorities who were letting a murderess walk free after only five years.
She almost panicked at the short time this gave her to finalize her plan. Barely two months. Was it long enough? It would have to be.
As September drew to a close, she ended the lease on Charity Cottage. It was not very likely the agents would find anyone to take the place at this time of year. Before handing in the keys, she had two extra sets cut, using one of the big, while you wait key-cutting places in Chester, and paying cash, so she would be able to get back into the cottage whenever she wanted. And she would want.
After this, she began to slide the name of Charity Cottage and Amberwood into conversations within the hospital network, saying offhandedly that a friend had mentioned the area, referring to it as a wonderfully peaceful part of the world, a marvellous place to heal wounds–somewhere to go if you were recovering from an illness or a bereavement or a divorce.
Or a prison sentence.
She was as sure as she could be that these carefully casual references reached people who had known Antonia and who had stayed in touch with her. Some of the clerical staff and the therapists who worked at the psychiatric clinic occasionally wrote to Antonia, and one or two of them had visited her a few times. Dr Saxon, the consultant psychiastrist who had been Antonia’s immediate boss, had certainly visited her. Donna thought Jonathan Saxon had rather fancied Antonia at one time, although if you listened to hospital gossip, you would have to believe that Jonathan Saxon had fancied most of the females in the hospital at various times. Donna did not care if he screwed every female in sight providing he knew about the marvellously peaceful cottage, and providing he mentioned it to Antonia.
Apart from the bitch’s earlier than expected release, the plan was proceeding almost exactly as Donna had hoped. The only thing she could not predict with any confidence was whether Weston would take the carefully prepared bait. Donna was not given to praying, but during those weeks there were several times when she almost did. If her plan failed at this stage she would have to start all over again. But it would not fail. It must not.
It did not fail. The timing worked, and Donna’s own psychology worked as well. Less than a week after Antonia Weston’s release, she heard from one of the therapists that the bitch was renting Charity Cottage for a few weeks.
Antonia had walked straight into the trap Donna had so painstakingly set. Now all she had to do was keep a careful watch, and move the various stages of her plan along.