by R. G. Adams
Steph started to move forwards now, meaning to make Kit turn and go back down the path. As she came close, she looked intently at Kit’s face.
‘I recognise you now. Your face hasn’t changed, but it’s all that long hair threw me off. Mine used to be like that, do you remember?’
Kit didn’t remember Steph at all actually, but she sensed it was best not to say so. She’d manipulated things with the mention of Danny and it had changed the air between them. It was going to be hard for Steph to just walk away now.
‘I’ve kept mine short since it happened,’ Steph continued. ‘Had it all cut off the next day.’
‘Why?’ Kit was completely unable to put together what Steph was getting at.
‘It reminded me. When it was long, I mean – it reminded me of him.’
Kit waited, but nothing more came. She put her hand on Steph’s arm, feeling sharp bones through her uniform, seeing her struggling and feeling awful for her. All those people not believing her. She remembered what Tyler had said, about the closed faces. ‘It reminded you of what, Steph? Tell me.’
Steph was flushed now, her brassiness gone. Up close she was tired-looking under her make-up, and Kit could see that she really was much too thin.
‘He used to like long hair. That’s how he started it, touching my hair, just a brush at first. Then one day he started playing with it. Like this.’
She put out her hand and took hold of a strand of Kit’s hair. She wound and wrapped it around two fingers, then let it drop and took up another piece and repeated the motion. ‘He had a real weird thing about it. Sometimes I used to think that was the worst bit, you know? Not the other stuff, that was bad enough, but the playing with me – like I was a doll. Making sure I knew he could do it if he wanted, that what I felt didn’t matter.’
Kit thought back to the transcripts and remembered there had been something about Matt Cooper touching the girls’ hair. She’d skimmed it, finding it hard to bear the thought Steph’s words made her remember, too, a line from the Savile reports: At the end of the day, he did it because he could get away with it.
Steph dropped Kit’s hair and gave her a pat on the shoulder. ‘Gotta go, I’m late now. Good luck, girl.’
She brushed past Kit and hurried down the path to her car, jumping in without a backward glance. As she drove away, Kit’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out.
Heard there was trouble at your place – r u ok
It was Tyler. She texted back.
How did u know
A few seconds later the reply came.
News gets around. Crofta nutter keep away
I plan to. Can I see u
She waited, standing on Steph’s path, not caring if anyone was looking and wondering why, passing her phone from one hand to the other. A few more seconds and the phone vibrated again.
need to get my head round it maybe in a bit
She typed an OK and sent it, and then she stood still, relief washing over her. She had been so afraid. She’d already lost Danny, but to lose Tyler, too – she found she couldn’t even bear to take the thought any further. Whatever happened now, she could face it, as long as he was all right. The fear of losing her job over the Cooper case suddenly seemed insignificant. She knew it was time to confront Annie Cooper.
Chapter 14
The next day, Kit woke shaking with anxiety. She couldn’t get rid of the image of Vernon falling to the ground. She stayed curled up in bed until the shaking subsided enough for her to pick up her phone and ring in sick. The whole building was full of the news of Vernon’s heart attack and the duty manager accepted her explanation without comment. She slept on and off all day, and during her wakeful times she tried to sort out the tangle in her head. Around 4 p.m., she got out of bed and, seeing that the sun was still bright outside, sat in her favourite spot on the living-room windowsill and let it fall onto her back, warming her and relaxing her tight muscles. She had to take one bit of it at a time, she realised. She had to choose which bit to sort first and stick with that until she had it tidied up. Work first, both because it had to be the priority and because it meant that she could delay thinking about her brothers a little more. After an unenjoyable meal of spaghetti on toast she went to bed early and fell back to sleep at once.
Friday came around and she dragged herself into the office early. After texting Ricky to check his plans for the day, she busied herself with paperwork. When Ricky came back from his visits at four o’clock, she was waiting for him outside and jumped into the front seat of his car while he was still trying to park it.
‘Hello. What’s going on then?’
‘Do you fancy a trip to see Annie Cooper? I could do with the back-up. I was thinking about what you were saying and I reckon maybe you’ve got a point. I think it’s time to put her on the spot.’
He agreed readily, clearly taking the invitation as a compliment. Kit directed him to the Coopers’. As he pulled up outside their house, Kit was relieved to see that only Lucy’s adapted vehicle stood on the drive. It looked like they had a chance to see Annie alone. They walked up the drive in silence and Kit rang the bell. She could see Ricky was nervous now. She felt a fizz of anticipation in her own stomach, but was determined, too. She had to give this one more shot. If it didn’t work out, she promised herself that she would do what Vernon had told her to: she would move on and focus on her other cases.
After a few seconds, Kit heard movement inside the house. Through the glass panel to the side of the front door, she saw Annie coming out of Lucy’s room. She was carrying a tray with a bowl of water on it. She looked at the glass panel as she came towards the door and her eyes met Kit’s. She put the tray down on the hall stand and marched towards the front door, swinging it open so hard it banged back against the wall. She stood in the doorway, waiting for one of them to speak. Something looked different about her, and it took Kit a few seconds to realise it was the first time she had seen Annie with her hair down. It hung to her shoulders, a soft sheet of blonde light. She was dressed up in a fitted green silk shift dress and high heels. The house was strangely quiet; there was no sign of Chloe and Cameron. Maybe the Coopers were all set to go out and celebrate the end of their ordeal. She could hardly have picked a worse time to challenge Annie.
‘Annie, this is a colleague of mine, Ricky Diallo. Can we speak to you for a few minutes, please?’
Predictably, Annie gave an incredulous laugh. ‘You are absolutely unbelievable. I had to throw you out of here only two days ago, because of your unprofessional behaviour around my children. And here you are, back again. You’ve got some cheek, I’ll say that for you.’
Kit had been prepared for all this, but she still felt a sting of irritation at the remark about the children. Annie wasn’t done, though.
‘So, no, you can’t have a word with me. I’m expecting my husband home any time now. As far as we are concerned, your involvement in our lives is over and done with. You, on the other hand, will have plenty of reminders about us in the coming months. I’ve spoken to your professional body already today and they are very interested in what’s been happening here, I can assure you. “Gross professional misconduct” is the term they used. So perhaps you’d like to go away and focus on how you are going to defend yourself, because I will tell you quite openly, I intend to finish your career and I won’t rest until I have done so.’
Kit was thoroughly riled now. In spite of the fact that this felt like the billionth time that she had been subjected to Annie’s grandstanding, it still pushed her buttons. She felt her voice rising.
‘Annie—’
Ricky put his hand on Kit’s arm. ‘Mrs Cooper,’ he said, his voice gentle, ‘we appreciate you have no reason at all to let us in. You are completely correct. The children’s cases are due to be closed and, strictly speaking, we have no right to even be here, and certainly no right to insist you to talk to us.’
Annie fell silent. Kit kept quiet, too, amazed at how easy it had turned out to be to take the wind out of Annie’s sails.
‘Mrs Cooper,’ Ricky continued, ‘the honest truth is that there are aspects of what has happened that are still a worry to us. Cameron, Chloe and Lucy are your children and so it would be wrong of us not to share those worries with you. What you do about it . . . well, that is up to you, and we have no part in that. So, you will be rid of us once we leave here, one way or the other. All we are asking for is the chance to speak to you one last time, as the children’s mother, because we are confident that you love them and want to protect them. Send us away right now if you like, just say the word and we’re gone. But then you’ll never know why we came.’
It was a gamble, but to Kit’s amazement, Annie Cooper gave a quick nod, and stood back to allow them into the hall. She closed the front door and led the way into the sitting room, indicating the sofa, to show that Ricky and Kit should sit down.
‘I need to speak with the carer for a moment first,’ Annie said. She left the room, giving Ricky and Kit the chance to exchange a glance.
‘Nice one,’ Kit whispered.
‘Thanks. See what happens when you stop fighting everyone in sight?’ He was grinning, but Kit felt irritated, and she found herself thinking that Jem would never have said that to her. But then, Jem was gone, and it was the fighting that had been the cause of that.
‘I have fifteen minutes, no more.’ Annie Cooper’s voice was stiff as she re-entered the room and crossed to the fireplace, where she stood waiting. Kit looked at Ricky, hoping he knew how to handle this.
‘Would you sit down, Mrs Cooper?’ he said. ‘I’d find it easier to explain this if you did.’
Annie sat in the armchair opposite them. Kit knew it would have cost her a lot to do as she was asked, and that she wouldn’t tolerate much more of this. Ricky needed to get on with it.
‘Well?’ Annie demanded.
‘We realise you’ve been through a great deal of trauma,’ Ricky started.
‘Spare me all that. It’s your colleague here who has been the cause of our trauma, along with that incompetent old fool who supposedly manages her.’
‘It’s understandable that you’re angry. Anyone would be in your position.’
‘You really are as patronising as hell.’ For once, Kit agreed with Annie. She knew Ricky was completely genuine but he wasn’t coming across well. It was time to get back to the straight talking.
‘Let’s get to the point and then we can get out of here and leave you alone.’ Kit had Annie’s attention now. ‘The truth is that the criminal-justice system can’t convict your husband of anything. We all know that.’
‘Because he’s done nothing wrong. He’s been totally exonerated, just as I said he would be.’
‘But he hasn’t been, has he? That’s the whole point. No prosecution, no care proceedings, no fact-finding. This case was never tried, it collapsed because Stephanie Harman withdrew her statement. No one knows why she did that.’
Kit waited a moment to let that sink in. Annie didn’t reply and Kit found herself unsure where to go next.
Ricky filled the gap caused by Kit’s silence. ‘So what we are saying is the system can’t proceed any further against your husband. That’s it for us, we’ve done our best to get to the bottom of things, but now that’s impossible.’
Annie shrugged. ‘And?’
Ricky sat forward again, looking at Annie earnestly. ‘So now it’s up to you.’
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘It’s up to you to decide whether your husband committed those offences. In actual fact, you’re probably the only one who really knows whether he is capable of that.’
Annie stood up. ‘This is getting us nowhere,’ she said. ‘I gave you a chance, but I can see that was a mistake. This is the same old nonsense that we’ve been through over and over again. Matt did nothing wrong, I am a hundred per cent confident of that. You appear to be determined to prove the opposite, but you have no evidence whatsoever.’
It suddenly occurred to Kit to wonder just how much Annie knew about what was in the transcripts. ‘Did you ever get to hear the full allegations against Matt?’
‘No, why would I? Matt dealt with all that, and he told me what I needed to know.’
‘Which was what?’
Annie shrugged. ‘Matt remembers those girls, but he never had much to do with them. They were friendly with his sister, that’s all. Then they come along all these years later with this ludicrous story that he interfered with them. I mean, why now? Surely if there was anything like that going on, they would have reported it at the time?’
Kit wanted to answer that question, to explain why it would have been so hard for Steph and Nicolette to tell anyone. But she knew it would become a detour, and she needed to keep pushing Annie along the path they were on.
‘But do you know what it is that they said he did?’
‘Why would I want to know that?’
‘For Christ’s sake, Annie, what I am asking you is, do you know it? And if not, why not?’
It was clear Annie didn’t want to answer. Kit knew that if Annie was resisting the question so strongly, it could only be because the answer had already occurred to her.
‘Matt felt it would upset me,’ she said eventually. ‘And what was the point? It’s a pack of lies, the whole thing.’ For the first time since Kit had met her, Annie’s voice lacked conviction.
‘So what that means is that you don’t even really know what the allegations were?’
‘As I said, Matt was protecting me.’
‘But why does he need to protect you from it, if it’s all just a load of lies? You’re not exactly the frail type, are you?’ Kit waited for a reaction to this, but it didn’t come. ‘He would have known exactly what they claimed – he would have gone over the interviews with his lawyers. They don’t make for easy reading, I can tell you.’
Annie sat down on the edge of the chair and looked at Kit. ‘You’ve read the interviews?’
‘Yes, I’ve read them.’
‘Why?’
‘To see whether we had grounds for care proceedings.’
‘Then you can tell me what was in them.’ This was suddenly a different Annie, open in a way Kit had hardly ever seen. If she could find the right words, maybe she could get Annie to think the unthinkable, just for a moment. And if, deep down, Annie knew her husband was guilty, that moment of acknowledgement would be enough to bring all of her denial crashing down. Surely then she would do whatever was necessary to protect her children?
Kit hesitated. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ricky looking at her, and the look contained a warning. She knew what he was worried about, and she began to regret having brought him along. The quickest way to give Annie everything she needed to hear would be to tell her what was in those transcripts. Annie was asking to know, and her receptive frame of mind would be gone the second Matt arrived home and was back in charge. But to tell Annie what was in the transcripts would be a serious breach of confidentiality. She couldn’t justify it when there was nothing to prove the kids were at risk. Kit would risk the sack and the loss of her registration if anyone found out. And it would mean an investigation, in which Ricky would be the main witness. Kit thought she might well have taken the chance on her own account, but she couldn’t put Ricky in that position. No, she’d have to find another way, and just hope Annie would do the right thing.
‘I can’t tell you what was in those transcripts. I don’t have the grounds to disclose it to you. Matt’s the only one who can tell you that. You could go and get legal advice on it, but I’m pretty sure I’m right – it’s up to him to tell you, and no one else can, as things stand.’ Kit knew Annie wouldn’t do it. Matt would be home before she even got an appointment with a lawyer, and that wo
uld be the end of that.
Kit thought quickly. ‘There is something else you could try.’ She knew this was not going to go down well, and she struggled to find a way to say it. ‘You could speak to Lucy.’
Annie’s mouth twisted a little. ‘Speak to Lucy about what, exactly?’ Annie was slipping away, back into her refuge of hostility. Kit could see that soon she was going to lose her altogether.
‘I think you know the answer to that. You know Lucy said something to Chloe. All you have to do is ask her about it. If there is anything to tell, Lucy would tell you. You are the one person she would tell. Chloe said so.’
Annie’s face was set rigid now, her mouth a thin, tense line. ‘We had this discussion yesterday. You seem to be implying that Matt has molested his own severely disabled daughter. That is disgusting.’
‘Mrs Cooper,’ Ricky intervened, ‘if you really are sure that your husband doesn’t present a risk to your children, then great, have him back and get on with your lives. Put it all behind you. But be very clear, that is not what we are telling you, or what the police or the CPS are telling you. We are saying we couldn’t catch him. We cannot and are not saying to you that he didn’t do it. We just don’t know. So now there’s a decision for you to make, and you and your children will have to live with that decision for the rest of your lives. Lucy is especially vulnerable, we all know that.’
Annie’s expression remained neutral. Kit couldn’t judge whether the point was going home, or whether Annie was just biding her time before she exploded and chucked them both out onto the street. She took the chance to pick up as soon as Ricky stopped.
‘I know exactly how you feel about the conversation Chloe and I had with Lucy. But are you really telling me you are not going to talk to Lucy and check it out? Just in case? Matt’s never going to know you did it. So just speak to her and see what she says. That makes sense, doesn’t it?’
Annie’s face was taking on a shuttered look. They’d nearly got her, but it wasn’t enough to overcome her reluctance to ask Lucy directly whether anything had happened. And now Annie’s attention was wandering. She turned her head at a noise from the hallway.
