The Silent Witness

by Casey Watson

  I’d even heard them talking about it – my own two, plus Riley. That thing when you catch someone sitting on Facebook and checking out someone else’s profile. It was, fairly obviously, not a cool thing to do. But even as I thought that, my fingers were ahead of me, and I was typing Adam Cummings into the search bar.

  I was slightly shocked to find him, even so. Hadn’t John said something about all parties involved deleting their social media accounts? And wasn’t there some legal need for them to do so? But perhaps I was being naïve. Adam Cummings wasn’t being charged with anything, was he? Not as yet, despite the rumblings about Laura Daniels counter-accusing him – was that even a proper legal process?

  In any event, there he was, clear as day. Not that there was a lot, to be fair, since I wasn’t his ‘friend’, but, like many people, he hadn’t ‘locked down’ his profile, as Kieron put it, so there were a fair few photos and posts visible to all.

  And naturally I was so engrossed that I didn’t hear Bella. The first I knew was when she touched me on the shoulder.

  ‘That’s my stepdad,’ she said.

  And since it was too late for burning cheeks and denials, I had no option but to nod and say yes.

  I was about to pull together some excuse, but I apparently didn’t need one. ‘He’s called Jacko,’ she said, pointing to a face on one of the photos. ‘And he’s called Griff. He’s a bit smelly. He used to come round the house a lot.’

  ‘They’re your dad – stepdad’s friends, then,’ I said, scrolling down to further pictures.

  Bella nodded. ‘Those are. And those women.’ She pointed. ‘They’re from that club I told you about.’

  I scrolled further. And she saw it before I did. Or rather her. ‘Is that her?’ she asked. ‘The woman you were telling me about?’ She was indeed. ‘She’s from his club, too. She’s called Cheryl.’

  Bella yawned then, unsurprisingly. I turned round in my swivel chair. The blonde woman could wait. ‘Look at you,’ I said. ‘You must be shattered.’

  ‘I’m all right,’ she said. ‘Sort of.’

  ‘Sort of is the best that can be expected. D’you want some breakfast? You must be starving. Tea was a very long time ago now.’

  ‘Sort of,’ she said again. ‘But is it all right if I have a bath first?’

  ‘Course you can, sweetheart. Shall I come up and run it for you?’

  And to my surprise and delight she said yes.

  ‘You know, it’s a big thing you did last night,’ I told her, after she’d chosen some special treat bubble bath from the bathroom cabinet. ‘But it’s going to feel even bigger now, you know that, don’t you?’

  ‘I’ve got to tell, haven’t I? Tell a policeman. It’s okay. I know that.’

  I smiled at her. ‘Course you do. You’ve been told often enough, haven’t you? But d’you feel strong enough? They might want you to do that today.’

  She nodded. ‘That’s okay. I don’t really care what happens to me now. I’m just glad my mum will be allowed to come home. Even if she is cross with me for breaking my promise. Which she shouldn’t be – like you said – because I’ll explain.’

  I had my own take on that; if she was anything like me she’d have been having similar thoughts – that, as a twelve-year-old, Bella was in a highly precarious state. There was no getting away from what she’d physically done, no matter how intense the provocation. And how did you prove it? She didn’t have a mark on her. The blows to her stepfather’s head came from behind. There was no immediate element of self-defence about it.

  None of which I was about to share with Bella.

  ‘Exactly,’ I said instead. ‘And they do say the truth sets you free. So fingers crossed that’s what’s going to happen to Mum.’

  ‘And I’m okay,’ she said again. ‘If, you know, they send me there.’

  ‘Oh, sweetie,’ I said, wrapping my arms tightly round her. ‘I know I can’t make promises if I’m not absolutely sure, but I am ninety-nine point nine nine nine nine nine certain sure that no one is going to send you away anywhere.’

  Having left Bella to have her bath, and promised a bacon sandwich on her return, I turned my attention back to the laptop screen. Now I was back to being confused, because Bella clearly knew the woman. Who definitely wasn’t an aunt, and, by my reasoning, anyway, was almost certainly a fellow member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and perhaps also part of some splinter support group.

  But why lie? What was that about? Did she just think it would make her sound more official? And why did she think she had any right to get involved in the case? But I didn’t have a lot of time to ponder her motivation, as my mobile phone started buzzing on the table beside me, the screen announcing a call from John Fulshaw.

  ‘Well, well,’ he said. ‘We didn’t see that coming, did we? You okay? Did you get any sleep?’

  I told him yes, and a bit, and then we went over Bella’s disclosures, which had wrong-footed both him and Kathy – to whom he’d already spoken – as much as me.

  ‘And how’s Bella doing?’ he asked.

  ‘Okay,’ I said, ‘though I’m not entirely sure I trust her. She has a good line, I’ve learned now, in putting on a brave face. In reality? Who knows? Right now she’s convinced she’s got to take her mum’s place, and there’s no telling how she’ll be when the proverbial hits the proverbial and she has to go through it all again to a stranger.’

  ‘Well, you can probably reassure her on one point. It’s almost inconceivable that anyone is going to be taking her anywhere. Chances are, till this is processed, she will stay right where she is.’

  ‘The mysterious blonde sister notwithstanding?’ I asked. I couldn’t help it. Her pointy face was staring right out of the screen at me. And that second letter had never really been off my mind, either.

  ‘Oh, you can forget her. I just found who she was – when I called the police. And she’s no longer a problem. She’s been identified and dealt with.’

  ‘What? Well, that’s interesting because I just made her virtual acquaintance as it happens.’

  ‘Well I hope you didn’t send her a friend request.’

  ‘Of course not. I was just stalking her. The kids would be so proud of me.’

  ‘Well, you need stalk no more. She’s just a sometime girlfriend.’

  ‘So she confessed?’ I asked.

  ‘She didn’t have much choice, I don’t think. Not so much a case of exceptional police work as loose lips. She said something to someone who knew someone else who had – has – a lot more time for Laura Daniels than Adam Cummings. Anyway, I believe she was paid a visit from the boys in blue and I believe she admitted it. And was promptly charged with harassment, you’ll be glad to hear.’

  I laughed. ‘Sounds like something off EastEnders.’ I also smiled inside. Perhaps the second letter could be quietly forgotten, too. Though it would always have a home in my conscience.

  ‘Anyway, no doubt you’ll be hearing about that down the line,’ John said. ‘And I suspect they’ll let her off with a caution. But in the meantime, I’m just waiting for a further call from the family liaison officer, or FLO, to let me know when and where we can all meet.’

  When John said ‘meet’ I knew what he meant. In a case like this, where a child had to be formally interviewed by the police, it was usually arranged to take place at a confidential venue, where she would be interviewed by a police liaison officer (a family liaison officer, often), and her social worker would also be present.

  The meeting would also be videoed from another room, in case the child’s testimony were needed in court. Not that it was just a case of her being bundled in there, all unsuspecting. Bella would have everything explained to her and would also have to agree to it. There was little doubt she’d be nervous, even scared.

  ‘But you can be there for her before she goes in as well as when she comes out,’ John reminded me. ‘But you know you’re not allowed to sit in on the actual recorded interview, don’t you?’

  I t
old him I did, though of course I wished I could. But at least Sophie – who’d be the designated appropriate adult – would be there, and I knew, because this was the sort of thing we had a nodding acquaintance with, that everything would be set up to be warm and unintimidating; would look like an ordinary living room, in fact – anything to put the child at their ease – just with a viewing window for the police officer doing the recording.

  ‘And when Bella confesses to her part – what she did – what then? I know you’re confident she won’t be taken from us, but will she be charged with anything, given the circumstances and her age?’

  John cleared his throat. ‘Yes, I think she will be charged,’ he said. ‘I don’t think they have a choice, Casey. It’s not up to the police to consider any mitigating circumstances. They’ll have to charge her, as she injured somebody, didn’t she? And pretty seriously, too. But whether it goes to a youth court or not is an entirely different matter. And in the end, the charges may be dropped – all the evidence seems to point to that. But it’s not something I can guarantee right now. Not today. And you’ll have to explain all that to her – unless you’d rather Sophie did it?’

  ‘No, absolutely. I’ll do it. I think it needs to come from me. And I think she’ll be okay. Honest, John, she’s been poring over enough law books. This won’t be any kind of shock.’

  So said I. Like I really had any idea.

  But, actually, Bella was fine. It was as if such an enormous weight had been lifted from her that nothing could get to her. And when I was able to tell her that the ‘meeting’ was to be that same afternoon at four, I might as well have said she was off to one of Laura’s dance classes, for all the concern she showed. She didn’t even bat an eyelid when I explained about her having to be charged with a crime. She said she knew all about that from watching CSI with Tyler and that she knew it was all just ‘procedure’.

  ‘Can I take Dobby?’ was her only request, and easily granted. ‘I know I’m twelve,’ she said solemnly, ‘but, well, you know.’

  To my astonishment, the place where the ‘meeting’ was being held was barely a mile from our house. Set in the corner of a council estate I’d visited often over the years, it was an anonymous-looking semi, at the end of a street, that you’d never guess was anything other than a normal family home.

  ‘This is it?’ Bella said, peering out of Sophie’s posh tinted windows. ‘I thought it would be in a police station.’

  She sounded almost disappointed. To my mind it had cachet – like something out of a spy thriller. Like a ‘safe house’, where people went when in witness protection, to evade the clutches of gangsters and crooks. I imagined a sniper on the roof, wielding some extremely high-tech gun, following the progress of ‘perps’ in the immediate area. Though the only current ‘perp’ was a small tortoiseshell cat, it didn’t matter. The cat could be a plant, and the whole street staked out. Ooh, I thought, in other circumstances Tyler would love this.

  We parked across the road, and I could see Sophie wrestling with her anxiety. It didn’t seem quite the place to leave such a high-end car. ‘Still, if it’s safe anywhere on this estate, it’ll be here, don’t you think? I expect they keep an eye out 24/7. And I imagine there will be someone who can deal with all comers inside that door, don’t you, Bella?’

  ‘Like a soldier?’ Bella answered.

  ‘Well, something like that,’ Sophie agreed as we climbed out. ‘It’s got to be secure here, after all.’

  ‘Because of criminals?’ Bella asked.

  ‘Well, exactly,’ Sophie said. ‘This is a top-secret government facility, after all.’

  Oh course, Sophie was probably speaking partly in jest, just to keep the tone as light as she could. And of course, I was somewhat going overboard with my imagination – there would be no rooftop gymnastics from Matt Damon here.

  But when the door was opened, by a stout lady, wearing a yellow pinny, I think we all did something of a double take.

  ‘My name’s Betty,’ she said. ‘Come in. I’ve just boiled the kettle. So. Now. Who’s up for a brew?’

  It was only because she turned around to lead us inside that we managed to keep our giggles out of sight.

  Bella was incredibly brave. Though she was pale going into the ‘meeting’ and clearly anxious about all the strange faces, it ended up being her rather than me doing the reassuring.

  ‘Don’t look so worried, Casey,’ she said, squeezing my hand. ‘I’ll be fine.’

  Though it was a very different story when she was returned to me. I’d spent an anxious sixty or more minutes, trying to keep myself occupied, and was only partly distracted by conducting a text cookery lesson with Tyler, who was manfully preparing his own tea.

  When Bella came out she was in floods again and flung herself at me. But they weren’t tears of distress – for once (and it didn’t escape me that this was a first since she’d been with us) they were tears of relief.

  ‘I’m okay, I’m okay,’ she said, pulling Sophie into our little circle of joy as well. ‘I told them all the truth, and they’ve explained that I had to be arrested, just like you said, but they said it was all right, that I wouldn’t be going to prison! Oh, I’m just so happy! I’m not going to jail!’

  ‘See?’ I said, as if I’d always known that would happen. But I stopped short of saying ‘so everything will be okay now’ because that bit I really didn’t know.

  But the FLO, who was a young woman with a brisk but friendly air, had followed Bella and Sophie out, and now she smiled at me.

  ‘So, I’ve explained to Bella what will happen now, Mrs Watson, which is essentially that Bella’s mum and stepdad are now officially witnesses, and that as soon as the paperwork is written up and dealt with, we will be arranging for her mother’s release.’

  She leaned down a little to be sure she had Bella’s full attention. ‘And we’ve also got a new word in our vocabulary, haven’t we, Bella?’

  ‘Corroborate,’ Bella supplied, then turned to me. ‘Which means they have to get the whole truth from all parties, Casey.’

  Exactly,’ said the FLO. ‘And that has to happen first, of course. Though we’re obviously clear it’s just a formality.’

  ‘So that’s it?’ I said. ‘I can just take Bella home now?’

  ‘Pretty much,’ said the FLO. ‘That’s it for now, I think. Just make sure you sign out with security before you go.’

  AKA Betty. She didn’t get why we were grinning either.

  Chapter 23

  Bella was like a completely different child after giving her recorded statement. A weight had been removed from her shoulders, and it showed. She virtually skipped along beside us back to the car.

  Since Tyler had managed to feed himself – well, apparently – without mishap in our absence, I decided I’d take her for tea in our local burger joint as a treat.

  ‘So is that it now, Casey?’ she asked as we slurped our milkshakes. ‘Will Mum be let out straight away now they know the truth?’

  As far as I was concerned, that was what should happen, well, if there was any justice in the world, anyway. They had both suffered enough, after all. She should have been released immediately and their lives allowed to return to normal. Well, as normal as was possible after such a major trauma. But, as we’d already discussed, the wheels of justice didn’t move as fast as that, not least because her version of events still needed to be corroborated, as she’d been told.

  ‘I don’t think it will be that fast,’ I said. ‘Remember what the police lady told you? Even though we all know you’re telling the truth, another person has to hear your side of the story, and make sure that everything fits together properly. But don’t you worry, sweetie. I’m sure it won’t be too long.’

  ‘Oh, Casey,’ she said, sighing. ‘I can’t wait. And even if I do get into trouble, it’s all okay now, isn’t it? Because like Tyler said, the truth sets you free, doesn’t it? And I feel free. You know, in here.’ She touched her chest. ‘So I think he’s righ
t.’

  I couldn’t help but smile. It was me who had told her that, wasn’t it? Though perhaps he had as well. It was one of those phrases they loved to use on CSI. Perhaps we’d both filed it away for future use. Either way, we had a lot to thank that programme for, I decided. Had she not watched it, would she have had her moment of clarity? Perhaps Grissom had been the one to find the key, not me at all.

  Later that night Bella said pretty much the same thing to Tyler, and it struck me how easy the two of them were around each other. How she’d look forward to his return from school, so she could tell him all about her day. And that pleased me hugely, reminding me of what Lauren had pointed out all those weeks ago – that maybe Tyler would always have a special place in her memories.

  Tyler himself probably didn’t concern himself with such cod psychology. He was way more interested in the business of her having been taken to a ‘safe house’. ‘Aww, I’m that jealous,’ he said, and I watched her puff up with pride. ‘You must have felt like you were in a TV cop show yourself.’

  Bella considered. ‘I suppose I did. Though it was still mega-scary. But you were right. I told the truth and it did set me free.’

  Tyler was olive skinned, Italian-looking, almost, in his colouring. But I was sure I saw a blush darken his cheeks, even so. ‘I was only quoting Grissom,’ he pointed out. Then he looked at me. ‘I wasn’t trying to get her to spill, I swear, Mum.’

  I couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Love, it doesn’t matter. And besides, that’s good advice, so no harm done. All good.’

  ‘Well in that case,’ the cheeky sod answered, ‘I formally take all credit for solving the case.’ I was too busy stifling a laugh to thank him. But he trotted out a ‘you’re very welcome’ even so.

  Perhaps one day we’d sit down and I’d have the pleasure of reminding him. Because, actually, he’d probably done more for Bella than he’d ever know.

  The next week, predictably, was manic. Nobody knew for sure yet exactly what was going on. Only bits and bats of news filtered through, from John and Sophie, telling us little more than that everything was going to plan.