Juliette clasped her hand to her mouth.
‘I know this is hard, but I must get this out,’ Bracewell pressed, folding his fingers. ‘The police decided to look at Walker’s digital fingerprint. They seized his phone, his computer, and looked for evidence that he had some sort of pathological, psychological makeup. They found some trophy photographs that he had taken of the young girl he attacked, and they decided that she bore some similarity to Marine. The police psychologist believes that his attack on Marine was not pre-meditated, but a spontaneous act, which led to him trying to separate her from the other girls.’
I shook my head.
‘Now the police investigations had some direction,’ he said, ‘they decided to evaluate the clothing they had obtained from Walker on the day. Although some time had passed, they managed to find matching DNA, from Walker, on the clothing that Marine had on when she died.’
‘I hope it was conclusive,’ I said.
‘Well, Walker’s lawyer argued that it wasn’t,’ he said. ‘His argument was, ‘my client’s DNA was found on Marine because Walker had to physically make contact on her to pull her back from the cliff edge.’ But the fabrics analyst found that the majority of the DNA from Walker, on Marine, was left around her waist. Suggesting that he had in fact been trying to remove her clothing.’
‘Marine must have been terrified,’ Juliette said, her voice hollow.
Bracewell nodded. ‘There’s more. Further evidence of Walker’s guilt was that the police proved he had dropped his gloves on the moor, in the area between the path and the cliff edge. Questions were asked about why Walker would have felt a need to remove his gloves at all. It was concluded that it was all part of his attempted attack on Marine. Walker – unsurprisingly - refuted this. He reasserted that he had seen her fall from the cliff edge from some distance.’
He zipped open his briefcase and leafed rapidly through a file. ‘But the Area Forensic Manager,’ he said, quoting, ‘conducted a Blood Spatter Analysis, which concluded that Marine ran off the cliff, rather than fell. This all added to the narrative she had built up, which described how Walker kept her back from other children on the pretext of showing her flowers, before trying to attack her. The forensic specialist offered the professional opinion that Marine ran away from Walker, and that because he continued to pursue her she ended up running from the cliff edge.’
Juliette bowed her head.
‘That must have been enough to convict?’ I ventured.
‘There was more. And the ‘more’ proves that it was worth your while, Ben, to fight so hard for justice.’
He seemed to direct the statement solely at me. As Juliette looked up, her expression bridling, I couldn’t help wondering what he had decided about our relationship.
‘Go on,’ I said.
‘Walker left a footprint at the scene of the fall. Police were able to match it, using something called the ‘UK National Footwear Database’, to four unsolved attacks on young children in the region. They dated back almost five years. As a result of all this, a very dangerous, predatory man has finally been arrested.’
‘Did he hurt Marine?’ Juliette asked.
‘No, there is no evidence whatsoever that he did hurt Marine-in that way.’
‘Do they still think she died quickly?’ she asked.
‘Instantly,’ he said, handing her the post-mortem report.
‘Her last moments were lived in absolute terror,’ Juliette said, taking it.
‘Brief terror,’ Bracewell said, with a sympathetic smile. ‘If it’s any consolation, the evidence that he didn’t harm her is conclusive.’
‘He killed her,’ Juliette said, quietly.
Bracewell nodded softly. ‘The police, finally, agree with your verdict. The coroner has now changed the verdict on Marine’s death to ‘unlawful killing’. Walker is going to prison.’
‘What about Kraver?’ I asked.
Bracewell inhaled, and leant back.
‘I find him if not equally responsible, then certainly culpable,’ I said.
‘Well, you now have proven grounds to sue both the school and Kraver if you so wish. Kraver has always known you were right, or he’d have sued you after the TV show. The school has been found guilty of errors of process, but no one has been arrested for that.’
‘Can we not get him for perverting the course of justice? He clearly convinced the police not to look at any of his staff. They didn’t even examine the evidence they’d collected.’
‘Unfortunately, it seems the police do not have sufficient evidence that Kraver perverted the course of justice. If the school want to suspend him, they can. But somehow he … is clinging on. Perhaps, and I am going out on a limb here - Kraver has some leverage that we don’t know about.’
‘Course he does.’
Bracewell nodded. ‘Even though this case has been widely reported in the press, and even though parents are boycotting the school, Kraver seems to have been able to convince the board of governors that he really is the man to fix this mess.’
‘That just doesn’t make sense.’
‘As Kraver said in your hearing, he is answerable only to the board of governors. Everyone in the world can think him immoral and guilty, from the staff to the parents, to the pupils, to the janitors. But we live in a bureaucratic world, where we are all tamed by these invisible systems. Unless three of those governors change their minds he still has the job.’
‘I find it impossible to get my head around that.’
‘Ben,’ he said, scratching his temple. ‘I’ve represented whistle-blowers in the NHS. In cases where it was proven that chief executives were hiring detectives to smear whistle-blowers and discredit them. Using millions of pounds’ worth of taxpayer money to do that. These executives have clung to their job even after that has hit the papers. We live in a culture of deferred accountability. These people don’t just get sacked, they can get promoted, knighted, handed large pensions. Pensions funded by hardworking people. You can’t change the culture. Cover-ups of this kind happen in banking and health care all the time.’
‘But what can I do?’
‘You can tell people your story, so they know how these battles can be won. Or, you could do another petition?’ Bracewell suggested. ‘Right now, you are the reluctant poster boy for exposing corruption, believe it or not.’
‘Whatever it takes,’ I said.
Juliette put her hand on mine. ‘No, Ben,’ she said. ‘Enough is enough. I am not bringing the world into these four walls. We need to move on with our life.’
TWENTY-SIX
CHRISTINE WAS WAITING, as we agreed, at five on the dot, outside the tobacconist at the station.
I had expected a more tired version of the lithe, stylish woman that Juliette and I had first met. But, perhaps mindful of what she was here to do, Christine was dressed in a tight Karen Millen suit, thin black piping accentuating her honed curves. Her face, only lightly touched with makeup, shone with optimism. Her whole demeanour suggested better ways of living.
When she sensed me approach behind her Christine turned and greeted me with a coquettish smile, her chin against her shoulder. Her dark hair fanned gracefully over her chest. We exchanged quick kisses on the cheek, and moved into a patisserie nearby.
In it, dark-eyed waitresses thumbed Penguin paperbacks behind the counter. My eyes were drawn by glass domes filled with rich sponge cakes. But I knew my best friends former girlfriend well enough to know that at this time of the afternoon, in fitting with her cultural aspirations, she liked to have an espresso. So I ordered one for both of us.
Christine politely enquired about Juliette, but I had one eye on a carefully planned schedule. ‘Phillip’s talk ends in just over one hour,’ I said. ‘And he’s getting the 19.20 from Platform One home.’
‘Okay,’ she said, raising the cup. Her expression betrayed months of doubt. Behind her elegant veneer I sensed a wasteland of private recrimination.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘H
e is keen to make amends with you. But you know Phillip. He isn’t sure how to make the first step.’
‘He knows how to make all the steps after it,’ she said.
I laughed. ‘Just be on the platform, shoot him a smile, and I assure you he will do the rest.’
She smiled. It was bruised, at once melancholy, and hopeful. ‘What are you two like? You don’t have a kind word to say to each other’s faces, but behind the scenes you’re devoted to each other.’
I thought darkly of Violet. How I needed this ruse to work, in order to keep our friendship. ‘Believe me, this is the least I can do,’ I said.
‘You’re a good friend,’ she said.
I glanced at my watch, and decided that I needed to make my apologies, and leave.
The hotel had a sense of opulence that I was unused to. As I waited for Phillip, in its expansive lobby, I looked up at a sparkling chandelier. The sign outside the events room, just in my eye line, boasted a famous set of names for a conference on ‘Advancements In Entertainment’. No one had been more surprised than Phillip when his request to speak at it was accepted. It wouldn’t start for a few more minutes. Although the attendants were already inside, Phillip had been adamant that he didn’t want to mix with, what he mock-imperiously called ‘his public’, before he spoke.
‘I should never have allowed myself to be talked into this,’ Phillip said, advancing towards me from the reception. ‘I’ve done enough for you already.’ I noticed he was wearing a crumpled navy suit.
‘Is Art coming today?’ I asked.
‘Probably. You should hang around for him. There’s still plenty of money to be made out of your name, now.’
‘That whole accusation, about me getting paid for the talk show appearance nearly derailed my case at the hearing. Art stitched me right up.’
‘Yeah, but that appearance paid for Bracewell,’ Phillip said.
‘Right,’ I said, looking at my watch. ‘I’m getting the lift upstairs. They’ll be finishing in a couple of minutes.’
‘Best of British,’ Phillip said, heading towards the events room.
The conference on the top floor, in a more lavish ballroom, advertised a day of debate about ‘Moral Leadership In Teaching.’ The sign outside the ballroom had described Paul Kraver as a keynote speaker, speaking on the final panel of the day, about ‘how to run a school with impeccable business ethics’.
The door was ajar, and as I peered in through the crack I could see Kraver, walking up and down in front of an audience seated at circular tables. He was strutting in the same way he had on his first day at Cranley Wood.
‘There is a very simple way to ensure your leadership always has integrity,’ he was saying. ‘You’re thinking ‘it must be so complicated,’ but I’m here to tell you, no, no, no, it couldn’t be simpler. You just need to be an honest person. Sometimes it can be a risk, in this world, to be honest. Yes, people will exploit you. But, by staying on the true path, step by step, you make the workplace a happy environment.’
As the long hand on my watch moved close to quarter-to-six he wound his speech up, and I took a few steps back as the delegates started to congregate, sticky platelets around the open vessel of the entrance. They coagulated around the free coffee and croissants, exchanging compliments, numbers and subtle claims about status. The lift was opposite the entrance, and I lingered by the side of it, my back to the ballroom, as the people streamed out.
I saw Paul Kraver, from the side of my eyes, before he saw me.
He walked out of the ballroom, strode past the refreshments, and made straight for the lift. I turned so he wouldn’t see me, as he pushed the gold button to call the lift. It felt like a lifetime of furtive glances passed before it arrived, but somehow he didn’t notice me there. I exhaled as the lift announced its arrival with a ping. As I moved to join him in it I reached into my left jacket pocket, to call Phillip, whose name was waiting on the screen of my mobile. I quickly put a hand into my right pocket, and pressed a button on the device in there too.
The lifts were just beginning to close when he turned in the lift, and saw that the two of us, for the next few moments, would be trapped together.
I somehow knew this would be our final joust. In every one we’d had, he had always destroyed me. He had responded to every swing from me by hitting me harder than I could imagine. This time, I was determined to land at least one punch. I had played this scenario through in my head many times, preparing for him just as I had imagined he had often prepared for me.
‘Well, I can only wonder what you’re doing here,’ he said, as the lift jolted into action.
‘You must think of me as a nagging pain that won’t go away,’ I said, stepping closer to him. He inched backwards.
There was a moment in which we eyed each other’s pound of flesh, and wondered how a fight might end. In a flash I decided that I was the most physically agile, but he was the more substantial. I would move quickly, and hope that a jab caused invisible damage. He would bide his time to make a killer blow, one with all his weight behind it. In his eyes I could see a sudden wager going on, but it seemed more mental than physical. He raised his nose.
‘It’s quite the contrary in fact,’ he said. ‘I always had you right where I wanted you. I’m still here, aren’t I?’
He leant back on the rail as the lift whirred.
‘Only because you had no problem lying to the police, lying to the school, and digging up every bit of dirt you could on me.’
I got a dark rush I’d never had before. These seconds will count, I thought. In the grand scheme of my life, these seconds will count.
‘Yes, yes,’ he said, with a smile. ‘But you’re forgetting one thing though, aren’t you? I didn’t dig up dirt on you. You created dirt about yourself, by carrying on with that floozy. All I had to do was hire someone to get proof. But you went public with your grievance so clumsily that I had plenty to use against you, didn’t I?’
‘How could you do it?’ I asked, stepping even closer. His eyes snapped to the side. ‘You knew that Marine had been unlawfully killed, that Walker should never have been employed.’
‘You think everything’s personal,’ he hissed. ‘You can’t blame a lion for tearing apart a gazelle. It’s nature, isn’t it?’
‘It isn’t natural, or right, to lie to the police. You seemed pretty good at getting them to look at exactly what you wanted them to see- and nothing else.’
‘You don’t get to run three schools without having some friends in high places. But you wouldn’t know that, having never got off the first rung.’
‘Bribery?’
‘Let’s just say I know a police inspector who has a few little secrets he wouldn’t want splashed about in the papers. I found that was enough to slow you down.’
‘So you knew Walker was guilty, and you still allowed him to supervise the children at the school?’
‘Might as well be hung for a sheep than a lamb, that’s what my Dad always said. Or in my case, not hung at all.’
‘You’re not as clever as you think,’ I said, as the lift began to slow. ‘The public knows, the parents know, and the staff know. One more slip-up and you’ll not only be sacked by the school, but you will never be employed again.’
‘No, you see, wrong again,’ he said, wagging a finger. ‘Not while I have the board of governors in my pocket. What you don’t realize is that I stay a few moves ahead. Even now, I’m a few moves ahead of you. I let people think they are dictating the game, but it’s all a part of the fun for me.’ The lift whirred to a standstill. ‘It’s the one thing you never did work out, you or your little team of money-grabbers. How exactly did I manage to prevent those governors from sacking me?’
‘Go on.’ I said.
The lift stopped. My time had run out. I would never know.
He drew closer to me. His eyes were bloodshot as he spat the words in my face. ‘Knowing a few secrets is more than enough to keep people working for you. Oooh, they’ll work har
der than they’ve ever worked for themselves, you mark my words. But I’m not that daft,’ he said, looking me up and down. ‘If I tell you any more, you might be able to get me.’
The doors opened. He shook his head. ‘Out of my way,’ he said, pushing past.
People got in, and lined the sides of the lift. Kraver, a few steps outside, turned to face me with a small smile. As I held his gaze I put a hand in my pocket, pulled out a whirring Dictaphone and lifted it up for him. As the lift doors began to shut I watched his smile fall.
The lift began its ascent up the building again. I reached into my other pocket, smiling at the woman next to me, and I pulled out my mobile phone. The phone call to Phillip was still active. ‘You get all that?’ I said, fearing for my signal as the lift moved.
‘I can’t believe you got him to say all that so quickly,’ Phillip said, through a cloud of feedback. ‘You’ve got more than enough to get him convicted.’
When I met him in the lobby, Phillip looked exhilarated.
‘I thought you might coax him into one or two indiscretions,’ he said. ‘But you struck gold.’
‘I think, in his own way, he thought he was getting revenge on me,’ I said, looking around to check who was listening. Various people were lingering at the reception.
‘So he has some dirt on a police officer, and a school governor,’ Phillip said. ‘With your profile, I reckon you can blow the lid off the whole arrangement,’ he said.
‘I have no interest in doing that,’ I said. ‘But with this on tape I think I can finally get Kraver sacked. Perhaps I’ll have to strike a deal with someone, let them know that I am ready to share this recording with the world, and have other people ready to do that too if anything happens to me or mine. Two can play at Kraver’s game.’
‘Be careful,’ he said. ‘You don’t want to get your hands too dirty.’
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I want just enough mud on my hands that some of it sticks to him. Then, it’s time to move on.’
An Honest Deceit Page 19
