The Victim

by Jane Bidder

  ‘I saw the way he looked at you in court,’ he said slowly.

  His voice rasped with pain. There was no denying it. Georgie had seen it too. ‘But I don’t feel the same way.’ Her voice trembled. ‘I just want us to go back to the old life. The one we had before my card was stolen. When everything was normal.’

  He moved away. ‘When you were lying to me, you mean. Pretending to be someone else.’

  She shook her head. ‘I didn’t know what else to do. I was young, Sam. Not much older than Nick. I was scared.’

  ‘So you latched onto me for safety?’

  She hesitated. Momentarily. But it was enough.

  He moved away further. Desperately, she caught at his sleeve but he shook her away. ‘I did love you, Sam. I learned to love you. I know it’s not the way it should have been but it’s a more long-lasting love than something that’s just built on … well, lust.’

  His face saddened. ‘Like the lust you had for him, you mean.’

  ‘Maybe.’ He winced. Well, he wanted the truth. ‘But is it right that a nineteen-year-old should have to live the rest of her life judged for a wrong decision? Would you make Nick eternally responsible for something that he did wrong?’

  She could see she’d touched a nerve. Emboldened, she carried on. ‘And what about Vanda and Jonathan? They’re adults but they continued to break the law.’

  He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

  Did he not know? Somehow she’d presumed that Rufus – part of this tight-knit group – would have told him. ‘Your precious clients. The Romer-Riches. His first name might be David but he’s known to his friends as Jonathan. He and his wife were in the group, here, all those years ago. They blackmailed me. They’re the ones who stole the money from your account.’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘They helped me get it back.’

  ‘Only because they took it in the first place. They blackmailed me – except that I didn’t realise it was them at the time. They told me that if I didn’t tell you about my past, you’d lose all your money.’

  His face was beginning to clear. ‘So you wouldn’t have told me – would have gone on living a lie – if they hadn’t made you?’

  Instantly, Georgie realised she’d said the wrong thing. ‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice came out desperately. ‘Please, Sam, listen to me.’

  There was a cough behind them. Joly! For a minute, she stood there, looking at the two men. Each so different. Joly, blonde, still athletic despite a slightly chubbier look. Sam. Tall. Dark. Wiry. The man she had had a child with.

  ‘We’ve got to go back to the courtroom now.’ Joly spoke with an assured steadiness that almost managed to carry a ‘Sorry to interrupt’ tone at the same time.

  Sam nodded curtly before turning on his heel and leaving Georgie alone with Joly.

  ‘Looks like things are a bit difficult for you,’ he said quietly as they fell into step back to the court building.

  She nodded.

  ‘You know,’ he continued, ‘if it doesn’t work out, you could always stay here.’

  What she would have done for that suggestion twenty-odd years earlier!

  ‘Thank you,’ she began, ‘but …’

  ‘Mum!’ Ellie was running towards them, pulling her hand and casting dirty looks at Joly as if she knew what he’d been saying. ‘You’ve got to come. Now. You’ll never guess what Uncle Rufus has found out.’

  Rufus’ networking of contacts had paid off. He’d unrooted a web of deceit. Everyone had been in cahoots. Even the police, who had hidden Joshua’s long catalogue of assaults on other women. Why? Georgie concentrated on the rapid speech and dramas played out before her. The men admitted that yes, they could prove that the police were being paid to keep quiet in return for ‘favours’. Large sums of money had been handed over to the men who controlled Joshua and other key figures in their drug rings.

  Georgie watched, shocked, as a list of attacks was read out. Attacks which Joshua was accused of.

  ‘Prove it,’ he spluttered.

  So they did. Photographs were produced. Blood samples. DNA. It was as if all the evidence had been sitting there, waiting to be used.

  ‘They would have been prepared to save their own skin,’ muttered Mac. ‘This way, they’ll get a lighter sentence even though Joshua will be hung out to dry – no more than he deserves.’

  Georgie shuddered as the list went on and on. Rape on four accounts. Missing girls. Blood discovered in his rented room in Bangkok …

  A memory of her sister’s battered body swam in front of her.

  ‘This could have been Mrs Hamilton,’ thundered Mac, pointing to her. ‘If she hadn’t managed to fight him off, Georgie might have been another of this man’s victims.’

  Georgie? Georgie Hamilton? Or Georgie Smith? Or Georgina Peverington-Smith? It was so hard to know who she was now, in this strange country where her old self swapped in and out of the elaborate façade she had built up over the years.

  ‘This lovely woman – this wife, this mother – is lucky to be standing here today,’ continued Mac.

  All eyes were on her now. The jury’s faces seemed more sympathetic. A couple of women had tears in their eyes. And was it her imagination, or was Sam looking across at her instead of staring at the ground?

  Georgie felt Ellie’s soft hand creep into hers.

  ‘Yes, she stole another woman’s identity,’ continued Mac in a softer voice. ‘But which of you would not have been scared at the age of nineteen?’

  He was addressing the jury directly now; making the same defence plea that she had made to her own husband a few minutes earlier.

  ‘Which of you might have done the same in Georgie’s situation?’

  There wasn’t a sound in the court now. Only the screech of motorbikes outside.

  ‘Georgie Smith – now Georgie Hamilton – has been living a lie for twenty-two years. Isn’t it time we allowed her to shed that guilt?’

  There were some nods.

  ‘And isn’t it time that the real culprit had to pay for his wicked offences?’

  A sea of nods.

  ‘He’s good, isn’t he?’ whispered Ellie.

  Was her daughter rather taken with this good-looking lawyer? Georgie batted the thought to one side as the court erupted. Joshua’s mother glared at her, her eyes spitting stones. She’d tried to protect her son by tipping the police off at the airport, Georgie reminded herself. But could she really blame her? Wouldn’t a mother do almost anything for her child?

  ‘Silence, silence,’ roared the judge.

  No one took any notice. Shocked – surely this would never happen in a British court – policemen marched Joshua off without so much as a show of hands. Around them, people were clapping and cheering. One man even leaped over the edge of a bench and shook her hand. ‘You are very brave lady.’

  Mac took her arm and also that of Ellie’s, leading them to the front of the court. He was smiling as broadly as if he had won a sports match. Maybe that’s what he had done. It was a game for him; one which a lawyer needed to win in order to prove his or her worth.

  But for her, it was her life.

  Sam was nowhere to be seen.

  Nor was Joly.

  ‘He’s gone,’ said Mac, after he’d shepherded them inside a taxi which had, miraculously, appeared out of nowhere.

  ‘My husband?’

  Her chest hurt as if someone had lanced it.

  ‘Joly.’

  Mac’s face had gone solemn again. ‘He had to.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ He shook his head. ‘The police who were covering up for Joshua … some came from round here. They were also protecting Joly’s interests.’

  The hotel? The quiet hotel where she hardly saw a guest? It was beginning to make sense now …

  ‘Joly was always into some sort of scheme.’ Mac smiled fondly. ‘The police turned a blind eye in return for a payment. But now we’ve blown their cover with Joshua and his cro
nies. So they’d have gone for Joly.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘With any luck, he’ll be on the boat by now.’

  Ellie’s voice broke in. ‘He’s given up his life – as he knows it – for Mum?’

  Georgie couldn’t speak. Only listen.

  ‘He reminded her of the woman he had loved.’ Mac’s voice was so soft that she could barely hear him. ‘Georgina Peverington-Smith. He never stopped feeling guilty about betraying her.’

  Georgie winced.

  ‘He’d have done anything to turn back the clock.’ Mac stopped. Then he made an expression, suggesting he was reassuring himself. ‘But Joly will be all right. Men like him are survivors.’ He glanced at Georgie. ‘You’re the same, if I’m not mistaken.’

  ‘Am I?’

  Her voice came out in a strangled cry. ‘I’ve lost my husband. I’ve lost my children …’

  ‘No you haven’t.’ Ellie linked her arm through hers. ‘I understand, Mum. And Nick will too.’

  ‘But Dad …’

  Ellie was stroking her hand now, like a parent might do to a child. ‘Just give him time. He needs to think about it.’

  They couldn’t get a flight until the next day. All Georgie wanted to do was get home but there was no option but to wait.

  ‘We could use the time to look around,’ suggested Ellie pointedly.

  She’d wondered when that was going to come up. Ellie was in her birthplace. It was natural she’d want to try and find her mother. Her real mother. Just as it was vital that Georgie didn’t show how much that hurt inside. Hadn’t her mother given her away? Then again, her own mother had done the same to her sister and lived to rue the day.

  This ping pong girl from the club all those years ago might well still be here. In Bangkok. In this pool of people; jostling, hustling, waiting, watching from doorways. Was it possible too, that Emerald and Sapphire might still be here?

  ‘Do you think I’d recognise her if I saw her?’ asked Ellie after hours and hours of walking the malls and markets, their eyes peeled for anyone who might look just a bit like Ellie with her long, dark hair and almond eyes.

  She had to be honest. After years of lies, it now seemed imperative to tell the truth about every little thing.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  They were sitting now at the coffee shop in the foyer of their hotel. Their feet were sore and their minds were fried. ‘Do you want to stay longer to give it a better chance?’

  Even as she spoke, Georgie prayed Ellie would turn down her offer.

  It seemed a while before she answered. ‘No.’

  Georgie looked across the foyer at a family who’d just arrived; two children and a middle-aged couple. Luggage. Laughter. A shared past.

  ‘I’ve had to accept that my father isn’t dead,’ she said flatly. ‘I don’t suppose I’ll ever find him. I suppose he may even have died by now.’ She gave a sharp laugh. ‘My mother isn’t very forthcoming with any details.’

  Then she reached out for her daughter’s hand. ‘But you know what?’

  She stopped as a tall man with short, dark hair stood over them.

  ‘Dad!’ Ellie rolled her eyes. ‘About time.’

  Stunned, Georgie watched as he pulled up a seat next to her. ‘I thought you’d gone home.’

  He shook his head. His eyes met hers. ‘I couldn’t get a flight. And besides, I needed time to think.’

  He stretched out his left hand to take hers. With his right, he grasped his daughter’s. ‘I wish you’d told me the truth. But Mac was right when he asked the jury if they were incapable of making a mistake at nineteen. Rufus has helped me see that too.’

  He bit his lip. ‘What really matters is that we stay together as a family. I’ve missed you.’ His voice was strangled. ‘Really missed you.’

  Georgie felt tears pricking her eyes. Exactly what she’d been about to say to Ellie before Sam had arrived.

  ‘Shall we try to start again?’

  He was frightened, Georgie realised. Scared of losing what they had, just as she was. From the relief spreading over Ellie’s face, their daughter felt the same.

  ‘Yes. Yes, please.’

  She wanted to laugh. To jump up. To hug him. But his face was still solemn. There was something else, she realised. Something he wasn’t telling her.

  ‘What is it?’ she began.

  He looked at her. ‘It’s Nick.’

  FIFTY-THREE

  They want me to do a different kind of job now. In fact, we’ve all been put on something new, apparently. It sounds very complicated, but that’s technology for you.

  Always on the move.

  Glad I specialised in this. It was all down to this man I was banged up with in Durham.

  He taught me how to find my way round computers. The irony was that we were encouraged. Got lessons, we did. Taught how to navigate our way through the system to get a certificate.

  It might help us get a job when we were released, they told us.

  But not the way they imagined.

  In the old days, you could lock up your stuff. But now you can be a virtual thief. Steal things online. It’s much safer than mugging a woman for her bag.

  At least, it is if you’re part of a group. There’s safety in numbers. It’s one of the few things I remember from school.

  ‘There are loads of us in this outfit,’ my boss is always saying. ’If one of us goes down, we take the rest with us. So no mistakes. OK?’

  That’s the only thing I don’t like. It makes me shit scared, to be honest, when I think that my safety is in the hands of some kid, right at the bottom of this pyramid.

  I just hope he’s got his head screwed on.

  Cos if not, we know how to remove it.

  FIFTY-FOUR

  Sam’s bombshell spun round her head for the entire flight. Words still kept diving in and out of her thoughts, making it impossible to doze like the snoring woman in front of her whose reclining chair was digging into her knees.

  The fraud squad had found it out. They’d tracked her missing secret, emergency card which Nick had ‘borrowed’. They’d found out that he’d made the withdrawal in Edinburgh. The furthest place he could think of, apparently. After that, he’d come home – when they were all out – with his spare key and returned it.

  And why? Because he’d been gambling. Gambling! It was all the rage amongst uni students, apparently. Some of them make a fortune, Sam said grimly. Others end up in jail.

  But Nick had never been the gambling type, she’d protested. Then again, did any of them really know each other?

  ‘There was some old CCTV by the checkpoint, apparently,’ her husband had told her. ‘It should have been checked daily but it hadn’t been – goodness knows why. Then a new manager took over. The police were looking for something else but they got suspicious when this kid keyed in two sets of digits before getting lucky with the third.’

  This kid? It made him sound like a common or garden thief rather than their son.

  ‘How did he get the right numbers?’ she asked numbly.

  Sam made a rueful expression. The kind one might make when you’d just agreed to try again and didn’t feel inclined to say I told you so. ‘You used your birthday dates.’

  Ellie rolled her eyes. ‘Mum! I’ve told you before. It’s too obvious. People can find that kind of stuff out from Facebook.’

  Her daughter was right. She should be more careful. Yet after everything that had happened, it didn’t seem as significant as it should have been.

  Even so …

  ‘He admitted, on the phone this morning, that he found the card in your hiding place and thought he’d put it back in your purse to make you think you’d used it yourself,’ added Sam.

  No wonder his emails had been so sporadic. He probably felt guilty. As well he might.

  ‘It all sounds so devious –’ she began.

  ‘Clever.’ Ellie was grudgingly admiring. ‘There’s a name for that in psychology. It’s called …’

  ‘We
don’t need to know,’ said Sam, tightly. ‘As if we didn’t have enough on our plate.’

  He was right. There was still so much that needed tidying up.

  ‘Did he have anything to do with the first card that was used?’ demanded Ellie. ‘The one you thought I’d nicked?’

  Sam had the grace to blush. ‘He says not.’

  ‘And what about Jo’s account? Had he hacked that?’ Georgie began to feel her pulse racing. ‘Hang on. What about the YouTube video? He told me about that in the first place.’

  Wasn’t that what the guilty did? Alerted you to the very crime that they had committed in the first place?

  ‘What YouTube video?’ demanded Ellie.

  ‘Nothing,’ they both said. Clearly she wasn’t convinced by their denial so they had to tell her.

  ‘That’s an invasion of privacy,’ she thundered.

  But wasn’t that what the modern world was all about now? It wasn’t just her, the police had said. There were others in the area who’d been targeted. No one was safe any more.

  And now, here they were, having changed planes in Dubai and on their way home to face their son who’d now come home. It wasn’t the best way to try and start a new life together, Georgie told herself. Hadn’t she always told him to steer clear of drugs and be careful about the company he kept? But she hadn’t said anything about stealing. Wasn’t that something so obvious that it didn’t need talking about?

  Yet, parents made mistakes too. So who was she to cast stones?

  ‘Georgie, look this way!’

  ‘Georgie, how do you feel about being let off a murder charge?’

  ‘Georgie, was your family shocked when they found out about your past?

  None of them had been prepared for the onslaught of questions; the flashing of cameras; the sheer volume of people who waited for her at Arrivals in Heathrow.

  ‘I wasn’t exactly on a murder charge,’ she wanted to say. ‘They called me in as witness and then tried to pin it on me.’

  But Sam had taken her arm and was marching her through the crowds. Ellie was close behind. Every now and then, she looked back to check their daughter hadn’t been lost in the sea of heads.