After the Accident: A compelling and addictive psychological suspense novel

by Kerry Wilkinson

  Emma stared at me with those cold, determined eyes of hers. She said: ‘It would be better for both of us, wouldn’t it?’

  Emma: I saw Julius for who he was in that moment. On that first night, when he’d said that everything he did was for the girls, it felt so fake – and that’s because it was. It was always about him.

  Julius: I saw Emma for who she was in that moment. Heartless and cold. Everything’s always about her.

  Emma: I laid all those things out to him. It wasn’t evidence as such – the necklace that sounded like wind, the fact Julius was out of the room on the night Dad fell, his lost job, the opportunity to switch plates… and the fact that Julius would be the person who benefitted from our parents’ deaths.

  Julius listened, but he wasn’t replying to anything. He turned and walked across the room. I thought he was leaving – but he unlatched the hinge and let the door swing closed – then he turned and strode back towards me.

  I didn’t know what was going to happen in that moment. I said something like: ‘You were going to let everyone think that I’d poisoned Dad…?’

  I thought he’d reply, but he was silent. Instead, he kept moving faster and faster towards me. I stepped backwards and he shouted: ‘You don’t have to do this.’

  I had no idea what was going on. He was only a few steps from me and I replied: ‘Do what?’

  He was still shouting, probably even louder at this point and he yelled: ‘You’ve got so much to live for.’

  Everything happened in a flash after that. He shouldered into me, shoving me backwards towards the railing of the balcony – and that’s when I realised he was trying to make it sound like I was suicidal.

  I said: ‘No’ – but it was too late. He was already grabbing my legs and trying to throw me over the top.

  Julius: Emma had basically confessed that she tried to kill Dad. She’d failed to such a degree that she’d damaged any relationship she was ever going to have with the family again.

  I saw what was going to happen a moment before it did. She lunged towards the balcony. I shouted something like: ‘You don’t have to do this’ – as I was trying to hold onto her.

  We burst through the balcony doors and I was trying to say that she had so much to live for. She seemed so determined to throw herself off and it was all I could do to stop her. It felt like she wanted to die – and I was desperately trying to stop her.

  Emma: He was trying to kill me and, as the railing dug into my back, my feet came off the floor. His eyes weren’t wild or wide. He was calm and he knew exactly what he was doing.

  I could feel him lifting me; shoving harder into my chest until all that was left was for me to go backwards over the rail and fall to the ground below.

  Chapter Forty

  THE SPOILER ALERT

  Emma: Spoiler alert: I didn’t die.

  You should have probably had someone else tell all my parts, then there would have been a bit more drama here. I could have popped up with a big ta-da moment…

  Julius: We were struggling on the balcony and I was trying to pull her back.

  Emma: I genuinely did believe I was going to die in that moment. I think I was ready for it. It’s not as if I was suicidal, but I was probably accepting. He was stronger than me and a sort of calmness came over me…

  …

  It was only momentary – then I decided that there was no way I was letting him get away with it.

  Julius: She was flailing and kicking.

  Emma: I flailed and kicked, all right. I remembered the times I’d seen Julius wince because of his side – and I booted him as hard as I could right in the soft bit above his hip.

  Julius: I don’t want people saying I’m a hero. I only did what anyone else would have done in that situation. I saved my sister’s life.

  Emma: He crumpled like a broken ironing board – and we both fell forward, away from the railing. He tried to grab my ankle but could barely get his breath – so I punched him one more time in the side and then made a run for the door.

  Julius: Emma was still flailing – but there was a moment when I looked up and realised the maid had come into the room. She will back me up on this.

  Emma: I didn’t get to the door because the maid was there. She was staring out towards the balcony and I think she’d seen everything. She can back me up on this.

  Rosa Makos (hotel maid, through an interpreter): I saw two people fighting on the balcony – a man and a woman. The woman was kicking and throwing her arms – bam-bam-bam. The two of them fell away from the balcony and landed on the floor, then the woman ran towards me.

  That is all I saw.

  Emma: Julius was stumbling behind me, but we both stopped when we saw the maid. It felt like we’d been play-fighting as kids and that Mum had walked in… except it was so much more serious than that.

  Julius: Thank god the maid was there. I really think Emma would have tried to jump a second time if it hadn’t been for her.

  Emma: Julius was struggling to breathe – and he didn’t do much to stop me as I left the room. I went to the lifts, pressed the button for the ground floor, and then rode it down on my own.

  Everyone was still sitting or standing with their cases, waiting for their buses or taxis.

  Nothing had changed… but everything had.

  I walked across to take my case from the floor next to the twins – but Mum must have seen something in me. We’d not spoken since she told me to leave the table the night before – but she came across and took my arm before asking if everything was all right.

  I looked her right in the eyes and I thought about her diagnosis, and I thought about the family.

  There was Dad, who had arranged this entire thing in order to rob a bank with a fake driving licence with the details of a man who was dead. It might even have been a man that he had killed.

  There was my mother, who endured and tolerated all this, even though she was dying.

  There was my brother, who had probably tried to kill our dad to protect an inheritance. Who had literally just tried to kill his sister.

  Then there was me. The woman who killed her baby son because she’d had too much to drink and then got into a car. The woman whose husband left because he couldn’t bear to look at her any longer.

  And I thought about what I should say.

  Julius: It was only later that I found out Emma supposedly has an alibi for that night Dad fell. It took me a while to put things together – but then I found out the person giving her the alibi is the person who works for you.

  Emma keeps talking about who benefits – but it’s you, isn’t it? It’s Garibaldi Media. It’s your movie.

  And that’s when I put it all together.

  There are a few things that could have happened that first night. Option one is that Dad fell. I don’t believe that – and neither does he any longer.

  Second, Emma used Paul as an alibi and then snuck out of the room when he was asleep. She stumbled across Dad on the cliffs and took her chance. It’s not that hard to believe. She was never the favourite child and then, after what happened with her son, Dad never looked at her the same way again.

  Third – and I think this is the most likely – Emma and Paul were in on it together. You were making a documentary and he thought it would make for a better story. I know you might not want to believe it, but there it is.

  Do you have a better version of events?

  Emma: I wondered if I should tell her about all the things I’d just challenged Julius about. If I should mention what had just happened upstairs on the balcony.

  I wondered if she would believe me – because it would always come down to my word versus his. My word versus her favourite’s.

  The lift pinged and Julius came out, dragging his case behind him. He walked through the lobby, focused only on me, with the wheels of his case bumping across the tiled grooves. And then, suddenly, he was in front of us: a triangle of me, him and Mum. He was breathing loudly, still struggling for
breath, and he said: ‘We’re family.’

  I know it doesn’t sound like much – but it was a declaration of war. As if he was saying: ‘This is us and this is what we do. Like it or leave.’

  It was so simple and all I could reply was: ‘Yes. Yes, we are.’

  And we are family – except, if I had to like it or leave, then there was only ever going to be one decision.

  Author’s Note

  After the McGinley and Dorsey families arrived back in the UK, Emma emailed the team at Garibaldi Media, asking if she could tell her story. Much of this book came from interviews done in the three weeks immediately after that email was sent.

  Following her claims, a decision was taken that the original documentary being made about the death of Alan Lee could not be completed without including the happenings from nine years later.

  The truth was that the original plans were going nowhere. The cause of Alan Lee’s death is still considered an accident, with nothing other than circumstantial evidence able to show anything different. In all the work already done by the crew, it was felt they could still salvage something – and that was Emma’s story.

  Alongside that decision, it was mutually agreed that Paul Bosley should be assigned to other projects at Garibaldi Media. His connection to Emma was such that the rest of the crew felt the appearance of bias could disrupt the project. He agreed with this decision, even though he made it clear to his colleagues that he and Emma were not in contact now they had returned to the UK.

  After Emma told her side of the story, open invitations were made to everyone else involved as to whether they wanted to give their version of events. Over the course of around six months, many interviews were given on camera. Everything you have read on the pages before this are what came from those recordings. In case of confusion or speculation, Bethan McGinley was too ill to take part.

  It was around that six-month mark that my friend, whom I’ll name Frank, showed me a very rough cut of the movie. It was almost five hours long at that point.

  In an earlier chapter, Emma described Frank as having ‘a big mouth and a fat arse and a stupid walk’, but, in his defence, I’ve never seen him do a stupid walk.

  Frank asked my opinion about the footage, wondering if there was something there.

  I have written numerous crime fiction books over the years, inventing many characters, but I told him what I’m happy to write here: Emma McGinley is one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever come across. If you’ve been charmed or dismayed by anything in this book, then I cannot stress enough how much more can be taken from watching the footage. It feels as if Emma is talking to you and only you. That there is no screen and that you’re in the room with her.

  She is hypnotic.

  There was one other question that Frank had for me: Who do you believe?

  I had to think on that issue – and, at the time, thought I had an answer.

  I believed Emma.

  Julius says she tried to kill her father because she wanted her parents’ inheritance – but nothing about Emma makes me think she has any interest in money. She chose to work in a shop for very little, simply because it meant she could be with her friend.

  Meanwhile, I believed her that Julius’s own daughters said he was out of the hotel room on the night their father fell. I believed her about the sound of the necklace, compared to the sound their father heard on the cliffs. I believed her that Julius tried to get rid of it.

  Other things are on record. Julius’s ‘unreasonable behaviour’ was cited in his divorce, which, combined with his loss of job, meant that money really was an issue for him. Any inheritance would have undoubtedly helped with his financial issues – and he was likely next in line.

  If Emma is believed on those things, then she has to be believed when she says she did not knowingly put shellfish on her father’s plate at the final meal. That means she either did so accidentally, or that Julius really did switch plates when everyone’s backs were turned.

  Similarly, if she is believed on those things, then her brother really did try to push her from the balcony to cover up the things he’d done.

  And I believed Emma.

  The past tense of ‘believed’ is very important, though, because, ten days later, a bombshell hit – and everything I thought I knew changed.

  Frank and I live in a different time zone and, when I woke up to his email explaining what had gone on, I genuinely dropped my phone. I know that sounds like a cliché – and I’m not usually a clumsy person – but it was like the Earth had started spinning the other way. After watching those near five hours of footage, Frank’s movie had wedged itself into my brain. I felt like I knew every one of Emma, Julius, Daniel and the rest.

  At some point around that all-important six-month mark, Paul Bosley took a week of annual leave. There was nothing unusual about this and he told colleagues at Garibaldi Media he was visiting Spain to get a bit of sun.

  Paul did not return to work at the conclusion of his break.

  Through those six months, Emma had largely been ostracised from her family – a fact that has been confirmed by them. Her father and brother have not spoken to her since returning from Galanikos. The only contact with her mother was a short phone call around a week after they returned. I do not know the content of that call, nor do I want to.

  Despite that, Emma had been a keen participant in the process of making the movie. She sat for many interviews and was happy to come back to clarify claims and points made by others. It is for this reason that things can sometimes appear as if people are directly responding to others within these pages.

  At the same time as Paul went on holiday, Emma stopped communicating with the Garibaldi Media team. She did not respond to emails or phone calls. Upon contacting her family and Tina, it quickly became clear that none of them knew where she was.

  As part of its work in investigating old crimes, Garibaldi Media has a network of private investigators who carry out jobs for them. Much of this involves sourcing documents or, occasionally, finding a person.

  It was six days after Paul was due back from holiday that Frank emailed me.

  Emma McGinley and Paul Bosley married in secret in a place that I will not name. There were no members of either of their families present and attempts to contact the named witnesses have proved fruitless. I have personally seen a copy of the wedding certificate and am happy with its veracity.

  Neither Paul nor Emma have been in contact with anyone at Garibaldi Media since that moment. As far as I know, neither have contacted their families and friends since. I have heard rumours of where they might now be living, but, if I’m honest, I’m not sure it’s any of my business as to where they are.

  It is because of this that funding for Frank’s movie fell through. The reasoning was that, if Paul was compromised by Emma, then there is a chance the movie could be.

  Frank and the rest of his crew made the argument that Paul had been isolated away from the editing and filming – and that there was no problem. This was dismissed by the people who put up the original funding for the project.

  I disagree with Frank on this matter. He thought the movie could still go ahead, I’m not sure that it could.

  Not then, anyway.

  Emma and Julius have such conflicting versions of what happened that they cannot be reconciled. However, Julius’s claim that Emma and Paul were ‘in it together’, or that he was ‘covering for her’ is something that has been complicated by Emma and Paul’s disappearance and marriage.

  That does not mean I necessarily believe Julius’s version to be true – but that the project likely was compromised. This is especially the case as Paul told his colleagues that he and Emma had no relationship after returning from the island. In short, why lie?

  There is also the email.

  Approximately three weeks before Paul went on holiday, an email was sent from his Garibaldi Media work address to the same Gmail account that Emma had been using to communicate with Fran
k.

  The only reason this was uncovered was due to a forensic crawl of Paul’s work emails in the week he was seemingly missing. Colleagues were worried about him and searching for clues as to where he might be. At the time this email was uncovered, nobody involved in this story was aware that Paul and Emma were still in contact.

  There is an assumption that Paul sent this email by accident, when he meant to use his own personal account.

  This is the email:

  From: Paul Bosley

  To: Emma McGinley

  Subject: J ints

  E!

  Things looking good here. J interviews finished today but you def sound more believable. Talk later.

  X

  Paul

  It seems a fair assumption that ‘J’ means Julius, but, as with so many things in this story, different things can be read into this email, depending on who you believe.

  The only certainty is that Emma and Paul were in contact with one another – and that Paul was keeping a check on the interviews, even though he was working in a different department.

  Through email, I gave Julius a right to reply about everything that happened since Emma disappeared. Edited and reprinted with permission, this is his response:

  Julius: Emma eloping to marry the guy from the film crew shows you that everything I said was true. It doesn’t matter if you believe they were in it together, or if you think she seduced him and got him to cover for her. All that matters is that she showed her true colours. She tried to kill our dad because she wanted his money – and that’s a fact.