by K. L. Slater
‘But she had dementia. You could have just walked away; nobody would have believed her if she’d told them what had happened.’
‘It’s true she had dementia, but it’s something that comes and goes in the early years. There are periods of lucidity when the brain functions like normal.’ She scowls. ‘Just my luck she woke up lucid. I might not have had to hurt her had she remained clueless. As it was, the heavy brass lamp on the table came in very handy.’
I squeeze my eyes shut, willing the vision of the scene to leave me.
Instead of a feeling of euphoria at this final confirmation that Maddy did nothing wrong, a wave of something powerful and all-consuming engulfs me. In the space of a few seconds, I grieve for Bessie Wilford and her family, feel regret at staying so blind for so long, and feel a searing heat of fury against Beth for what she’s put our girls through.
‘As I said, I’ve been grooming the girls with the anonymous texts for a while now. They were very nervous, particularly Maddy. Brianna’s a bit tougher, like her bitch of a mother.’
I think about Maddy’s disrupted sleep, hearing her moving around in the night and going downstairs to find her sitting in the living room in the dark, staring into space with that haunted look on her little face. In her last interview she’d talked about someone asking her to do bad things and I simply thought this was Brianna. But if it was Beth… Maddy would be beside herself with confusion and fear.
She’s always trusted Beth, known her all her life. Although she didn’t know who was sending the texts, Beth knew enough about her to tap into what scared her.
‘And you did all this to avenge my brother, who isn’t even part of your own family?’
Irritation flashes across Beth’s face.
‘I did it for my brother. For Andrew. He lost his life, had no choice in the matter thanks to the neglect of the hospital staff. Your family had a little boy who was still very much alive, and yet they tossed him aside like a piece of rubbish. I couldn’t let them get away with that.’
‘Beth, did you inform all our customers and suppliers about the scandal, set fire to the unit… get our contracts cancelled?’
‘You’re so trusting, Juliet, you made it easy.’
A sudden noise makes me jump, and we both turn at the sound of feet scuffing on the hardwood floor. Dana appears, her face pale. ‘I tried to call you, Juliet,’ she gasps, staring at Beth. ‘I heard everything while you were on the phone to Juliet… Lizzie, Beth… whatever your name is.’
Beth laughs. ‘Had you fooled, didn’t I? I couldn’t believe how easy it was to get your attention that day at the gym, but I was only ever interested in your connection to Neary.’
‘But we met two weeks before this case. You couldn’t have possibly known I’d be involved.’
‘I couldn’t know for certain but I could hazard an intelligent guess. The newspaper interview you gave was a gift, telling everyone how amazing you are at building a rapport with local kids in trouble and how you work with Neary on cases involving children.’ Beth smiled. ‘It was pretty obvious that if two local girls carried out a terrible crime, your services would be called for. I’d seen you at the gym a few times before you were suspended. It was a gift when I saw you in that class. I’d have done it all without you anyway but the chance of having an insider view of the case was too good to miss.’
The expression on Dana’s face tells me she’s crushed. She obviously really cared for Beth… or the woman she knew as Lizzie.
‘Beth. Where is Josh?’ I growl, strengthened by Dana being here with me now.
We all turn to commotion outside. Dana opens the back door and two uniformed police officers burst into the room. I cry out with relief when I see DI Neary behind them. A grim DS March follows him in.
‘She’s got Josh somewhere… she’s drugged him,’ I shout.
‘Check upstairs,’ he instructs the first two officers.
‘I’ll follow them up, sir,’ March adds before turning back to a third officer still standing outside the back door. ‘Get an ambulance here in case it’s needed.’
My hands fly up to my face. Does she think Josh could be…
‘Juliet, are you OK? You’re not hurt at all?’ Neary asks, his voice full of concern.
I shake my head and look over at Beth. ‘The girls didn’t kill Bessie, it was her.’
She smiles to herself, as if she’s silently congratulating herself on a job well done. It’s as if she’s in another world entirely, no sign of any conscience at all.
The officers’ boots thunder up the stairs and a few seconds later I hear March shout down.
‘He’s here sir, he’s drowsy but conscious.’
‘Josh!’ I start towards the stairs and Dana grabs my arm.
‘Let them deal with it, Juliet. They’ll bring him downstairs safely.’
‘The ambulance is on its way, sir,’ I hear the officer behind Neary say.
I stagger back, let Dana sit me down on a kitchen stool. I feel dazed and sick.
I don’t know how I didn’t see the signs with Beth… I think it’s the same reason I missed so many other signs the people I love were giving off: my obsession with work. My naïvety when it comes to my family and their motives.
‘How come you never realised Beth was Bessie’s carer?’ I ask Neary and he frowns, looks apologetic.
‘We did what we could in a very short space of time, Juliet,’ he says. ‘I had an officer speak to the carers on the list we had and they all checked out. We had two girls back at the station covered in Bessie’s blood and that’s where we focused our efforts.’
It’s not good enough but I can’t help feeling a twinge of sympathy for the guy. It feels like a week ago but Bessie Wilford was only attacked yesterday and there’s only so much ground Neary can practically cover in that time.
I never suspected Beth and I knew her the best… or thought I did. If she’d told me she’d done some care work for Bessie, I still wouldn’t have thought a thing of it.
Dana shuffles uncomfortably beside me. Beth… Lizzie… completely fooled her, too.
Beth was my best friend. I truly believed she had my back. I can’t really blame others for not seeing through her.
Commotion outside again and then paramedics rush past the kitchen door and run upstairs, directed by Neary.
‘I need to go up there to see Josh,’ I say frantically.
‘Let them do their job, Juliet,’ Dana urges me. ‘They can treat him far more effectively if they’re left to get on with it.’
‘Maddy’s waiting for you to take her home.’ Neary says quietly as his officers handcuff Beth.
I smile at that. The words I honestly had begun to believe I’d never hear.
‘Staff at the detention unit are in the process of informing your husband and family what’s happening here. I’ve asked them to keep everyone there until we get back.’
‘They’re no family of mine,’ I hiss. I feel hot and empty inside when I think about my parents and sister. It feels like something has sucked out all my organs and replaced them with fury and disbelief.
I hear footsteps coming downstairs and stand up in terrified expectation.
‘Josh is going to be fine,’ DS March says, walking into the room. ‘He’s been lightly sedated, but they say he should soon recover.’
‘Told you he was OK,’ Beth taunts me. ‘You worry too much, Jules.’
I fly at her, fingernails extended, and feel Neary’s strong arms pull me back.
‘Don’t, Juliet,’ Dana says darkly. ‘She’s simply not worth it.’
The fury drains and I feel so weak. I stagger back and lean against the kitchen counter. Minutes later, the paramedics appear in the doorway, carrying my boy on a small stretcher and a blast of energy whooshes back into me as I fly towards him.
‘Josh,’ I whisper as I stroke his pale face. ‘I’m so sorry. I love you.’
His eyelids flicker slightly.
‘He’ll be fine, Mum,’ the jov
ial paramedic says kindly. ‘He’s been given a mild sedative but it’s wearing off now. A good meal and a session on his Xbox and he’ll be good as new,’ he quips as they carry my boy out to the ambulance.
Now that I know Josh is safe and that Maddy and Tom are waiting for me back at the unit, I can breathe.
But still one thought dominates, filling me with both sadness for the lost years and pure happiness for the future, all mixed together in a powerful rush.
My brother is alive.
One Month Later
Sixty
Juliet
Our lives are like the aftermath of a battlefield, but we’re getting through it.
Tom and I sat down with Dana and he told me everything. How when Chloe approached him to tell him the truth about Corey’s accident, he made the decision to keep it from me.
‘I’m so, so sorry I chose to make that call,’ he apologised, reaching for my hand. ‘I knew you had so much pressure on with the business, and you were taking medication again… I was convinced it would tip you over the edge.’
‘I had a right to know,’ I told him.
‘You did. You absolutely did and I see that now, but at the time… I thought it would break us, Juliet. We weren’t nearly as strong as a couple as we used to be.’ He shook his head. ‘Chloe was panicking more and more that you would find out you’d taken the rap for Corey all these years, and I ended up being her reluctant confidante.’
‘I was so certain, when I saw you in the car together, that you were having an affair,’ I admit.
‘I would’ve jumped to the same conclusion, I’m sure,’ he says magnanimously. ‘But it wasn’t a lovers’ tiff you were witnessing. I’d finally snapped and insisted we had to tell you the truth about Corey. I only wish I’d done it sooner.’
He hangs his head and clutches my hand before continuing.
‘But there was never anything more between us. And she never told me your brother was still alive.’
I believe him.
Apparently when Dad last visited George in Edinburgh, the staff there told him that a woman called Beth had also been to see him a couple of times – had said she knew George from long ago.
‘Chloe didn’t know until a couple of months ago that your parents had put Corey up for adoption,’ Dana explained. ‘Ray only told her after he found out about Beth’s visits. He knew she would probably find out and at least had the decency to forewarn her, finally. Chloe approached Beth and asked her to keep what she knew to herself until she could muster the courage to tell you. And Beth held it over her, demanding money, telling her to neglect her admin duties in the business.’
‘Chloe never told me Beth was involved. I just thought Chloe herself had finally broken after all the years of keeping the truth to herself of how Corey fell that day,’ Tom added. ‘I’d never have let Beth have involvement with Josh and in your business affairs if I’d known what was happening. I’d like to think I would have suspected Beth for framing the girls for Bessie’s death but truthfully, it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me. That level of wickedness would be hard to imagine from someone who has been your friend for so long.’
When I found out the facts, I knew in my heart that Chloe had been a victim of our family just the same as me. She was young too, at the time it happened; of course she would have felt bound to follow Mum and Dad’s instruction to stay quiet about Corey’s accident. She was playing her own role in our dysfunctional family unit.
But she has been an adult for a long time now and she could have reversed that decision. She could have done the right thing and told me the truth at any point.
Should we continue to give our parents control over our lives as adults and respect old family rules, or do we work to reach a stage where we make our own decisions? Chloe chose the former. And because of that, I can’t be near her right now.
I need space to work through my whole life being a lie.
She’s said she understands, and maybe in time we can find a way to begin to repair our relationship. I don’t honestly know right now but a part of me hopes that might be possible.
Moving away from the village has meant Maddy and Josh both starting at a new school. Josh has already made new friends, and Maddy is getting there. Both seem remarkably resilient, though Maddy sees a therapist once a week. She’s been able to understand how she and Brianna did some things that were wrong, like stealing money from Mum’s purse. It could have been a way of coping, maybe a cry for help, who knows?
Mercifully, Josh has virtually no recollection of what happened in Beth’s house after she drugged him. Before that, he says, things were just normal and he was allowed to watch back-to-back Netflix movies and eat pizza as Beth had initially promised.
Beth is being held on remand pending her trial. She has written to me from prison. It’s not a flowery letter full of remorse, far from it. She still holds her grudges as strongly as ever but she did tell me accusingly her lawyer is expecting she could receive a twelve-year sentence… and could be out in six, with good behaviour, Neary tells me.
She has asked me to visit her but I haven’t responded. She is part of my past now, as my parents are. Mum has also shown no remorse and is furious with Dad for visiting Corey… George, as he is known now.
Dana emailed to say she’d seen Brianna and she is well. Chloe has allowed her to have some counselling sessions and of her own accord; Brianna confessed she’d thrown the ring she removed from Bessie’s hand into the hedgerow as they left. The ring has now been recovered and returned to Bessie’s family.
Dana said Brianna and Chloe still live with Mum, but Dad has left home. Nobody knows where he is, but apparently Mum gets the odd postcard from Europe.
My lovely dad. A man I never really knew at all.
Three Months Later
Sixty-One
It’s an ordinary-looking building, just a small two-storey block on a road behind a busy high street.
The manager shakes my hand.
‘I’m Eileen Boyd, very pleased to meet you. You don’t know how happy I was when Dana called me,’ she says, beaming. ‘The staff were overjoyed to discover you existed.’
I am giddy with anticipation, sick with worry at this long-awaited visit somehow going wrong. It all had to be done properly; Corey – or George, as he now thinks of himself – has had to be prepared so he understands who I am.
Dana takes in my expression and squeezes my hand. ‘Everything is going to be fine,’ she says, reading me like a book as usual.
Tom has taken a week off work to look after Maddy and Josh, and he’s also offered to do some research into assisted accommodation around the East Midlands area, should everything go well here in Edinburgh.
I’ve started up the business again under another name, and have even managed to salvage some of the contracts that were cancelled. I’m just biding my time to see how it goes, but for now, being with my husband and children is what takes priority.
Dana and I follow Eileen along a corridor and up a flight of stairs to a carpeted landing. She stops at a door and opens it to reveal a large communal lounge area with a big television and comfy sofas at one end and a few scattered tables and chairs at the other, where people, most of them young, are sitting playing cards or board games. She walks over to the window, where she stops and turns.
From here, we can see the whole room.
‘There’s George, in the blue and white striped T-shirt,’ she says quietly. ‘He loves Monopoly.’
He’s sitting side-on to where we stand, playing with three other people, his brow furrowed with concentration.
His hair is light brown, the same colour exactly as Chloe’s. My heart jumps when I see that the tuft of hair that would never stay down when Dad brushed it is still there on the crown of his head.
He is of average build and his forearms look lightly tanned, as if he sits outside in the sun quite regularly.
He’s counting his Monopoly money when he suddenly seems to sense he’s being
watched. He looks up and I take a sharp breath in.
His eyes are the exact same shade as my own. I knew this but I’d forgotten it. He looks at all of us in turn, and then his gaze comes back to me. I smile, and he smiles back, looking slightly puzzled as if he’s trying to recall something.
Eileen walks over to the table.
‘Sorry to disturb your game, George, but I wanted to introduce you to Juliet Fletcher.’
He looks at me. I look at him and hold out my hand, trying to keep it steady.
‘Hi, George,’ I say. ‘Nice to meet you.’
His eyes flick over my face and he smiles. I think he recognises me. After all this time, I think—
‘I’ve just got the last station,’ he says, looking down at the board. ‘I have all four now.’
His words are slightly slurred, but he can speak perfectly well. Close up, I can see the small scar at the side of his mouth where next door’s puppy nipped him as they played on the floor together.
‘Juliet’s come all the way from Nottingham to say hello, George,’ Eileen tells him. ‘Remember we talked about her visit?’
‘Very pleased to meet you,’ he says, and I can tell he’s itching to get back to his game.
‘If I come back tomorrow, George, I wondered if you’d like a walk around the park… and we could have a game of Monopoly too. It’s been a long time since I played.’
‘Yes, that sounds fun,’ he says. Then he looks at me – I mean, really looks at me – before he asks, ‘Are you my sister?’
‘Yes, George,’ I say, making a tremendous effort not to dissolve into tears of happiness. ‘I am your sister and you’re my brother.’ I reach for his hand. ‘And I promise you this. Nobody is ever going to keep us apart again.’
‘My sister. Juliet,’ he whispers, and squeezes my hand.
