The Half Sister, page 30
‘When I was eighteen and able to get a copy of my birth certificate,’ says Jess. ‘I only needed to do some basic research to find out what had happened to her.’
Lauren looks at her, open-mouthed.
Jess turns to Kate. ‘I asked you to help me find my mother’s murderer – that there was a good news angle to it – but you dismissed me out of hand. You said you had people turning up every day of the week, claiming to have the next front page up their sleeve.’
Kate can hear herself saying it.
‘I gave you the chance to narrate your own story, but you weren’t interested, so I had to find a way of doing it myself.’
‘So you lied your way onto Matt’s paper?’ says Kate, unable to keep the contempt from her voice. ‘To get back at me?’
‘Partly,’ says Jess. ‘But it wasn’t only about you. I needed to find a way to get my story out there.’
‘Why didn’t you just go to the police?’ asks Matt.
‘I did,’ says Jess. ‘As soon as I found out who my mother was, but they weren’t interested. It was a cold case, they said. They had reduced resources . . . they didn’t have the manpower . . . it wasn’t in the public’s interest . . .’ She laughs. ‘Well it looks like it is now.’
Kate feels Matt shift beside her as they both realize that they’ve fallen head first into Jess’s trap.
‘So have you even spoken to the police today?’ asks Kate. ‘Since the article came out?’
‘They’ve called me and asked me to go in.’ She looks at Matt. ‘I assume you’ve spoken to them too?’
‘They’ve bought us up to speed,’ he says, and Kate prays that he leaves it there. This is Jess’s stage – let her do the performing.
‘If only you’d listened,’ says Jess threateningly. ‘None of this would have happened.’
‘I’m sorry,’ says Kate. ‘We’re sorry. But we’re listening now.’
‘But it’s not my turn to talk,’ says Jess, ‘is it, Rose?’
Rose holds Noah and Emmy closer to her. ‘I don’t know what you want me to say,’ she says shakily.
‘Well, you must have something to offer,’ says Jess. ‘You knew your husband was having an affair, knew he’d had a baby . . .’
‘No,’ says Rose, shaking her head manically. ‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Sure you did,’ says Jess, gripping Jude tighter and making him cry. His distress makes Kate’s chest feel as if it’s being ripped open.
‘Lauren told you she’d seen Harry with me and my mum, didn’t you, Lauren?’
Kate looks at her sister wide-eyed, not knowing what answer she wants her to give.
‘Y-yes,’ stutters Lauren, her voice sounding as if she’s gargling blood.
‘Okay, I had my suspicions that he was having an affair,’ Rose blurts out, ‘but I swear I didn’t know about you.’
‘You sure about that?’ questions Jess, making Jude cry even louder.
‘Tell her!’ barks Kate, unable to listen to her nephew’s pitiful sobs any longer. ‘Tell her about the hospital tag.’
Rose looks at her, dumbstruck. ‘I don’t know what . . .’ she starts.
‘I saw it!’ exclaims Kate, wanting to scream, but mindful of not frightening the children any more than they already are. ‘It has Jess’s date of birth on it. Just tell her what you know.’
Rose’s head drops and her chest heaves. ‘I’m sorry,’ she cries.
‘You knew Jess’s mum wasn’t Helen Wilmington, didn’t you?’ says Kate tightly, as the truth begins to dawn on her.
Rose makes a strange noise in the back of her throat.
‘You gave us that name, hoping that it would be enough to throw us off the scent. Thinking that we’d run with it, find out she’d died and that would be the end of it.’
Rose looks at her imploringly, silently begging her to understand why.
‘So you knew all along that Jess’s mum was Julia Woods? That Dad’s lover had been murdered?’
A sob catches in Rose’s chest. ‘Yes. I just didn’t want you to find out, and start asking questions that I couldn’t answer.’
‘So what do you know about my mum?’ asks Jess.
‘Not much,’ Rose whimpers. ‘Nothing at all in fact, apart from what happened to her.’
‘And how did you find out about that?’ presses Jess.
‘From the paper, like everyone else,’ offers Rose.
‘So you and Harry never discussed what happened?’
Rose shakes her head emphatically. ‘No, never. I knew that her husband had gone on the run and I assumed he’d taken the baby with him.’
‘So even though you knew your husband was having an affair with a woman who’d been murdered, and thought his child had disappeared with someone other than its father, you never gave it another thought?’
‘Well . . . I . . . . I . . . thought it was over,’ stutters Rose.
‘So you didn’t know that my mother’s husband was cleared of any involvement?’
Rose’s eyes widen. ‘N-no, I didn’t.’
‘It didn’t occur to you to read the newspaper to keep up to date over the years?’ asks Jess sardonically. ‘It’s all there on the internet, Rose.’
Rose remains tight-lipped.
‘And now the police have a new lead, me, and they’re going to be sniffing around you and your family until they find out what really went on.’
Rose looks between Jess, Lauren and Kate, her eyes flitting wildly. ‘I only did it to protect you.’
‘We don’t need protecting,’ cries Lauren. ‘We need the truth. Because the sooner you tell it, the sooner I’ll get my babies back.’ It sounds as if Lauren’s insides are being ripped out. ‘Please, Mum.’
Rose closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. ‘Your dad wasn’t always the person you thought he was.’
Kate looks at her mother contemptuously.
‘He wasn’t always the man that you saw on the outside,’ Rose goes on. ‘He could be manipulative and controlling – that’s what made him so good at his job, but sometimes he’d bring it home with him.’
Kate shakes her head. She can’t remember a single time, not one, when her father wasn’t the most loving, caring person she could possibly imagine.
‘He was never that person,’ she says. ‘He loved us unconditionally.’
‘If everything was going his way,’ says Rose. ‘You only have to ask Lauren what he was capable of when it wasn’t. She knows how he could be.’
Kate looks to Lauren with raised eyebrows. She wonders if her sister is going to be brave enough to tell her truth.
‘Tell her,’ urges Rose, looking at Lauren. ‘Tell her what he made you do.’
‘About the abortion?’ asks Lauren.
Rose nods encouragingly.
‘You want me to say that he gave me no choice, that he manipulated the whole situation, that he called the father of my baby to tell him I’d already had the operation, when I hadn’t?’
‘Exactly,’ says Rose, looking at Kate imploringly. ‘I’m sorry, darling – I can only imagine how hard this must be for you to hear, but that’s the kind of man he could be sometimes.’
‘Except he wasn’t,’ says Lauren, choking back tears. ‘He was never that man. He was your puppet, and when you told him to jump, the only question he ever asked was, how high?’
Rose turns to look at Lauren with a confused expression.
‘I know, Mum,’ says Lauren. ‘I know you were the one behind him, pulling his strings, all the while telling me that I should do whatever I wanted to do.’
Rose shakes her head. ‘No darling, that’s not how it was. See how coercive he was? That’s what he wanted you to think. I only ever wanted you to be happy.’
‘Did you think making Justin walk away from me would make me happy?’ Lauren cries.
‘Of course not, but as much as I tried to reason with your father, sometimes I just couldn’t make him see sense. I didn’t even know that he’d called Justin, not until afterwards, when it was too late.’
Lauren rushes forward towards her mother and Kate’s hand instinctively reaches out and grabs hold of her wrist.
‘You were the instigator!’ Lauren shouts. ‘You didn’t want my mistake to upset the equilibrium of the perfect family you thought you had?’
‘It wasn’t about me,’ says Rose, aghast. ‘You were too young to be tied down with a baby, and with a boy who couldn’t support you. It was the right thing to do for all of us.’
‘Except it sent me off the rails, and your husband into the arms of another woman.’
Rose’s lip quivers and she pulls Noah and Emmy closer to her, as if goading Lauren. ‘Women were your father’s weakness.’
‘Don’t you dare!’ hisses Kate. ‘Don’t you dare try and justify your actions by blaming him. All he ever wanted to do was help people.’
Rose laughs bitterly. ‘Oh yes, he was very good at helping people, especially women whose husbands were beating them up. Your father liked to play the martyr and be on hand for his clients when they came out of hospital.’
‘Are you referring to my mother?’ asks Jess.
Kate had almost forgotten she was there.
Rose looks at Jess – her eyes silently saying yes.
‘So, you did know my mother?’ says Jess.
‘I knew of your mother,’ says Rose, correcting her.
‘Who are you lying for?’ asks Jess. ‘Your husband or yourself?’
‘Your father was going to leave us to be with Julia,’ says Rose, looking directly at Kate. ‘He wanted to be with her and the baby and there was nothing I could do to make him see sense.’
If it were possible for blood to freeze, Kate imagines this is what it would feel like. ‘He would never have left us!’ she shouts. ‘You know he wouldn’t!’
‘This is why I didn’t want to tell you anything,’ cries Rose. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you. I was only ever trying to protect you from knowing what your father was really like. But the reality was that he and Julia were going to make a new life together in London, with the baby.’ She throws Jess a disdainful look.
‘So what happened?’ presses Jess, when it looks like Rose has offered all that she’s going to.
‘Th-that was it,’ stutters Rose. ‘Your mother was killed and I presumed it was by her husband who found out what she was planning to do.’
Kate looks at her mother paralysed with fear on the floor. She can’t tell whether it’s because Jess is holding her grandson hostage, or she knows she’s sitting on a ticking timebomb.
‘The police are going to be crawling all over this now,’ says Jess. ‘And I’ll make sure that they don’t rest until they find out who killed my mother. So if there’s anything you’re not telling me . . .’ Jess raises the knife, her eyes never leaving Rose.
‘Okay, okay!’ calls out Rose, closing her eyes and shaking her head, as if trying to dislodge a deeply buried memory. ‘Harry packed his bags and said he was leaving – I pleaded with him not to go, but his mind was made up. When he got to Julia’s, she said she couldn’t do it – that her husband had found out and threatened to kill her and the baby if she went.’
Tears fall onto Rose’s cheek and Noah turns to look at his nana, momentarily forgetting the hostile situation he finds himself in. ‘What’s wrong, Nana?’ he asks, innocently, dabbing at her cheek with the sleeve of his top.
‘Please Jess, let me take him,’ says Lauren, falling onto her knees. ‘None of this is the children’s fault.’
‘Go on!’ barks Jess, ignoring her.
‘They rowed,’ says Rose, ‘and there was a scuffle. Harry said that she lost her footing and fell, hitting her head as she went down.’
A stunned silence descends on the room.
‘How could you!’ cries Kate. ‘How could you make up such wicked lies?’ It feels as if there’s an obstruction in her airways. She closes her eyes and forces herself to breathe in for three, and out for three.
Rose’s chest heaves as she sobs. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but it was an accident – he never meant for it to happen.’
‘So why didn’t he just call the police?’ asks Jess, almost robotically. ‘If it was an accident.’
‘How could he?’ cries Rose. ‘He was a highly regarded lawyer. Imagine the investigation that would have had to be done. He could have lost everything: his job, his family and, if they didn’t believe him, his liberty.’
‘They’d know if it was accidental,’ says Jess. ‘An accident is an accident, but murder is murder.’
‘It was an accident,’ says Rose. ‘A terrible accident.’
‘And you’re prepared to take your husband at his word, are you?’ asks Jess. ‘The man who cheated on you, fathered a child, was going to live with someone else . . . you’re willing to believe his version of events?’
Rose nods. ‘Yes.’
‘Well I guess it’ll be down to the forensics now,’ says Jess, visibly relaxing, but not quite enough for Kate to feel confident to make a grab for Jude. ‘They’ll prove what really happened.’
‘I know what really happened,’ says Rose.
‘They won’t go on the hearsay of a scorned wife,’ says Jess, acerbically. ‘No matter how much she wants to believe it.’
‘I know what really happened . . .’ Rose says again, ‘. . . because I was there.’
50
One year later
‘How’s it going?’ Kate asks, as she sits down next to Lauren on the bench in Court One.
‘I didn’t think you’d come,’ says Lauren, leaning in for a kiss.
‘I had to force myself. I don’t know how I’m going to look her in the eye.’
‘It’s been a long time,’ says Lauren, rubbing her younger sister’s arm. ‘But she’ll be pleased to see you’re here.’
‘I’m not here for her,’ says Kate tightly, before offering a weak smile. ‘I’m here for you.’
‘Well, I appreciate it,’ says Lauren, taking hold of Kate’s hand and giving it a squeeze.
‘Are you still okay for Sunday?’ asks Kate, absently swiping a photo of a beaming Matt holding their baby, Charlie, from her phone’s home screen. She checks for any last-minute texts and emails before turning it off.
‘Yes, the kids are looking forward to it. It’s supposed to be Simon’s weekend to have them, but he’s been unusually civil and agreed to swap it.’
‘Wonders will never cease.’
‘Don’t hold your breath,’ says Lauren. ‘He’s still a bastard most of the time.’
‘I was going to suggest a barbecue if the weather stays like this,’ says Kate. ‘It’ll be our first chance to use the garden since we moved in. It also means we can put Matt and Justin in charge of the grill, whilst we put our feet up with a bottle of wine.’
‘Sounds like my kind of afternoon,’ says Lauren.
The banality of the conversation jars against the seriousness of their surroundings.
‘What do you think’s going to happen?’ asks Kate, suddenly conscious.
‘Well, she’s still maintaining that Dad called her in a panic and asked her to meet him at Julia’s house. And that when she got there, he told her there’d been an accident and gave her the baby.’
Kate shakes her head. ‘Does that sound like Dad?’
‘No doubt we’ll find out. But I can see that he would have wanted to get the baby away from the scene.’
‘And she’s still claiming she left Jess at a church?’
Lauren nods. ‘She said that Dad told her to put the baby somewhere safe and the church was the first place she could think of.’
The gallery door opens and in walk Jess and Finn. Jess gives a polite nod and sits down on the back row.
‘Have you spoken to her yet?’ asks Kate.
‘Only briefly, this morning, after the jury were sworn in and the opening speeches had been made.’ Lauren sighs. ‘It’s funny, but despite everything that’s gone on, it’s good to see her. With each day that passes, the more I understand why she felt the need to do what she did, and if I’m really honest with myself, there’s a part of me that still misses her.’
‘Did she say what she’s doing with herself?’ asks Kate.
‘Finn’s moved in with her now, but I think that was always the plan, and she’s got a new job in a restaurant in town.’
‘Do you want to invite them over on Sunday?’ asks Kate. Lauren turns to look at her with a smile.
The court hushes as Rose shuffles into the dock, looking like a shadow of the woman she was; her shoulder-length auburn hair is cut short and greying at the sides; her once vibrant skin is sallow and pale; even her height seems to have diminished. Though when she looks up to the gallery and sees Kate, she instantly stands taller, buoyed by her daughter’s presence.
As soon as the judge is seated, the prosecution calls the forensic investigator to the witness box and after the formal introductions, the wigged barrister approaches the stand.
‘Can you confirm that the defendant Rose Alexander’s DNA was found at the scene of Julia Woods’ murder?’ he says.
‘Yes,’ says the bespectacled man, before leaning in closer to the small microphone perched in front of him and repeating himself.
‘And can you confirm that the same DNA was found close to the body of the deceased, even though the defendant claims in her written statement that she didn’t enter the house?’
‘Yes, that’s correct.’
‘Whilst we could allow the benefit of the doubt to some extent, it’s unlikely in this event, is it not?’
‘Highly unlikely,’ says the witness.
‘And can you explain why that’s the case on this particular occasion?’
The man clears his throat and Lauren squeezes Kate’s hand tighter. ‘Because the defendant’s DNA was found under the victim’s fingernails.’
There are audible gasps from the gallery and Kate and Lauren lock eyes.
‘And just for the record,’ the Crown Prosecutor goes on, twisting the knife until it has nowhere else to go. ‘Is it conceivable that anyone else was present at the time of the murder, apart from the defendant, Mrs Alexander?’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘Thank you.’ The barrister grins. ‘I have no further questions.’
