Frozen Grave (Willis/Carter #3)(53)

Dr Lydia Reese was waiting for her in the sitting area outside her mother’s ward.

‘Sorry, am I late?’

‘Not at all – you just caught me catching up on some work. Please have a seat. Or we could grab a coffee, if you like?’

‘Yes, that would be great.’

‘I’ll show you where the café is.’

They walked back towards the entrance of the hospital and turned into the café area.

‘I’ll get it – what would you like?’ Dr Reese offered.

‘Hot chocolate, thanks very much.’

Willis went to find a table. The place was recovering from breakfast going by the tables littered with plates. Willis cleared a table for them. Dr Reese approached and set the tray of drinks down, before sitting opposite her.

‘Thanks for agreeing to see me, Doctor. I need to talk to you about something Bella wants from me, before I go in and see her. I need to know if it’s something you would recommend me doing or not.’

‘Of course, I appreciate you running it by me. I will give you my professional opinion.’

‘Bella says she has photos of my natural father to show me. She wants me to find him. There can only be one reason. She is up to something and she must think it will help her get out of prison in some way. I don’t know whether I should even try to find him or leave him well alone. I don’t think it’s fair to involve him.’

‘If you do find him, will you tell him everything?’

Willis sighed, staring at her cup. ‘If I do – I think I have no chance of ever meeting him. Who is going to want to know either of us?’

‘What your mother did should not reflect on you.’

‘Oh, but it does – tarred with the same brush.’

‘You were there when it happened?’

‘And I arrested her at the scene.’ Willis played with her cup as she talked. She steeled herself; she’d been building up to telling Dr Reese her side of the story for a while – now seemed the right time to do it. She wouldn’t have told her unless she had to. She never told anyone exactly how it felt that day. But, if there was one person who should know it was Dr Reese.

Dr Reese put her hand on Willis’s and for some reason it brought a lump to Willis’s throat. She smiled at the doctor and removed her hand from the table.

‘Take your time,’ Dr Reese said. ‘Tell me what happened that day.’

‘I’d just joined the police force. She wanted to see me. I didn’t see her often. I agreed to go to her flat. She lived in a housing association flat. Bella never managed to hold down a job, never managed to accept her family’s generosity and do something good with the money. She gave wild parties, she took drugs. She wrecked marriages and lives. She always has done – she goes through life like a tornado. Everything spins around her. She feels nothing for anyone else unless it will achieve her aims. She uses us all.

‘When I got there the door was open. I called out my mother’s name and I heard the softest voice reply. It wasn’t a word, it was a breath.

‘I saw the blood as soon as I stepped inside. There were handprints in the hallway, smears all over the walls, smudges of blood and flesh where someone had fallen against the wall and struggled forward, trying to get away. The blood led towards the kitchen. I called her name. She hated me calling her Mother. I called out to her: “Bella?” I heard a whimpering, someone else trying to breathe coming from in front of me, from the kitchen. I walked forward and I saw the man’s legs first. He was sitting on the floor. His blood was pooled around him. He looked at me for help. His breathing was coming out in squeals. He clutched his chest and bright red blood pumped over his hand. His eyes flicked to the other side of the door. Bella was standing with a big kitchen knife in her hand; she was drenched in blood. She was shaking violently. She was looking at me with the eyes of someone who believes they can do whatever they like and there will be no consequences. There was a look of triumph in her eyes as she lunged forward and planted the knife into his chest. I tried to save him but he was dead in seconds.’

‘Who was he?’

‘He was a twenty-one-year-old. He was studying medicine. He was planning to go back to his home in Somalia and help his community when he qualified.’

‘Your mother was very sick at the time.’

‘Yeah, I know. I’ve heard people say that many times.’ Willis shook her head. ‘Bella has a long-term plan to get out. She needs motivation.’ She took a drink of her hot chocolate. She couldn’t make eye contact with the doctor for a minute.

‘Then it seems you are the one to make all the choices,’ Dr Reese said, and, for the first time, Willis saw a softness in her eyes. ‘I know that your mother has had a terrible effect on you. I can see it in you. I know that Bella is manipulative and dangerous. I cannot say to you that she has no hope of ever getting out of Rampton because there are systems in place that would allow her to, if she was judged not to be a risk to herself or others. But . . . if it was me . . . I might take this chance of a new relationship with your father and I might choose not to share it. If, however, you do and he intends to visit your mother then I am very happy to work with him and you towards the best treatment for her.’

Willis nodded; she cupped her hands around the hot chocolate and stared straight ahead.