Our Kind of Cruelty(65)

‘Did you talk to Verity about this?’

‘Oh yes, towards the end of their relationship especially, as it made her extremely upset. She was terrified of hurting him. She said it wasn’t like ending things with a normal person because his rejection by his mother made him vulnerable.’

I had to turn my head to V at that point, but she only gave me her taut profile. She was sitting very still with her eyes on her lap, but I saw the tension in her cheek, which I knew was how she stopped herself crying. And suddenly this whole thing seemed even more absurd than it already did. Here we are, two people who love each other, being separated by a stupid mistake which could have happened to anyone.

I turned back and Suzi was talking again, so I realised I must have missed Petra’s question. ‘Yes, we knew she had started seeing Angus. She had planned to tell Mike when he came back from New York at Christmas and the stress made her quite ill.’

It was possible that Suzi had always hated me, I thought then. It was possible that it had all been a sham, all those shared times, all the dinners and conversations. It was possible that nothing she said was real.

‘Verity shouldn’t have used Mike’s infidelity as an excuse for ending the relationship,’ Suzi was saying. I had missed another question, which made me feel slightly light-headed. ‘She knows that. But I would have probably done the same.’

‘And how did Mr Hayes take the split?’

‘Very badly. Verity had to lock herself in her room the night she told him because of his persistent attempts to speak to her. He slept outside her door on the floor and the next morning refused to move. In the end, Colin and I had to basically tell him to leave.’

‘Where did he go?’ Petra asked.

‘Back to their flat in London. Although he called all day every day. It was ghastly. Verity didn’t answer her phone at all and so he rang the landline, day and night. She got in such a state that in the end Angus drove down and took her away to a hotel for New Year’s so she could get a bit of peace.’

I thought I might fall forward off my chair, but I recovered myself. Suzi was just lying. Everyone was lying apart from me and V.

‘One day Mike sent so many flowers they filled a van. When the woman unloaded them she said she’d never seen anything like it. I had to donate them to the church and hospital.’ Suzi swallowed. ‘That was typical Mike, always going overboard.’

‘Were you ever worried for your daughter’s safety?’ Petra asked, removing her glasses as she spoke.

As I sat there waiting for her answer, I realised Suzi has never been in love. You just have to listen to Liam Gallagher to realise that people like V and me are going to live forever and Suzi and the rest of them are wrong simply because they don’t know what it’s like to really, truly love someone.

‘Towards the end, a bit, maybe,’ she said and she couldn’t help glancing over at me. I held her gaze, without flinching, and she looked away almost immediately. I remembered what she’d looked like at the wedding, how puffed-out and proud she had been. She had been so stupid to ever think that was it.

‘When he first went back to New York after Christmas the contact was so incessant Verity had to change her phone number and she moved in with Angus, but her email was harder to change because of work and he bombarded her daily with ridiculous emails. But then he stopped in February and we thought maybe things had calmed down. When Verity told him about the wedding he even seemed happy for her. Of course, I never thought anything like this would happen.’ Suzi’s voice caught on her last words.

‘And how has Verity handled it all?’ Petra asked.

Suzi’s head dipped momentarily. ‘She’s been amazing when you take into consideration what’s happened to her. Her new husband, whom she loved very much, has been killed, then she’s been hounded by the press and had to put up with all the terrible lies which have been written about her. And now this ridiculous trial. It’s been awful to watch what she’s gone through in these last few months, which should have been the happiest of her life.’

‘So, in your estimation, your daughter and Mr Metcalf were happy and in love and Mr Hayes has a delusional fixation which turned violent?’

‘Objection,’ Xander said. ‘Ms Gardner is not a psychiatrist and cannot diagnose my client.’

‘Overruled,’ said Justice Smithson. He looked at Xander over the top of his glasses as he spoke, almost apologetically. ‘Mrs Walton’s observations of her daughter are pertinent here, although obviously the jury must take into account her relationship with the defendants.’

Suzi looked over to the jury and I saw two pink spots had appeared high up on her cheeks. ‘Absolutely. You don’t see my daughter behind closed doors. We’re not the sort of people to weep and wail in public, but I can assure you she is as devastated as it’s possible to be. I know Angus and Verity were happy and I know Michael is delusional.’ Suzi swallowed again, her eyes brimming with tears.

‘In your mind she wouldn’t have wanted anything bad to happen to Mr Metcalf? Is it possible she could have asked for Mr Hayes’s help to remove him?’

‘God no,’ Suzi’s voice rose with each word. ‘She loved Angus so much. And Mike is the last person she would ask to help her with anything.’

‘Perhaps you could tell us your impressions of Mr Metcalf,’ Petra continued. ‘What sort of man did he appear to you? Were you ever concerned about his treatment of your daughter?’