Sweet Little Lies (Cat Kinsella #1)(107)

Parnell pulls in closer. ‘The truth?’

She drags her fingers down the side of her face. ‘There were no parents. They were just acting, people paid by Mackie to make the girls feel better about handing their babies over. The vast majority were sold on to traffickers, global set-ups, for seriously big money too so God knows what happened to them. Nothing good, I’d say. And Gina told this to Maryanne.’

‘Did you know this?’ asks Renée.

A small movement, pitiful. ‘Not at the time. I’d have never gone along with it if I’d known. I mean, I was greedy, I’ve admitted that, but I’m not a monster. I honestly thought those babies were going to safe homes.’

‘And why did Gina tell Maryanne this?’ says Parnell, confused. ‘Why not, as you say, just fob her off?’

Saskia looks around the room for an answer. Time doesn’t appear to have made sense of it. ‘Honestly? I don’t know. Gina was edgy from the minute we got there, which I understood to a point, but if she’d just played nicely, I reckon Maryanne would have trotted off eventually. Instead she tells us to go up to the first floor, to the utility room, for fuck’s sake, like she didn’t want us dirtying her good rooms. Then she says Maryanne’s got two minutes max before she wants her out of her fucking house. But Maryanne keeps going with all these bloody questions and Gina just sort of flips, says she hasn’t got a clue where Maryanne’s baby is, or anyone else’s for that matter. Tells her they were all sold off to traffickers within minutes of leaving the flat. Maryanne went for her, sort of pushed her out onto the landing, there was a struggle.’

Parnell’s head is slightly bowed. ‘Are you saying you saw Gina Hicks kill Maryanne?’

‘No.’

Renée’s pen stops in mid-air, Parnell’s eyebrows hit the strip lighting.

‘I saw them argue and Gina pushed her down the stairs, or maybe Maryanne fell down the stairs, I couldn’t say for sure from where I was standing.’ She puts her head in her hands, talks to the table. ‘Maryanne must have hit her head because there was blood, quite a bit. And I panicked, I legged it. I wasn’t thinking straight. I thought Gina would blame me for suggesting she see Maryanne and I just wanted out of there. But Maryanne was definitely moving when I left. I know I shouldn’t have run off and I’ve lived with it ever since, but she was alive, she was trying to sit up.’ Her voice gets smaller. ‘The papers said she was strangled though, cuts on her throat and stuff. I don’t know anything about that. I promise you, I don’t.’

Renée jots a few notes down while Parnell digests this, pushing his chair back from the table, giving himself more room to absorb the enormity of what they’ve just heard. If he’s waiting for Saskia to fill the silence though, he’s out of luck. She sits patiently waiting for his reaction, waiting for his judgement.

‘Two questions,’ he says eventually. ‘Firstly, you confirmed to us that you were having a relationship with Nate Hicks but your colleague, Naomi Berry, seemed surprised by this.’ He pulls out a piece of paper from Renée’s stack. ‘“Incredulous” is the word my officer wrote. So do you still stand by that claim?’

I don’t think Ben would have used the word ‘incredulous.’ He’s more of a ‘fucking gobsmacked’ kind of guy.

Saskia flaps a hand. ‘Oh God, that. No, I don’t stand by it. I wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole.’

‘So why did he say it?’ asks Parnell.

Completely deadpan. ‘Because he’s an idiot. But a loyal idiot, to Gina and Patrick Mackie. He says and does anything to make sure he stays in favour.’ She rubs her thumb and first two fingers together, symbolising money. ‘It pays him to.’

‘Would that include strangling Maryanne and dumping her body by Leamington Square Gardens?’

Saskia shrugs, doesn’t commit. ‘I don’t know. Maybe?’ A harsh laugh. ‘Do you wanna hear something funny? That affair bullshit, that was all his idea, independent of Gina. He didn’t know Gina was going to walk into your station and give you a load of crap about IVF forums and what-not. He thought by making up that story about us, he was deflecting the attention away from Gina and putting the spotlight on himself. He called me after you left their house that day to make sure I said the same thing if you asked. He was so fucking pleased with himself. What an absolute tool.’

But the question is, would he want to deflect attention onto himself if he killed Maryanne? The answer’s ‘quite possibly’ – Nate Hicks’ life, his lifestyle, probably his whole self-esteem is built on staying in favour with his wife and her father, and while Gina played a great role, casting Nate as man of the house and her, the harassed middle-class mummy, it’s pretty obvious now who calls the shots in that relationship.

Renée pulls her up. ‘So you’re admitting you lied to us about Nate Hicks? That you obstructed our investigation?’

‘Yes.’ A long hiss like a snake.

Parnell scrapes his chair forward, closes in again. ‘You see, you’ve lied about a lot of things, Saskia. Mainly to protect Gina Hicks too, which brings me to my second question – why should we believe you now? Why are you telling us this now?’

A tension grips her whole body and I feel myself stiffen. Sympathy pains. ‘Because I know I’m a loose end to them. Gina might have been happy sending that little runt round with a threatening message, but Patrick Mackie?’ There’s a tremor around her mouth but she leaves the rest unsaid.