Blood Sisters(83)

‘We hoped,’ he goes on, ‘that the guilt over the accident – as well as the need to supplement her income – would make her take the job. And it did. But we still had to wait for Mr Wright to be moved. By then I’d joined her college class. It was a second tactic. My mission was to befriend her and try to extract a confession from her.’

‘Can you elaborate on the word “befriend”?’ says the prosecution’s barrister.

‘We became lovers.’

I cannot gasp now. Or talk. I am beyond sound. It’s not because of the jury looking at me. Or Robin. Or Lily. Or Kitty laughing. It’s because the betrayal and embarrassment are far deeper than any cut I could ever have inflicted on myself.

Robin gets up and hands me a note. ‘This is why we needed you to go through the new witness statement. When you wouldn’t, we tried to exclude it on the grounds of your relationship, but our application was refused.’

‘Can you tell the court what the accused told you?’

‘Yes. A similar story to the one she gave to my client.’

‘You are referring to the document which was discovered torn up in the sanitary bin at the prison?’

‘I am. During the last time we were together, Alison told me that she pushed her sister into the road.’

My mother lets out a little cry. More of a whimper. The jury is glaring at me. Every one of them.

‘But there is more to it than that.’ Lead Man’s deep voice rings out. ‘She told me that her sister and the friend had witnessed the accused having sex with Mr Wright at a party held in his house. Alison alleged that this had been rape, but that she had nevertheless been scared of telling her mother and stepfather. However, when Kitty and Vanessa threatened to tell her parents they’d seen her having sex, she gave her sister a push into the road. So you could say that she was provoked.’

He is pre-empting the defence that Lily had been going to use. Why? Is he trying to protect me? Crispin’s face is dark: his brows knitted in anger. Clearly he isn’t happy about his investigator helping the other side.

‘Please stick to the facts, Mr Bowles. Can you tell us what else Alison told you?’

The jury is riveted. They are motionless. Waiting for the axe to finally drop on my neck. I, in contrast, am twitching. Just like my sister Kitty. The twitches have become shakes. Huge judders of terror.

He looks at me with something like pity.

‘She told me that Crispin Wright wasn’t driving at all. It was his mother.’





61


September 2017


Kitty


Something big was happening. Not just inside her, where The Monster was hitting out so that her body felt as if it was being stretched until it would snap. But here. In this big room where Half a Sister Ali was in a glass box high above everyone else. She had a pretty gold locket round her neck. That looked familiar. Now where had she seen it before?

Was this a game, wondered Kitty. If so, she wanted to be in that box, where everyone would look at her instead. Nor would she mind a snog with that tall, dark man who had just been talking. And who was that new man over there – with handcuffs on – and horrible scars on his face? He had nice eyes, though. For a minute, Kitty was reminded of something.

I’m in love! How are we going to get him to notice us?

I’ve told you. Borrow my make-up and put it on before you get on the bus.

Who was that speaking in her head?

Then Kitty stopped trying to think so hard because everyone was talking and shouting. It was worse than the home, where they were always arguing over which programme to watch.

And now Friday Mum was crouching over her, looking all upset. ‘Did you really threaten to tell me about your sister and that boy? I understand if you did.’

Maybe it would make it better if she shook her head. But it came out as a nod.

‘Really?’

Friday Mum’s face changed. Her eyes went cold. Kitty felt a nasty chill going through her. Then the tall, blonde woman in the long black dress came up to them. ‘We need to talk. The recess won’t be very long.’ The woman knelt down next to her. ‘I’m Lily, the barrister for your sister. Would you like to come along with me, Kitty?’

She liked this woman, who spoke to her as if she was a real person. Not everyone did that. ‘But I want my turn in the bloody box,’ Kitty yelled as they followed Barrister Lady into a little room with Friday Mum pushing. ‘It’s not fair.’ She hammered the side of the chair with her good hand to make the point.

‘Stop it,’ said Friday Mum in a cross voice she’d never heard before.

As soon as Lily closed the door, Friday Mum burst into tears. ‘Why didn’t Ali tell me that Crispin … I can’t even say the word.’

Lily took her hand. ‘Sometimes a woman feels that a rape was her fault, even when it wasn’t.’

Friday Mum nodded, big tears streaming down her face. ‘I get that. Kitty … I know she wasn’t always very nice to Alison. She was prickly. But I hadn’t realized how bad it had got.’

Lily smiled. ‘Children can be rather horrible to each other sometimes.’

The Monster gave a big kick. As it did so, Kitty had a flash of herself as a small child playing with some plastic bricks. ‘Shall I help you build a tower?’ Ali had said, kneeling next to her.