Blood Sisters(84)

‘No. Go away.’ Then Kitty had knocked the bricks flying so Ali couldn’t join in. Because if her sister did that, she might build a better tower than Kitty’s.

‘I should have interfered more,’ sniffed Friday Mum. ‘But I didn’t want to annoy David. Her father got jealous. And he adored Kitty. Thought she was perfect.’

Her father adored her? The flabby-faced man? But he’d done something wrong. He’d … For a minute then, Kitty swore she almost had it. But then it was gone.

The Monster launched another assault. ‘Fuck off,’ yelled Kitty.

‘She’s getting upset,’ said Friday Mum. ‘It’s because she’s picking up on this.’

‘I’m not a “she”!’ roared Kitty. ‘I’m me.’

‘Maybe she shouldn’t come back in with us.’

Lily laid a hand on Friday Mum’s arm. ‘If you can bear it, I think she should. It might help.’

‘But …’

There was a knock on the door. A woman in uniform stood there. ‘Time,’ she said. Great! Kitty clapped her hands together. Maybe it was her turn now to go in that box. Half a Sister Ali had hogged it for long enough.

But Ali was still there. It wasn’t fair! When Kitty began to shout again, Friday Mum whispered that if she wasn’t quiet, she’d have to go out. Then the man with the scary face started to talk.

‘I was learning to drive. Mum used to let me practise on the way to school. But we were late that morning and she said it would be quicker if she drove. I … Well, I didn’t want her to.’

‘Why not?’

This question came from a man in a long dark dress.

Scary Face said something so quiet that she had to strain to hear him.

‘Because she’d been crying all night and was in no fit state. She and my father … well, they’d been having difficulties. That morning, they’d had another row on the phone – he was in London during the week. Mum was really distressed.’ He ran a hand over his face as if he wanted to block out the image.

‘Can you tell us what happened next?’

‘Yes.’

Scary Face was looking straight at Alison. ‘We were nearly there. But suddenly, there were these girls in the road in front of us. Mum didn’t stand a chance. No one could have stopped in time.’

Was he crying? Duncan cried sometimes, in the home.

‘Why did you go along with Miss Baker’s claim that you were driving?’

He looked down at the ground. ‘My mum and I were very close. I wanted to protect her like any good son – especially as my father had behaved so badly to her.’ He shrugged. ‘Dad used to say I had an overdeveloped conscience when it came to Mum but she needed me. Dad wasn’t … well, he could be pretty vile to her. Anyway …’ His voice rose with distress here. ‘She was dead! Killed outright on the spot.’ His eyes filled with tears. ‘I wasn’t going to let her memory be tarnished. I’d rather take the blame myself especially as it was partly my fault anyway.’

Poor man. He sounded so upset. There was a boy on television who said he had killed someone when really it had been his mother. They’d both ended up in prison. But that had just been a story. This was real. At least, Kitty thought it was.

‘I also thought that I’d get off because it was the girls’ fault.’ He gave a strange laugh. ‘But it didn’t work out that way. At first, I just accepted my fate. I deserved it and, besides, I’d lost the will to live after what happened to Mum. But the longer I stayed in prison, the angrier I got. When Dad died two years ago, I inherited some money and used it to hire a private detective. James Bowles …’

Kitty must have nodded off a bit – it was so hot – because when she woke, the clock hands had moved round. But Scary Face was still speaking.

‘Last September, James discovered that Alison was working at a local authority art class. He also found out that HMP Archville was looking for an artist in residence. So he printed out the vacancy ad and paid someone to drop it off, hoping it would tempt Alison. He could tell from the area she lived in that she wasn’t that well off.’

He was actually looking rather pleased with himself. ‘It was a long shot but it worked. I’d also instructed him to get close to Alison in the college class he’d already joined.’

Half a Sister was looking as though someone had hit her in the stomach.

‘I was going to try and do the same when I got transferred to the prison. The good thing was that she didn’t recognize me.’ He rubbed the side of his cheek. ‘I’ve changed. And I, for my part, pretended I hadn’t recognized her.’

‘What exactly happened on the day of the assault in prison?’

‘She started it!’ His eyes were gleaming angrily. ‘I was just trying to talk to her, but she yelled out that I was strangling her. This bloke came in – Stefan. Had this thing for her, he did. He tried to hurt me so I belted him back. It was self-defence.’

‘Yet later you cut Stefan’s throat with the glass.’

There was a furious glare. ‘That was self-defence too. He’d have done the same to me if I hadn’t got in first. But before that, I made Alison write down what really happened. That’s when she admitted that she pushed her sister into the road.’