The Things You Didn't See(90)

I undo the buttons on my blouse, move the opening aside to show her the scar on my collarbone. ‘Your brother did this? And all these years, I’ve thought it was Ash.’

‘I’m so sorry. But if I can make it up to you, I will.’

My spine is a puppet string and no one is in control. ‘I don’t understand,’ I say. Though I do, oh God, I do. Oh, Mum.

‘Cass,’ says Clive, who’s moved to stand by the window, ‘it sounds as though your father was protecting you.’

‘No, it’s another lie, just another trick! Wire me up to that fucking machine, if that’s what it takes to prove I’m innocent.’

Holly looks hopeful. ‘Could Francis do that, Clive? It would at least prove it. Or would you need a court order?’

Clive pauses, then he finds his mobile. ‘Not if Cass is giving her permission, but do you think you can fall asleep, love? Would we be better to wait until things have sunk in a bit?’

I shake my head vigorously. I can’t wait, the test has to be done – there is no other option. ‘I’m exhausted. I’m sure I can do it. And I want it over with. Please, Clive?’

‘I’ll call Francis and see if he can do it now.’

He walks away to make the call, out into the corridor.

Dad is still breathing heavily. I know he has more to say and I want him to stop. I prefer his silence. He’s barely spoken in days or years, but it’s as though a dam has burst and it must all come out now. As though, now you’ve gone, he’s had to find a voice.

‘I was never protectin’ Ash, or Janet. You had that all wrong. It was just me and you in the house that night, Cass, and I was asleep the whole time. As you’ve heard, I don’t sleepwalk, haven’t done in years. When I made that confession to the police, I was protectin’ you.’

‘I don’t believe it, it’s a lie. You say you were asleep! Who told you that I was guilty?’

His face doesn’t change. For him, there are no more secrets to be told. ‘Daniel,’ he says. ‘He found you, just after you shot Maya. You were still sleepwalkin’ and he led you back to bed, then he woke me.’

I close my eyes, my brain desperately searching through its back files. I slept deeply that night, I hadn’t heard a thing. I woke naked and covered in sweat. Could it be true?

‘I need to see Daniel,’ I say, looking at Holly. ‘Before I have the sleep test, before I say anything else. And I want you to take my father home, I don’t want him near me.’





43

Holly

Parking her car in the driveway, Holly had a view of the cosy breakfast scene she was about to destroy. In the front room, Daniel was seated on the sofa, dressed casually in jogging trousers and T-shirt, with Victoria close beside him in her fleece onesie. Next to her, knees drawn up snugly, was another teenager who could only be Dawn. The three of them were watching something, laughing together, and the girls were sharing a plate of toast.

Beside her, Hector stirred, unclicked his seatbelt.

The old man had been silent all the way from the hospital, and he just grunted now. Holly rolled back her shoulders, straightened her spine, and opened the car door, then went to the passenger side to help Hector out. Maya’s death had broken him, and as she touched his elbow to support him, she felt his emotion: deepest despair. He’d tried to help his daughter, but in the end, he wasn’t able to. Cass had to face what she’d done, even if she had no knowledge of it.

The front door opened, and Daniel stepped forward. ‘Hector, how did it go?’ Then he looked back at the empty car and said to Holly, ‘Where’s Cassandra?’

Hector made a sound, muffled and distressed.

‘She’s still at the hospital,’ Holly said. ‘I’ll drive you there.’

It didn’t take long to explain, and within a few minutes Daniel had gathered up whatever he needed, and they were driving back to the hospital. In all the scenarios she’d imagined, never had Holly thought Cassandra might be the guilty one. She’d been blindsided by her synaesthesia. Aided and abetted by Alfie, she’d followed the wrong scent.

Back in the sleep unit, Francis had wired Cass up, and she was lying on the bed, just as Hector had been twelve hours earlier. When she saw Daniel, she opened her arms to him, and they locked in an embrace so fierce Holly had to look away. She wasn’t needed here any more, she could go home.

Home.

Innocence Lane had been an ever-shifting landscape beneath her feet, but now it was seemingly over.

As she approached the landing, Leif opened his door and stood waiting for her. She hadn’t even reached him when she began to cry. It was tiredness, of course, but also what she had witnessed. The love Hector had for Cassandra, enough to make him lie about shooting his own wife. And Daniel’s love for her too. She’d seen how Daniel had taken Cass in his arms and started whispering to her, a monologue of calm and comfort that changed Cassandra’s expression from fear to focus, as she leaned into him and he held her tight.

Holly had doubted Daniel – she had sensed him to be a liar, a charlatan who played on the weakness of others to make his living, and she had suspected he might be guilty. But in that hospital, she had felt only his love for Cassandra.

Leif held her, still on the walkway between their flats, and let her cry herself out. Only when she had caught her breath did he ask what had happened.