The accused, p.30
The Accused, page 30
‘No, you’re doing great. Don’t worry.’ Adam smiled encouragingly.
‘Now that I know she’s my sister, well, this sounds even more awful. And it probably wasn’t really a physical thing, as such ... it was just a really intense feeling. I think now that I confused that intense feeling with love. Every time I saw her in the newsroom, I wanted to be near her, to go and sit with her. She was lovely to me, but of course she was always really busy at work. We did go out a few times though, for a drink or for lunch, and they were just some of the happiest times of my life. I felt complete, somehow, when I was with her. Again, that sort of makes more sense now, knowing what I know, but at the time I just felt I’d met my soulmate, who just happened to be a woman.’
She sighed. ‘But then Sam started getting more and more serious with Marcus. She invited me round to her flat once, for a drinks party, and I met him there. He was lovely, just like her, but I just felt so jealous ... it was horrible. I made an excuse and left early, because I couldn’t bear to see them together. He kept putting his arms round her, kissing her, and the way she looked at him ... I just wanted her to look at me like that.’
A thought struck Adam. ‘Was it you, Miranda, who was sending Sam those mystery gifts?’
A pink blush spread across her face and she groaned. ‘Oh dear. Yes. Excruciating, isn’t it? To my sister. When she started talking about how she thought Marcus was about to propose, I got a bit desperate. I thought that maybe if I dropped a few hints about how I felt about her, she might see me in a different way. But I wasn’t brave enough to talk to her about it, so I sent gifts instead. Chocolates, after she mentioned that she liked a certain brand but hadn’t been able to find them in the shops for ages. The giant cuddly bear, because we’d been talking over lunch about this amazing polar bear documentary we’d both watched. I thought she’d make the connection, realise it was me sending the presents, but she didn’t twig. It was so frustrating at the time. I’m glad now though. Could you imagine, your own sister sending you lovey-dovey gifts like that? I’m mortified.’
She covered her face, bright red now, with her hands.
‘You didn’t know, Miranda. Nobody knew. Don’t dwell on it. Would you like some water?’ Adam gestured towards a jug and a tower of plastic beakers on a side table. Miranda looked up and shook her head.
‘I’m OK. I just want to get this over with as soon as possible.’
Adam nodded. ‘Fine. Shall we jump on then, to the night of the sixth of May? The night Marcus was murdered?’
Miranda swallowed. ‘Yes. So ... the gifts I sent hadn’t done the trick. She’d taken the polar bear home, but had told everyone in the newsroom she had no idea who’d sent it. So I thought, right, grow some balls, Miranda. So I decided to go round to her place, tell her how I felt. Of course, when I got near, I started to chicken out. I’d taken Rupert with me – that’s my dog – so I just wandered around the streets near Sam’s flat, trying to pluck up the courage. We ended up in the park, Pope’s Meadow. And that’s when I saw him.’
‘Saw who?’ said Adam.
‘Marcus. I saw Marcus, sitting on a bench. I’d only met him once before, as I said, but I recognised him straight away. So I went over, and sat down next to him, and we started chatting. And ... well, I told him. I couldn’t help myself, it all came out. I told him that I had been on my way to see Sam, and that I thought I might be in love with her, and that it had been me sending her the gifts. And ... and he laughed. He laughed at me. I think he was partly laughing out of relief, because he had thought it was some man sending her presents, and that might have been a threat. But because it was me ... he didn’t see me as a threat at all. He just thought it was funny.’
Miranda was flushing again, but this time there was a flash of anger in her eyes. Adam said nothing, watching her closely, waiting.
‘He got up, and said he needed to go back to Sam’s, to tell her. I begged him not to ... I thought, if he’s laughing at me, she will too, and I couldn’t bear that. But he was distracted, pulling out his phone, about to call her, and he started heading the wrong way in the dark, towards the trees instead of the other way towards the exit. I was following him, begging him all the way, asking him to forget what I’d said, not to tell Sam. When he got to the wooded bit and realised he’d gone the wrong way, he turned around, and I grabbed his arm, made him stop and look at me, tried to make him listen. He just shrugged me off, said he needed to get home, Sam would be worried. And that’s when I lost it. I admit it ... I just lost it. This massive wave of ... of rage, anger, just swept over me. I’d nearly tripped over something in the grass when I was following Marcus, and I bent down and picked it up. It was a bit of metal, like a pole or something, and I just swung it at him. I didn’t intend to hurt him, not seriously ... I was just so angry, so scared, and so tired, the job makes me so tired, and everything just got on top of me and ... anyway, it caught him on the side of head, hard, and he just went down. And then ... it’s all a blur, I don’t really remember what happened after that. I didn’t know he was dead, but I knew he didn’t look good, and I knew I had to get out of there, before somebody came. So I just went. I went home. There was blood, lots of blood, on my coat and shoes and ... but I was wearing black, and nobody seemed to notice ...’
She was crying again now, silently, tears coursing down her pale cheeks.
‘What did you do with your clothing, Miranda?’ Karen asked.
‘Put it all in the bin,’ said Miranda softly. ‘Coat, shoes, the lot. The bin men were coming the next morning. It was all taken away. Gone.’
There was silence in the room, Adam, Karen and the solicitor exchanging glances. Then Miranda spoke again.
‘And then Sam was arrested. And I couldn’t understand it ... how could anybody think it was her, when I knew it was me? I’d seen myself and Rupert on the CCTV footage, when you released it, and I was sure that you’d be knocking at my door, but nobody came. And as time went on, and there was apparently enough evidence to charge Sam, I got even more confused. It actually got to the point where I thought I might have imagined it, imagined that I did it. Was it just an awful dream? Was I mentally ill again? I didn’t understand, and I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing. I didn’t even go to visit her in prison, I couldn’t bear to. I just tried to carry on as normal, but it’s been exhausting, I’m just so shattered, all the time. And then yesterday, when Mum told me ... well, everything changed. I mean, Sam’s my sister, isn’t she? And I did this. Well, I think I did. No, I’m sure I did. And I can’t let my sister take the blame. So it was me. I did it. I killed him.’
‘What do you think?’
Adam took a bite of his Mars bar. He and Karen had retired to the police canteen, Miranda having been returned to her cell for a break before they questioned her further this afternoon. Karen took a sip of her black coffee and winced. Foul, as usual.
‘Not sure. It’s a kind of weird explanation. She killed someone for laughing at her basically, and for threatening to tell his girlfriend she had a crush on her. Bit drastic. But that does look like her and her dog on the CCTV footage, now that we’ve viewed it again. I mean, it’s not that clear, but it definitely could be her. And more significantly, she knew the murder weapon was a bit of park railing, didn’t she? Well, she described it as a metal pole lying in the grass, but that’s close enough. We never made details of the murder weapon public, did we?’
Adam shook his head. ‘No. But all of the other things she mentioned ... the trees, the head injury ... all of that information is out in the public domain. If she’s walked her dog in that park before, she may have noticed bits of railing lying in the grass. It could have been a lucky guess. I agree it probably was her in the CCTV footage, the third dog-walker, the one we never tracked down. So that part of her story is probably true – that she was headed for Sam’s flat and ended up in the park. I’m still not a hundred per cent convinced she’s the killer though. Sam was in that park too, remember, not long after that third dog-walker left. Our TV doctor has obviously got mental health issues ... maybe she’s just covering for Sam, now that she knows they’re related? Maybe she’s lying, saying she did it, to save her sister? A noble gesture?’
Karen looked dubious. ‘Maybe. But how will we ever know? They’ll have the same DNA won’t they, if they’re identical siblings? How do we prove which of them did it?’
Adam opened the file that was lying on the table in front of him and flicked through it until he found the page he was looking for.
‘Listen to this,’ he said. ‘I did some reading up on DNA last night. There’ve been cases like this in the past, identical twins both suspected of the same crime. I know our suspects are technically part of quads, but they’re identical, so it’s the same thing. This case in France, look.’
He tapped the paragraph he was referring to, and Karen craned her neck, trying to read it upside down.
‘Twin brothers in Marseille. Their genetic codes were so similar that normal DNA tests couldn’t tell them apart. Both ended up in court on a rape charge.’
‘Doesn’t really help us, then.’
‘No, but look ... in recent years there’ve been a couple of breakthroughs. Scientists have found very, very subtle differences between the DNA even of identical twins, differences that the standard DNA test can’t detect. The problem is that the tests aren’t widely available, take a long time, and they’re expensive. Very expensive. I don’t know if the budget will run to it here.’
‘So what do we do?
‘Keep that as a last resort. In the meantime, look for more evidence. Search her home. If she did it, she may have dripped some of Marcus’s blood somewhere when she was changing her clothes. Even a minute amount, that’s all we need. She might not have noticed it. Our evidence against Sam Tindall is pretty solid, but if Miranda is claiming she did it, and her DNA matches, we’re still going to need more if the CPS is going to drop charges against Sam and charge Miranda instead.’
‘Sounds good. When’s the search taking place?’
‘They started an hour ago,’ said Adam.
53
Wednesday 26th June
2 days until the deadline
‘I just can’t bear this waiting. It’s killing me. Why is it taking so long?’ hissed Cora.
She looked up at Wendy, who was perched on the edge of her desk, nibbling an apple.
‘I know. It’s doing my head in too. And when can we tell everyone that Miranda and Sam are definitely sisters?’
‘Shhh. Not yet. Adam’s asked me to try to make sure it doesn’t get out, for now. Well, not outside our gang anyway – he’s resigned himself to the fact I had to tell you lot. They’re waiting for forensics to get back to them with results from the sweep of her flat on Monday. They’re not releasing any details about anything until after that. But it should be soon, hopefully. It had better be. I’m going to explode if it isn’t, and as for poor Sam ... well, she’s shell-shocked enough from finding out Miranda is the fourth quadruplet. She’s still trying to get her head round that little fact, never mind the added bonus of her saying she killed Marcus.’
Cora was still reeling herself – they all were. Phone lines between Cora and all her friends who were in the “save Sam” group had been buzzing non-stop since Adam had finally filled Cora in on the Miranda situation, and nobody had quite managed to process it yet. It was all a little bit too surreal.
‘I know. And the gossip mongers here are going wild too. Nobody can understand why Miranda is being questioned about killing Sam’s boyfriend. There are all sorts of rumours going round.’ Wendy took another tiny bite of her apple, and grimaced.
‘Like what?’ Cora reached for her own apple, which had been sitting next to her keyboard for the past hour, then put it down again, wishing she’d bought some chocolate fudge cake instead. Since she’d heard about Miranda’s claim to have carried out the murder, her appetite had suddenly come back. She was now ravenous all the time, food suddenly becoming a comfort despite the anxiety which continued to grip her.
‘Oh, stuff like they were having a ménage-a-trois, and one of them killed him because they weren’t getting enough attention. Silly stuff. You know what people are like.’
‘Mmmm. Although the reason Miranda gave Adam is pretty weak too. She must be pretty unstable, to beat someone to death for threatening to reveal her secret crush.’
‘Now who’s being indiscreet ... shhh! Adam probably shouldn’t have told you that, and I don’t think he’d want it broadcast in a newsroom,’ said Wendy.
Cora, feeling guilty, quickly looked around, but most of the nearby desks were empty. ‘It’s OK, I don’t think anyone heard,’ she said, then lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘Hey, I didn’t even know she had a dog, did you? Seems likely it was her in the CCTV footage though, that person with a dog, the one the police never traced.’
Wendy shook her head. ‘I didn’t know either.’
‘I remembered something though, when Adam said she told him Marcus had laughed at her, and that’s when she flipped. Remember I told you about the email she sent to that hotel, when she left her silk shirt in the bathroom, and she accidentally typed “shit” instead of “shirt”?’
Wendy sniggered. ‘That was hysterical.’
‘It was, but she did totally freak out at the prospect of people laughing at her about it. Just for a minute, then she pulled herself together. But it was clearly a big deal for her. Definitely a bit unstable. And remember her funny turn at Marcus’s funeral? She said she felt faint because she hadn’t eaten, but that looks a bit different now, in retrospect, doesn’t it?’
Wendy nodded. ‘Yep. Guilt probably, as she watched Marcus’s coffin go into the ground.’
Cora was silent for a moment, thinking. ‘Also, something else makes more sense now in retrospect – the way Eleanor Hawkins looked at me, when I first visited the Wellford Clinic.’
Wendy screwed up her face. ‘Ah yes, I remember. You said she looked quite shocked to see you there, almost frightened?’
‘She did. She clearly recognised me – she watches the programme of course, to see Miranda – but I’m now wondering if she looked scared because she knew I was a reporter, and thought maybe I’d worked out something dodgy about her and Miranda. Which of course I hadn’t, not at that point.’
Wendy nodded, her face growing serious. ‘Probably. It’s all just so horrible, isn’t it?’
Cora sighed. ‘It is, so let’s stop talking about it. Adam promised to let me know what’s happening as soon as he can. Until then, we’ve just got to play this waiting game. Want to go down and get some proper food?’
She gestured towards Wendy’s apple. Wendy looked at it, then took aim and threw it towards the bin a few feet away, where it landed with a satisfying thud.
‘Yes,’ she said.
54
Thursday 27th June
1 day until the deadline
‘Rodney, are you feeling all right?’
Nathan was looking at his soundman with an expression of great concern on his face. Cora, who had just got out of her car at today’s location, an animal rescue centre in Wiltshire which had been threatened with closure due to lack of funding, turned to see what was wrong. Rodney was standing on the other side of a low wall, on which he had rested his mixer while he put fresh batteries in Cora’s mic pack.
‘Huh? I’m fine mate, what you on about?’
Cora studied Rodney. He looked fine to her too.
‘Why do you think he’s ill, Nath?’ she asked, puzzled.
‘Well, I can’t say for definite, as I’ve only just arrived too, but ... well, look at him, Cora.’
Cora stared at Rodney, who looked mystified. Then, as her eyes travelled up and down the soundman, she realised what Nathan was getting at.
‘Blimey, Nathan. I see what you mean. Poor Rodney ... is it serious?’ She giggled.
‘WHAT?’ Rodney was completely bewildered now. ‘What are you two ON ABOUT?’
Cora and Nathan both laughed uproariously, the noise causing Scott to poke his head out of the truck, which was parked next to Rodney’s car.
‘Wassup, guys?’
‘It’s Rodney’s outfit, Scott,’ Nathan explained. ‘We think he must be unwell. Look at him. It’s ... well, it’s so normal. Brown jacket, tan jeans. You look co-ordinated, Rodders. You look, dare I say it, quite stylish. This is not the Rodney we know and love. Therefore, we conclude that you are ill, and unaware of what you were doing when you got dressed this morning, dear friend.’
Scott cast his eyes down Rodney’s body, then snorted.
‘Nothing to worry about, let me assure you. Wait ’til you get over this wall. He’s fine, trust me.’ He disappeared back inside the truck, and Nathan and Cora looked at each other, then walked across and peered over the wall.
‘Ah. Phew. Normality has been restored.’ Nathan wiped his brow dramatically.
‘Ah,’ repeated Cora, and grinned. Rodney grinned back, and did a few pretend Irish dance steps.
‘Lime green, faux croc, lace-up brogues. I don’t even want to know ...’ said Cora. She shook her head and, still smiling, walked off to find the rescue centre manager.
Three and a half hours later they were packing up, Cora leaning one arm on the roof of Nathan’s car as she tried to wipe fox poo off her shoe.
‘This place does great work, and I really hope it isn’t closed down, but bloody hell, it absolutely stinks.’
Cora scrutinised her shoes, decided that would have to do and straightened up.
‘Where are we going for breakfast? I’m starving, amazingly.’
She was already fantasising about an enormous fry up, something she hadn’t fancied in years. If this Sam thing wasn’t sorted soon, this comfort eating was definitely going to become a problem, she thought, the fear rising again. Sam was due in court tomorrow. Please, Adam, hurry, she thought.
