You?”
“Never found the right man,” said Annie, smiling. “Back to Kirsten.
I hope it’s not too painful for you?”
Sarah waved her hand. “No. As I said, it was all so long ago. It seems like another lifetime. Kirsten was attacked in June 1988. We’d just finished finals and we’d been out celebrating. We all got turfed out of some pub or other and ended up at a party at one of the university residences, F R I E N D O F T H E D E V I L
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about six of us. We were pretty drunk already, if truth be told, except maybe Kirsten. She had to head home early the next morning, so she was pacing herself. The party was still going when she left. Nobody really thought anything of it. I mean, people were coming and going all the time, at all times of the day and night. But that was when it happened . . . you know . . . on her way home across the park.”
“And someone interrupted?”
“Yes. A man walking his dog. Thank God for that, at least.”
“But her attacker got away?”
“Yes. The police thought it was the same man who’d raped and murdered five other girls, a serial killer I suppose you’d call him. But poor Kirsty couldn’t remember a thing about the attack, which was perhaps a mercy. Can you imagine having to relive something like that?”
Annie sipped some more Perrier. “Did she talk about it much?”
“A bit. I saw her a few times in hospital, and I went to stay with her and her parents that first Christmas after she came out of hospital. They lived in a big house near Bath. I think Kirsty had been undergoing hypnosis at the time. I do remember that it really frustrated her that she couldn’t remember anything after leaving the party. She said she wanted to remember it all, find out who did and go after him.”
“She said that?”
“Yes, but she was very upset at the time. She didn’t really mean it.
I mean, the hypnosis was only frustrating her. I think it might have been the police’s idea.”
“Did you tell the police what she said to you?”
“Well, no. I mean, why would I? It was just angry talk. She’d no idea who it was.”
“Do you remember the name of the hypnotist, by any chance?”
“I’m sorry, no. I don’t recall that Kirsty ever even mentioned it.”
“But this was in Bath in 1988?”
“Yes. Winter.”
“Go on.”
“Kirsty’s parents went out on New Year’s Eve, some party or other.
Anyway, Kirsty and I got drunk on her father’s cognac and she told me everything.”
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P E T E R R O B I N S O N
Annie edged forward in her seat. “What do you mean?”
“About what he’d done to her. The bastard.” For the first time, Sarah seemed shaken by what she was remembering.
“What had he done?” Annie knew she could dig out the medical report, which had to be in the archives somewhere, but she wanted to hear Sarah’s version.
“He used a sharp knife on her. Here.” She moved her hands over her breasts. “And between her legs. She didn’t show me, of course, but she said she had a lot of scarring and stitching. But that wasn’t the worst of it. She also told me the damage to her vagina and uterus had been so extensive that she couldn’t enjoy sex, and she couldn’t have children.” Sarah wiped a tear from her eyes with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think I’d be like this just talking about it. I thought I would be okay, that it was long enough ago.”
“Are you all right?”
Sarah sniffed and went to get a tissue. She blew her nose. “I’m fine,” she said. “It was just the power of the memory took me by surprise. I could see her sitting there, with that forlorn expression on her face. I mean, can you imagine how that must screw you up? Being sentenced to celibacy and childlessness for the rest of your life? And she was only twenty-one, for crying out loud. I think at that moment I’d gladly have killed him myself if I’d known who it was.”
“Was there ever any suggestion that it was someone close to her?”
Annie asked. “Perhaps someone who’d left the party early?”
“The police certainly never told me what they were thinking, but they grilled everyone who’d been there, and all her uni friends.”
As Annie guessed, it would have been standard procedure. Still, there was always a chance that they had missed something. “Did you see her after that New Year’s Eve?”
“Oh, yes. A few times. But she never really talked about it in that sort of detail again. I do remember one night in particu lar,” Sarah went on. “Odd, isn’t it, how some things stick in your memory? It was the first time Kirsty had come back up north after . . . since the attack.
