Cold Is The Grave

“Fun?” repeated Annie. “Ruth, two people have died because of all this. Emily and her father. A family’s been torn apart. And you think it’s fun?”

“I didn’t mean to kill her.”

Annie glanced at Banks and indicated he should pick up the thread. It was the first hint of a confession they’d heard from Ruth so far. Banks didn’t want to lose her now, but at the same time he wanted no problems over PACE. “We’re heading into dangerous ground, Ruth,” he said. “I’m telling you again that you’re entitled to have a solicitor present, and I’m asking you if you want us to provide one for you.”

“I’ve told you before,” Ruth shouted directly into the microphone. “I don’t want any fucking solicitor. Is that clear enough for you?”

“It’ll do,” said Banks. “Let me get this straight, then. You discovered that Barry Clough was your father and you didn’t tell either him or Rosalind this. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell Emily?”

“Of course not.”

“But you introduced them at a party.”

“That was all I needed to do.” Ruth’s eyes shone. “That was the beauty of it, you see. I knew Clough liked young girls, and you didn’t have to talk to Emily for long before you found out what a twisted little Electra complex she had. She wanted to fuck her daddy. Well, I couldn’t arrange that, but at least I could give her a chance to fuck mine. It was perfect.”

“Why?”

“Because I was the only one who knew the truth. The joke was on them, on someone else, for a change, not on me.”

“What about Barry Clough and Emily’s father?”

“That was just a bonus. I know a young reporter. It was a big story, probably made his career. I just gave him one of those photos of Emily all dressed up for a party and I told him that she was fucking Barry Clough and her father was a chief constable. He was off to Yorkshire like a shot. Did the rest of the footwork himself.”

“What about Barry Clough, after Emily had left? Did you tell him who she was, where she lived, who her father was?”

“Yes. I thought it would probably interest him. He struck me as the kind of man who liked to own others. I just thought it would be interesting to put the two of them together when neither of them knew how close they really were.”

“So he doesn’t know that you’re his daughter or that Emily’s your half-sister?”

“Of course not. It wasn’t time to go that far yet.”

“Again, why?”

“They all thought they were so cool, so beautiful, so powerful, so in control. But all the time it was me pulling the strings. Me. They were just running around like headless chickens.”

“And this amused you?”

“Yes. I’m not mad, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m not looking to get off on some insanity plea or anything like that. I would like a little recognition for all the work I put in, though.”

“What about Emily? You told her she was your half-sister, didn’t you?”

“I had to, otherwise she would never have trusted me or come to live with me. She’d have thought I was after her or something. This way it made more sense. It was our little secret.”

Banks paused before going on, knowing he had reached a crucial stage. “Ruth, we know you were working for a pharmaceutical company and had access to strychnine. Cocaine’s easy enough to get. Did you give Emily the lethal mixture?”

“It wasn’t meant to be lethal.”

“What did you intend it to do to her?”

“Give her a scare. Give her the jitters. I didn’t mean for it to kill her. Honest. I’m not a murderer.”

“What are you, then?”

Ruth tugged at a frayed edge on her sweatshirt. “Maybe I’ve got some problems. People don’t like me. But I’m not a murderer.” There were tears in her eyes.

“All right, Ruth. What happened?”

“We’d talked on the telephone a few times and she kept saying she was off the stuff. First, I just wanted to see if I could get her back on again. I mean, people say all sorts of things, don’t they, like they’ve given up smoking, but if you offer them a cigarette, if you put just a little temptation their way…”

“And that’s what you did?”

“Yes. Dangled a carrot. Well, a gram of coke, actually. She could probably have scored some up north if she’d asked around, but that was a bit too close to her father’s territory. I mean, you never know if your dealer is an undercover cop, do you? I even offered to deliver it. Said I had to visit some relatives in Durham and I’d stop by on the way.”

“What did she say?”

“She said she’d ring me back. I knew she was thinking seriously about it. Anyway, the day before, I was working late… she phoned me at work on some lad’s mobile and said she was getting bored and she wouldn’t mind some for the next day. She was going clubbing with some mates. I knew I could get a couple of days off, say I had a cold or something. Anyway, just after I talked to her and said I’d see her the next day, I had to go into the controlled area to do some product coding, and that’s when I got the idea of the strychnine. I didn’t know how much to put in. I’d heard they sometimes used it as a base in some street drugs and it makes your jaw and your neck stiff. I just wanted to give her a scare, that’s all. It was only a little bit. I didn’t think it was enough to kill her, but it might make her twitch a bit in public, maybe even puke and piss herself.”

“That was what you wanted to do to her? Humiliate her in public?”

“It was a start.”

“Even though you wouldn’t be there to witness it?”

“But I’d know, wouldn’t I? Being there would be too dangerous. Don’t you see the point? I mean, I didn’t actually see her doing it, but I knew she was fucking my father. If you have a bit of imagination you can amuse yourself easily enough.”

“It has to be more than that, Ruth,” Annie chipped in.

Ruth looked away. “Why?”

“It just does. Why did you hate Emily so much? What did she ever do to you?”

“She had my life, didn’t she? What should have been mine.”

“Why did you want her to suffer?”

“Because she had it all. She took Craig from me.”

“Craig was never with you that way,” Banks said, picking up on Annie’s rhythm. “He was never your lover.”

Ruth jutted her chin out. “That’s what he says now.”

“Why should he lie?”

“He’s against me. She poisoned him against me.”

“That’s not enough, Ruth,” Annie chimed in again.

Ruth gave her a sharp glance. “What do you want? Blood?”

“No. That seems to be what you wanted. We want some answers.”

“It was all so bloody easy for her. Everything just fell into her lap. Craig. Barry Clough. My own father, for Christ’s sake, was running his hands over her thighs ten minutes after they met.”

“But that was part of your plan, you said,” Annie went on.

“You can’t always arrange things so they don’t hurt you at least just a little bit. She got everything she wanted, just like that.”

“Then why did she want to run away from home, Ruth?”

“Uh? What do you mean?”

“If everything was so perfect in Emily’s life, why did she want to run away from her parents?”

“They wouldn’t let her do what she wanted. They were strict.”

“Like yours?”