Inside the sombre building, Julius hunted for Anna, and found her drinking thin coffee and trying to hide in a corner. He saw her across the large main hallway, and he started to approach her. Just as he came close, help loomed into view, in the shape of Inspector Debbie Cheese, who’d agreed to stick by Anna all day.
‘Morning, Julius,’ Debbie said, too loudly, too cheerfully, heading him off at the pass. Julius tried to ignore her.
‘Anna, may I speak with you?’
Ignoring Debbie was akin to ignoring a tsunami.
Impossible.
‘I’m afraid Anna is currently out of the office, can I help at all?’ she replied as she stood directly between them.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, let me talk to her …’
‘Perhaps you didn’t quite hear me? Anna is out, unavailable, engaged, occupied or dead to you. Choose any or all from the above. Either way, you can’t speak to her right now, capiche?’
Anna felt a mammoth wave of gratefulness wash over her. This woman was stupendous. She leant out from behind Debbie to see what Julius’s face was doing. It was puffing and dark red. His eyes were wide with outrage, but he was clearly too gobsmacked to speak.
Debbie turned back to Anna. ‘Come on, it’s time to go in.’ And with that she nodded to indicate that they should move away.
Anna stood and, contrary to everything her manners dictated, she walked away from Julius without a backward glance. She took Debbie’s arm for courage, and they went into Courtroom No. 1, and sat down on a green leather bench side by side.
Hope, since she was firmly pleading guilty today, was anticipating some degree of leniency. The trial would not be as huge and awful as it could have been, though she was nonetheless shaking when she was led in.
As Hope entered the courtroom, her life, which ordinarily travelled at normal living speed, suddenly switched to the kind of pace at which treacle travels. Even her blinking was slow. She felt as if she’d been drugged with Rohypnol. She could hear her own sluggish breathing, and her head was so heavy, swivelling in slow motion on her neck, as she took in everything to her left and right. She was acutely aware of the smell of musty suits and recently applied perfume and wood. She had chosen to wear a smart navy-blue trouser suit with a soft yellow blouse beneath which fastened at the side of the neck with a large bow. She wanted to be smart, look businesslike, so that no one could accuse her of being sloppy or crazy. She wore heels and this was the main sound she could hear as she entered, her heels clomping on the old parquet wood of the courtroom floor.
Clomp. Clomp.
All heads turned to see the Monster. She wondered if she might have sprouted horns maybe? She felt as though she was looking out of a mask called her face, so she couldn’t be sure how it appeared. She knew her breathing was heavy. Maybe she was actually breathing fire from grotesque flared nostrils after all?
She sat in the dock with a police officer beside her, and her legal team in front. She scoured the surroundings. Hope gasped when she immediately saw that Doris and Glory were there. She’d instructed them to stay away, but of course they’d ignored her. They were clinging to each other, and trying desperately to beam some encouragement at her. Hope hated witnessing their fear.
She mouthed, ‘’S OK. Love you.’
Her mother and sister smiled back, feebly.
There were plenty of strangers there. Press, and nosey parkers. Higher up, there was a row of seats in front of a huge window, so the outlines of the bodies in those seats were in silhouette, but she could tell the row was full. This case had caused a stir, no doubt about that.
Hope’s nervous reconnaissance around the courtroom ended when, after scouring the benches eagle-like for that one person, she saw her.
She saw Anna for the first time.
Sitting one seat away from Julius, with the policewoman in between. Hope couldn’t stop looking at Anna, and Anna was returning the laser gaze. Hope expected to see hatred there, but Anna’s face was full of worry; she even attempted the tiniest smile. Hope felt overcome with gratitude that there was clearly mercy in this woman. That was going to make whatever came next a bit more bearable.
Julius, however, was glowering at her. He looked as though he was bursting to have his say. He looked like an over-filled balloon, shiny, tight and fit to explode.
Hope had never been in a room such as this. She’d never before been the object of so much unwelcome attention, and although she felt humiliated and uncomfortable, she remained calm.
The strange slow motion she experienced jolted into real time the second they all stood up as the judge arrived.
The guilty plea was entered and Hope had to confirm that was what she wanted to do.
The judge then explained that she’d read all of the relevant documents, and that she had to decide if this case was one of child abduction, or the more serious one of kidnapping and false imprisonment.
When the bun fight of defence and prosecution statements was finally over, Hope’s defence pointed out:
She was very young and in a terrible heightened state
