‘Where to start …’ Pausing, the DI opens it, then turns the first couple of pages. ‘The first item of note here is a list of plants – or perhaps I should say herbs – and their effects on the human brain, ranging from nervousness and tremors, to suppression of the nervous system, then to respiratory and cardiac arrest. Quite a comprehensive list it is, too. It mentions hemlock, digitalis, deadly nightshade …’
Nausea rises in me. ‘Someone’s added it. I’m a herbalist. I abide by a healer’s code. I’ve only ever used remedies for good.’ I look at him, willing him to believe me, knowing how futile it is to convince him he’s wrong when he’s so sure he isn’t. ‘Where was this list?’
‘Hidden behind a magazine cutting you’ve glued in – about rose gardens.’
Remembering the cutting, I frown. But my stomach is turning over. I glance at PC Page, then back at the DI. ‘The magazine cutting is mine, but I honestly didn’t put anything else there. You have to believe me. I don’t know who or why, but someone else has done this. Not me,’ I repeat, taking a shaky breath. ‘I want a new lawyer.’ I glance sideways at Andrew Nelson. ‘Someone who can actually help me.’
DI Lacey glances at PC Page. ‘It’s a bit late for that.’
Starting to panic, I raise my voice. ‘I have the right. I just need you to arrange it.’
‘That’s slightly ridiculous in the circumstances.’ The DI’s voice is dry. ‘For now, I’d like to get back to your book. There’s another cutting we found.’ He picks up a torn-out newspaper article that’s vaguely familiar. ‘It relates to the case of the teenage girl who was murdered at your house before you bought it. Her name was Kimberley Preston. But we’ve been doing our own research. It was her grandmother you bought your house from. Only you didn’t buy your house, did you, Ms Reid? She was your grandmother, too. She left you the house on the understanding that you would live there for the rest of your life. We have the records of ownership and we’ve contacted the solicitors who handled the transfer of the deeds. We know about the letter your grandmother left detailing exactly what happened to Kimberley Preston. It clearly states that if you didn’t fulfil her request, it would find its way to the police. You weren’t prepared to put it to the test, were you? Amy isn’t the name you were born with, is it Ms Reid? It was Emily.’
I stare at the table, blood rushing in my ears, unable to speak, as all the memories I’ve blocked out flood back. The long summer days in my grandmother’s garden, of friendship, heat, freedom. The day my sister died, her death causing ripples into so many lives. The stupid pact with Allie that meant we’d kept our silence. Suddenly I think of her phone call, how I blocked her number. It had been just before I was arrested. After all the years we haven’t seen each other, is it possible Allie is behind this?
‘Why have you lied, Ms Reid? What are you hiding?’ The pause is ominous. ‘We’ve found your friend. Allie Macklin.’ There’s another pause, in which my brain seems to become paralysed. ‘These days, known as Fiona Rose. I find it very hard to believe that when your pasts are so entwined, you honestly didn’t know about her and Mr Roche.’
‘What?’ I stare at him, utterly shocked.
The DI leans forward. When he speaks, his voice is disbelieving. ‘Surely you must have known that it was Ms Rose that Mr Roche was planning to leave you for?’
As he speaks, it’s as though I have no breath in my lungs. ‘I didn’t know.’ I stare at him, my heart racing. Imagining them together, an image fills my mind, expanding until I can’t think of anything else. ‘It can’t be her.’ It’s too far-fetched to believe it was her he was having an affair with – of all people. She must have known, all along.
The DI looks disbelieving. ‘Surely you’re not expecting us to believe that you didn’t know about Ms Rose or where she lived? She’s a lawyer, by the way – with a firm in Brighton. She was on her way home from work when she saw you.’
Dazed, I’m still reeling. So Allie – or Fiona – was the witness. As it sinks in she’s now a lawyer, I realise she’s given herself the credibility she always said she would. ‘You said the anonymous letter was addressed to her?’ Frantic, I seize the last chance to make them see reason. ‘It makes even more sense now. She would have known where we lived, wouldn’t she? Even as a teenager, she was selfish and reckless. Don’t you see how easy it would have been, for her to kill Matt and frame me?’ I’m pleading with them, desperate for them to see what to me is obvious. But they don’t know what Allie is like. How furious she was with me. How she’d say anything to anyone, just to get to me.
The DI doesn’t respond. ‘There’s one thing I don’t understand. It’s why you’ve lied about your house.’
Still stunned by the revelation that it was Allie Matt had been seeing, I shake my head. ‘But you didn’t ask about my house.’
‘You lied by omission, Ms Reid. You let us assume facts which weren’t correct. And the house is only part of it, as you know. Can we continue talking about the day your sister died? Ms Rose has already told us her version of events. We know something happened there, that until now, the two of you have kept secret. What was it?’
This is the moment I’ve dreaded. The moment I thought would never come, knowing that after the lies I’ve told, when I tell them the truth, they won’t believe me. ‘Kimberley drank a herbal remedy. Only it wasn’t one of my gran’s. Allie
