“Did he suffer you gladly?”
When Laura answered, it sounded like she was talking to herself. “Marriage is a funny thing. It’s strange what you do to the person you’re supposed to love.”
Tabitha wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t used to people confiding in her like this. Let alone this person.
“I suppose everyone in the village was there.”
“Not everyone.”
Tabitha wanted to know who had been there and, especially, who hadn’t been there, but she couldn’t think of a decent way of phrasing it.
“So Dr. Mallon was there.”
“Yes.”
“That’s nice,” said Tabitha. “Having your doctor.”
“He’s not actually our doctor. Not anymore.”
“You mean he was?”
“It’s not important.”
“Another letter of complaint?” said Tabitha.
“It actually makes him easier to talk to, him not being our doctor any longer. I just talk to him like a friend.”
“Like telling him you’re coming to see me?”
“Yes.”
“And what did he say?”
“I think he was surprised. He asked me why I wanted to.”
“Did he try to persuade you not to?”
“No. He was just concerned that I was doing it for the right reasons.”
“What would the wrong reasons be?”
Laura thought for a moment. “If I had the idea that meeting you would be some kind of comfort.”
“Is it?”
When Laura replied, it was pensively, as if she was asking herself the question, not Tabitha. “Why would looking into the face of the woman who’s been charged with my husband’s murder be a comfort?”
“Wouldn’t it be a comfort to know who killed your husband and why? If I had killed Stuart and if I confessed to you, then you could start to make sense of everything. But I didn’t.”
“I’m supposed to believe you?”
“The problem is that this prison is full of people claiming that they’re innocent and that they’re hard done by. The further problem is that just a few of them are telling the truth.”
“Did your lawyer believe you?”
“I don’t think lawyers are meant to say that. My lawyer told me that she thought the case against me was very strong. She thought I should plead guilty and talk about the extenuating circumstances.”
“Being abused?”
“That’s what she had in mind.”
Laura nodded. “Because you were abused.”
“I’m sorry,” said Tabitha after a shocked pause. “Are you saying that as a question?”
“No.”
“Last time we met,” said Tabitha, picking her words carefully. “You seemed certain that I was responsible for what had happened at school. You said I had pursued him and he had succumbed in a moment of weakness.”
“I know what I said.”
“So why have you changed your mind?”
“I’m not stupid, you know.”
“Of course not.”
“Describe yourself at fifteen.”
The two women were staring at each other now; it was as if the space between them had opened up so that for this moment only Tabitha felt that she could say anything, ask anything, and Laura would listen and would answer.
“I was small,” she said and as she spoke she could see herself then, with her short dark hair and braces on her teeth, her head buried in books because that was where she was safe and the world was welcoming. “Thin. Flat-chested. Plain. Unpopular. Unhappy. Awkward. Quite clever. Angry.”
Laura nodded as if everything she had said made perfect sense. “Why didn’t you say no?”
“How do you know I didn’t?”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain it to myself. I was fifteen, he was my teacher. I didn’t know.”
“What didn’t you know?”
“I didn’t know anything.”
“It was more than once, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Eleven, maybe twelve.”
“And you never told anyone.”
“No.” Tabitha looked away at last, wrinkling her brow. “Who would I have told?”
They sat in silence for a few moments. Then Tabitha said: “Can I ask you a question?”
“What question?”
“How was Luke’s relationship with Stuart?”
“You know. He came to see you.”
“I’d like your view of it.”
“Stuart could be a difficult father. But then Luke could be a difficult son.”
“How did that show itself?”
“In disagreeing about things. Luke felt that he hadn’t measured up to his father’s expectations.”
“Why did he feel that?”
“Because he hadn’t.”
“So he was angry with his father?”
“We lived in a house of anger,” said Laura.
“Why did he come back then?”
“It was Christmas. Family time,” she added, apparently without irony.
“Yeah, but he hadn’t come back for other Christ-mases, had he?”
“Who said that?”
“People in the village. Before all this happened.”
“It’s got nothing to do with anything.”
“It just seems a bit of a coincidence that Stuart’s estranged son returns on the same day that Stuart gets killed.”
Laura’s face became tight with anger. “You’re talking about my son.”
“I’m just asking.”
“Is that your plan? Are you going to throw mud at people? Create confusion?”
“That’s what lawyers do. I just want to find the truth.”
“All right, then. I’ll answer the question you can’t quite bring yourself to ask. Luke would not be capable of killing his father and hiding the body and then lying about it. He couldn’t do it.”
“That’s a strange way of putting it.”
“How do you mean?”
“You’re not saying he didn’t do it. You’re saying he’s not capable of it, even if he wanted to.”
“It amounts to the same thing.” She leaned forward. “The only thing in the world I am certain of is that Luke didn’t kill his father.”
“Because you’re his mother?”
“I know.”
They both sat back in their chairs and Tabitha could feel the tension in Laura gradually lessen. She tried to think of anything else she should ask. “Are you coming to the trial?”
“I’m giving evidence,” said Laura.
“What about?”
“I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you.”
“I don’t think it’s a problem. As far as I know, the prosecution have to tell me their case. If I start threatening you or trying to persuade you not to say what you know, then it starts being a problem.”
“Are you going to threaten me?”
“You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want.”
“I told them about how he reacted when you came back to Okeham,” Laura said in an even tone.
“How did he react?”
“He was very shaken. He said he’d seen a ghost. Then he insisted we put the house on the market.”
“Didn’t that seem a bit drastic?”
“He was scared. I’d never
