“Yes?” said Tabitha after a pause that went on longer than felt comfortable.
“Well. Clever, of course. And stubborn: when you set your mind to something, you’ll do it. An awkward person and that makes you a bit prickly sometimes. When you were at school, we used to call you Tabby cat and say you had claws.”
There were many things Tabitha wanted to say in response to that but she said none of them.
“Would you say I was trustworthy?”
“Yes,” said Shona, though her tone sounded unsure.
“Is there anything you’d like to add to that?”
Shona chewed the side of her thumb. “You speak your mind. You don’t let yourself get pushed around. You never have. That’s why it was so surprising to learn about Stuart Rees carrying on with you when you were just a kid really, let’s face it.”
Tabitha didn’t know if this was helping or damaging her case. She wanted Shona to say outright that she wouldn’t be capable of killing anyone but didn’t know how to phrase the question.
“Would you—” she began, then stopped. She felt like something had detonated in her brain. She grimaced, feeling its aftershock work through her.
“You said Stuart was ‘carrying on’ with me?”
“I don’t get what—”
“Wait. Hang on. Pass me that folder. That one there!” she said to Michaela.
She started fumbling through it. Michaela was whispering urgently to her but Tabitha couldn’t hear anything. Her hands were clumsy and she dropped several documents onto the floor and it took an awful few seconds to gather them but she found what she wanted and held it out.
“Will you read that out loud please?”
The piece of paper was delivered to Shona, who stared at it, and then at Tabitha.
“Please read it,” said Tabitha.
Shona licked her lips. Her eyes flickered around the court then back to the papers.
“‘FYI,’” she said. “‘It is my duty to inform you that Stuart Rees was carrying on with Tabitha Hardy when she was underage and he was her teacher. This is true.’”
“It was you, wasn’t it?” said Tabitha. “It was you who wrote that letter to the police. Of course it was you. How could I have been so stupid?”
She banged the heel of her hand against her head. “Stupid,” she said. “Who else would it have been?”
There was noise going on around her. Michaela was saying something, and someone in the gallery was calling out and Judge Munday was asking her to please control her behavior. Meanwhile, Simon Brockbank was leaning back and smiling broadly and Shona, standing in the witness box, had both hands to her face, one at her mouth and the other to her temple, like a caricature of helpless fear.
“You never liked me,” said Tabitha to Shona. “You always thought I was weird, didn’t you? Not cool or glamorous. Not one of the in-crowd.”
“What’s this about?” asked Shona.
“You’re my witness. I want to ask you a single question and you have to answer it. Did you write that anonymous letter to the police pointing out that Stuart Rees had been carrying on with me, as you put it, when he was my teacher?”
Shona stared at her and then her eyes darted around the court. It was as if she was trying to work out how to escape.
“Answer the question please,” said Judge Munday calmly. “And it’s important you answer truthfully.”
Shona didn’t look like a pretty child anymore. Her face was blotchy and scared.
“I thought they should know,” she whispered.
“That’s a yes, is it? What the fuck?”
“Please, Ms. Hardy, you must curb your language.”
Shona lifted her head higher. “It’s true. It was my duty as a citizen,” she said primly.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Tabitha. “Very honorable.”
Shona flushed. Tabitha could see the red seeping under the golden tan on her throat, and another thought flashed through her.
“How did you have the money to go on your holiday?” she asked. “You were in debt when I talked to you, you couldn’t even afford to pay for my notebook, and then you swanned off on holiday all of a sudden.”
“Is this really relevant?” said Judge Munday.
“Someone’s paid you, haven’t they? Some tabloid.”
“What?” said Shona. Her mouth was gaping open; her face was shiny with sweat.
“How much? How much to give little tidbits about my life?”
“Stop now,” said Judge Munday. “This is a serious allegation you’re making. Against a witness you yourself called to help you in your case, by the way.”
“I know. You ask her then.”
The judge glared at her. “I do not need you to instruct me how to run my court. Which you are, by the way, turning into a public brawl.” She turned to Shona. “Miss Fry. A serious allegation has been made and it is my duty to pursue it. Have you received any money or payment in kind from any outlet for your story?”
“She’s the one on trial, not me.”
“Can you answer the question?”
“I haven’t done anything wrong. I’ve just tried to behave like a decent member of society.”
“Just say yes and get it over with,” said Tabitha.
“I have given a short interview,” said Shona, “and why shouldn’t I?”
“Because,” said Judge Munday, “you cannot be an impartial witness if you have been paid for your story.”
“That’s just unfair,” said Shona. “Why is it wrong to tell my story? It’s mine. Anyway,” she added, her voice loud and high with outrage. “She obviously did it. That’s what everyone thinks and it’s what I think and if you want the truth, even at school we all said she was mad.”
“Clear the court,” barked Judge Munday.
She turned to Tabitha. “I take it you have no other character witnesses appearing in your defense that you want to demolish, Ms. Hardy?”
“That was awful,” Tabitha said. “Horrible.”
“It wasn’t what I was expecting,” said Michaela. She was eating a blueberry muffin and drinking a cappuccino. There was foam on her upper lip.
“At least I didn’t say anything about her and Rob Coombe.”
“Why didn’t you, while you were at it?”
“I almost
