Ev takes a breath. ‘What did you do?’
Zoe gives a contemptuous snort. ‘What do you think I did? I took a fucking picture, didn’t I.’
* * *
Oxford Mail online
Saturday 14 July 2018 Last updated at 18:12
BREAKING: Man arrested in murder of Headington woman
By Richard Yates
The Oxford Mail has learned that a 46-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder and suspected sexual assault of local Headington resident Emma Smith, 44, whose body was discovered in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Do you have information about this story? Email me at [email protected]
* * *
‘And what happened then?’
‘I just walked out. Went back to my flat. Seb came round about half an hour later. He was in a terrible state.’
‘That’s when he told you that she’d coerced him?’
She nods. ‘He was crying – he knew what it must’ve looked like – he knew what I’d think.’
No shit, Sherlock, thinks Ev. I’d have had his balls for the barbecue.
‘But you believed him.’
‘Not to start with. But yeah. In the end.’
‘And that was the end of it?’
Zoe shakes her head slowly. ‘No, that was only the beginning. Later that week Seb has a supervision with her and she asks him when they’re going to “meet up” again. So he tells her no way – that it should never have happened –’
Ev sighs. ‘Let me guess.’
‘Right. She tried to persuade him but he kept saying no, and in the end he thought she’d backed off.’
Ev waits.
She swallows. ‘Two days after that I got a phone call. From her.’
‘What did she say?’
The girl’s gone very pale. ‘That Tobin had been having nightmares, and when she talked to him about it he told her that I’d been grooming him. He didn’t use that word but that’s what she meant. Grooming him.’ She’s shaking her head. ‘He was six, for fuck’s sake. If it wasn’t so horrific it’d be totally hilarious.’
But Ev isn’t laughing. ‘She must have had some evidence to make an accusation like that.’
‘She had nothing,’ she says, shrill now – so shrill that a couple of other customers turn and look at them. ‘She claimed I’d been having an “inappropriate” relationship with him – that I’d been showing him “unsuitable material” on TV behind her back – it was David fucking Attenborough, for Christ’s sake, when I was looking after her kid when she couldn’t be fucking bothered –’
She must realize that people are staring, because she drops her voice. Her cheeks are flushed now and there’s a red stain reaching up her neck like a rash. She takes a deep breath, and then another. ‘I realized there was absolutely nothing I could do – it would just be her word against mine.’
Here we go again, thinks Ev. Only now it’s she said/she said.
‘She could say anything she liked, accuse me of the most vile and horrible things, because Tobin would say exactly what she told him to. He used to trail around after her like some sort of lovesick puppy. He’d do anything, just to please her.’
‘I suspect,’ says Ev, ‘that she was getting her defence in first. A pre-emptive move – just in case Sebastian decided to make a complaint against her.’
Zoe nods. ‘That’s what he said too. So he went to see her, to try to sort it out. I wanted to go too but he said that would make things worse. And he was probably right. I’d have just ended up screaming the place down.’
And it was never about you anyway, thinks Everett. Not really. You’re just collateral damage.
‘He went round that Friday. Took a bottle of wine. He thought it would help keep things civilized but she obviously got the wrong end of the stick because she started saying she knew he’d see sense, and he wouldn’t regret it –’
‘Oh dear.’
The girl flicks a look at her. ‘Right. It just made things ten times worse. When he finally managed to convince her that he wasn’t there to screw her she just totally flipped out. She said she’d ruin me. She’d take Tobin to the police and he’d tell them what I’d been doing to him. She actually went and got Tobin and made him repeat the whole thing, then and there, in front of him. Seb said it was terrifying – anyone hearing that would have believed it.’
‘So what did you do?’
Zoe throws up her hands. ‘We caved. What else could we do? Marina agreed to drop the grooming accusation on condition that Seb and I signed an NDA agreeing never to talk about her or share any “material” about her –’
‘Of course, the photo.’
She nods. ‘Yeah, the photo. And we weren’t to disclose anything at all about our relationship with her, either publicly or privately.’
‘And I assume that included the university authorities?’
‘And the police.’ She sits back. ‘She could sue me, just for being here, having this conversation.’
She reaches into her bag and pulls out a white envelope. ‘Here, see for yourself.’
Ev opens it in silence and takes out the document inside.
‘Now you know why I was scared to come,’ says Zoe softly. ‘I know what that woman is capable of.’
* * *
Ev gets her lie-in, but has to make do with yogurt and fruit at home rather than brunch at Gail’s. As for the walk in Christ Church meadow, that’s on permanent hold. When she turns up at Gislingham’s door at just gone 11.00 it’s his wife, Janet, who opens the door. She’s obviously been in the garden a lot lately – her shoulders are pink and the skin on her nose is a bit raw. She
