Margot nodded proudly.
‘But why, Margot? I don’t understand why you would do this to us. I thought we were friends.’
‘So did I!’ Margot spat, her voice laced with venom.
She pulled the knife out from her jacket, pointing it towards Beth.
‘You’re not the only one who can change your accent you know, Kitty.’
A trace of Brummie crept in beneath the perfect pronunciation.
‘I started taking puberty blockers pretty early on while I was inside. A man I was… friendly with, shall we say, had them smuggled in for me. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. I knew from an early age that I had been… born into the wrong body. You can’t imagine how terrible that is for a child. Knowing your anatomy is all wrong. Living a life that isn’t your own.’
Beth glanced at her husband as what Margot was saying sank in.
‘By the time I got out, I should have been through puberty, but the drugs delayed that. At the first opportunity I went abroad and had the operation. And I became the person I had always wanted to be.’
‘Kieran? You’re Kieran Taylor?’ Beth whispered, wondering if she should laugh or cry.
Margot’s face changed instantly. A look of pure disgust.
‘Don’t call me that. I’m no more Kieran Taylor than you are Kitty Briscoe. Why should you be the only one who gets to rewrite her past?’
Margot stepped forwards. Beth swung the hammer towards her.
‘Eight years, Kitty. You robbed me of my childhood. I thought we were friends. We agreed neither of us would say a word. You promised. I stuck to it. I didn’t tell them anything. I kept my mouth shut! But you… you spilled your guts to the police as soon as you got into that room with them.’
Margot’s eyes were fixed firmly on Beth’s own.
‘And you lied, Kitty… you lied!’
‘I didn’t lie. I told them what happened. I told them what you did.’
Margot laughed loudly, but there was no humour.
‘No, Kitty… what we did.’
‘Stop calling me that… that’s not who I am anymore.’
‘Yes… you managed to walk free from court, get a new identity, start again. You got to have a new life. But you will always be Kitty Briscoe. You’ll never be able to escape what you did.’
‘I didn’t do anything!’
Margot took a few steps to her side, edging closer to Charlie. Beth swung the hammer, and Margot danced backwards, narrowly avoiding its claws.
‘Is that what you honestly believe? Have you been telling yourself that rubbish for so long that you actually think it’s true?’
‘I was seven!’
‘And I was eleven! I was a kid too.’
There was silence as Beth and Margot stared at each other. Kitty Briscoe and Kieran Taylor together again.
‘I tried to start a new life. I really did. And for a long time it worked. My hatred for you… for what you did to me, it faded away as I accepted responsibility. Because, you see, Kitty, I did that. I accepted my responsibility for the part I played. But you never have, have you?’
Beth lowered the hammer a little. The weight was becoming hard to bear.
‘I studied. I bettered myself, became a lawyer… it’s easy enough to fool people if you know where to get paperwork. And I met some extremely dodgy individuals inside. Some of them turned out to be quite useful to me. I decided I wanted to help children. Because that’s what I felt was right. To make amends for what I had done. That was my penance. And for a long time I didn’t think about you.’
Margot eyed the hammer, lowered down by Beth’s side, and took another step towards her. Beth swung her weapon manically back and forth.
‘Then one night, I was sitting eating my dinner at home, minding my own business, and there you were. On my screen. With your perfect little family, laughing in the street. The reporter was banging on about some royal visit in Brighton or something. And I knew… as soon as I saw your eyes, I knew it was you.’
And suddenly it began to fall into place.
Beth remembered the day well. The only time she let her guard down. She had been joking with the kids and hadn’t noticed the news crew pointing a camera at her.
She had screeched and howled at them. She remembered vividly the fuss she had made… how terrified the children looked. The way Charlie had watched her, like he didn’t know who he was looking at. The reporter had assured her they wouldn’t use the footage. Clearly he had lied to appease her.
‘I tried to forget about it. But all of a sudden, I knew where you were. And that knowledge ate away at me like a cancer. I went from being cheerful and bright, to obsessed and angry. You were all I could think about. You looked so… happy. I remember thinking how unfair that was.’
Beth lowered her head. Charlie watched in bewilderment as the scene played out. His eyes darted between Margot and Beth.
Beth glanced at the bloodied body of Michael Noakes, lying off in the distance. She couldn’t help thinking how sad it was that both the Noakes brothers had met their demise in this dismal place.
‘So Noakes…?’
‘Michael was simply an all-too-willing puppet. I knew he was on some mad quest to find you, although I had no idea what he was planning to do if he ever did. I fed him enough information to help him along on his journey a little. Wound him up and watched him go, like a little clockwork soldier. I needed someone to misdirect the attention from me. You should have seen your face that night you met him. Like an excited schoolgirl. I was quite surprised… I always thought you and Charlie were solid. But I suppose you’re rotten to the core… you can’t help yourself, can you?’
‘None of this was him? Zoe…’
‘Ah yes, Zoe. I was particularly proud of that part. I saw the way Peter looked at her. Heard how you
