‘You’re aware of the penalties for perjury, Mrs Fletcher?’
‘You’re calling me a liar?’
‘I’m making you aware of the risks you run sticking to your version as absolute fact. In a case of murder it’s very unwise. After twenty-four years and given your age—’
‘Gladstone served as prime minster until he was eighty-four and you think I’d forget the day of the coroner’s inquest into my sister’s death. Having to hear all the details, how unhappy she had been, how fragile she was – the vodka, the pills, the vomit clogging her lungs. No, my love, I’d have to be well into my dotage before I forget those things.’
The jury sit forward.
‘I see you’re sticking to your version of events. But you will agree that is your version and no one can verify it.’
‘If you say so, dear,’ Ruth says.
‘Thank you, Mrs Fletcher,’ she says and sits down.
Gideon is glaring at Ruth through the glass of the dock. She doesn’t notice him. Ralph looks at me. His gaze is calm and steady. Has he realised Ruth is lying?
Ralph looks more serene than ever as he stands before the jury in his summing up. He is superb.
‘Only two of the defendants are known to have come into a large sum of money after Mrs Pike’s death. Only two were seen by Mrs Ruth Fletcher in the company of Brandon Wells, nearly a month after Mr Risborough and Mr Johns claim Ms Winter killed him. The same two who sought to blame my client for a crime she cannot possibly have committed. They thought they’d committed the perfect murder, killing a man no one would miss for many months, taking his money and channelling it through their business and finally, planting evidence against Ms Winter, so that should anything go wrong she would be blamed. Unfortunately for Mr Risborough and Mr Johns, Mrs Fletcher spotted them on a day and date she would never forget, and their avaricious and vindictive plan fell to pieces. Gideon Risborough and Alan Johns killed Brandon Wells and have maligned my client not just to clear their names, but for reasons of personal spite. I urge the jury to look at the evidence, which overwhelmingly points to my client simply to have been in the wrong place and married to the wrong man. You must find her not guilty.’
Chapter 64
1994 – Guildford
Genevieve had been dead less than forty-eight hours when Julia and the other lodgers started taking liberties with her home. Julia came in the front door, which they’d all started using, and from the hall she could see that Gideon and Alan were in the lounge, feet up on the coffee table watching the TV news. Neither of them noticed her come in.
She climbed the stairs and paused a moment, before going into Brandon’s room. His clothes were strewn across the floor, which was no indication of whether he’d return. His possessions were of so little value that even without forty-five thousand pounds they’d hardly be worth retrieving.
Julia opened the wardrobe. It was empty, except for a backpack slung on the floor. She knelt down and checked its compartments. She didn’t think Brandon would leave the money so casually but checked anyway. The main compartment was empty, but something was in one of the pockets. Rummaging around, she found a packet of tobacco and a cigarette lighter. She pulled the backpack out of the wardrobe to examine it properly. It caught on something. Julia yanked it. One of its straps was caught in the join between the wardrobe floor and its back panel. The backpack contained nothing more. Julia returned to the wardrobe. There was a definite gap at the back. She poked her fingers through it and managed to grasp something flat and rectangular and pull it out. It was Brandon’s passport. He would have to come back now.
‘What are you doing?’
Julia jumped up. Gideon stood in the doorway.
‘I was checking Brandon’s things. To see if he was coming back.’
‘I already looked,’ Gideon said. ‘I can’t see why he’d bother returning for any of this.’ He indicated the small heap of greying sweatshirts and jeans on the floor.
‘He’ll bother returning for this.’
Julia held out the passport. Gideon looked confused for a moment.
‘Where did he hide it?’ Gideon asked.
Julia showed him the wardrobe panels. Gideon examined the gap, then sat back, put his leg inside and kicked three times, until the panel came loose.
‘What are you looking for?’ Julia asked.
‘Nothing,’ Gideon said.
Did he know about the money? It seemed unlikely. Then she remembered the phone.
‘He’s probably taken it with him,’ Julia said.
‘Taken what with him?’ Gideon asked.
‘The mobile phone.’
Gideon turned to her, anger and shock on his face. ‘What do you know about that?’ he asked.
‘Nothing. I just thought—’
‘That whole phone thing was Brandon thinking he’s smart. It doesn’t prove anything about Devon Garvey. Do you understand?’
‘Yes,’ Julia said.
‘As long as we’re clear,’ he said. ‘And I’ll take that.’
He snatched the passport from her.
‘You can’t keep it,’ she said.
‘It’s just to make sure we do get to see Brandon before he goes anywhere.’
It felt wrong, taking Brandon’s passport. Whatever the morality, Brandon had broken no laws. Even if he had taken the money, it had been a gift.
‘If he wants to leave, we should let him,’ Julia said. ‘It’s definitely best if he doesn’t meet Ruth.’
‘All the same …’ Gideon put the passport in his pocket and patted it. ‘I’ll take care of it.’ He replaced the panel. ‘Brandon will have to come and see me now.’
Chapter 65
2018 – Guildford Crown Court
The foreman, the man in the grey suit, stands.
‘On the charge of murder, do you find the defendant, Alan Johns, guilty or not guilty?’ the clerk asks.
‘Guilty.’
Mutters.
‘On the charge of murder, do you find the defendant, Gideon Risborough, guilty or not guilty?’
‘Guilty.’
A shout of ‘Yes!’ from Brandon’s brother.
‘On the charge of murder, do you find the defendant, Julia Winter, guilty or not guilty?’
‘Not guilty.’
I nearly faint.
Gideon lunges for me. ‘You bloody bitch.’
The security man is too fast. He grabs Gideon around the waist and drags him back. Two policemen come and handcuff him.
‘It was her,’ he shouts. ‘She stabbed him, she killed him.’
He struggles against his restraints, his poise and calm superiority all in shreds. The jury look shocked. In the public gallery Brandon’s siblings watch as Gideon is dragged from the back of the court. I cannot believe that this is possibly the last time I will ever have to see my husband.
I stand here, not sure what to do. I look to the public gallery. Audrey is weeping into Sam’s arms. Pearl is crying too, but smiling at the same time. Andre blows me kisses.
Ralph comes over. ‘There’s some forms to fill in, but you’re free to go,’ he tells me.
I’m confused and disorientated, more so than if I’d been imprisoned. I don’t know who I am anymore, where I work, where I live.
‘We should leave by a back entrance to avoid the press,’ Ralph says. ‘I kept it from you, because you’re under enough pressure, but I’ve been fielding endless enquiries into selling your story, should you be acquitted.’
Since my arrest, there’s not been a single moment when someone else hasn’t decided where I am and what I do. Standing in a corridor, I’m bemused with no idea where to go.
Arms wrap around me. It’s Audrey, Pearl and Andre, all in tears.
‘Why did you never tell me, Julia – what he was like?’ Mum says. ‘I blame myself.’
‘I knew something was wrong,’ Pearl said. ‘Why did you never say?’
‘I’ve let you down, Julia,’ Audrey says.
‘No,’ I s
ay. ‘You’re both amazing.’
And suddenly I’m in tears too. We’re in a huddle so tight, I don’t notice him at first. It’s when I break away from Audrey and Pearl that Sam puts his arms around me. He’s grown in the year since I’ve not seen him. A man, not a boy, and nothing like his father.
As I’m holding him, I open my eyes and see Ruth leaving the court. She turns and just for a second catches my eye, then she’s gone.
Chapter 66
1994 – Guildford
‘It’s too creepy. I’m not coming back,’ Lucy said, when Julia told her about Genevieve.
She had only rung to see if Julia was willing to go on a blind date with one of Linden’s friends.
Julia felt lost. Pearl was on holiday in Puglia with Rudi. Andre hadn’t returned her calls and she couldn’t face telling Audrey. All that tutting and I knew it would end in tears. Though even Audrey couldn’t have foreseen such a delicious disaster.
After her conversation with Lucy, Julia returned to the lounge and stretched out on the sofa with a large bar of Fruit & Nut. She broke a chunk off, placed it on her tongue and let the warm sweetness spread through her mouth. A spasm of guilt seized her, when she thought how much more she was enjoying the house without Genevieve. Despite the macabre events, the atmosphere was more relaxed. Genevieve’s notice to leave was void and Brandon had gone. It was more the kind of place she’d envisaged sharing, when she first came to Guildford.
Of course, they would have to move out eventually, though Ruth had yet to mention it. Julia would probably leave Guildford and find a new job. Even be brave, like Pearl, and risk a few years of squalor to find a more exciting career. Morgan Boyd Consulting wasn’t where she wanted to be.
For Julia, Guildford had been a false start in her new life, but it was only the delay of six months. There was plenty of time to change course. There’d be no reason to see Gideon and Alan again. Lucy had already agreed to stay in touch and was considering moving to London as well.
The Commonwealth Games was showing on the television; she watched people running around the track without taking much notice and put her feet up on the coffee table.
When the lounge door swung open, she looked up, expecting to see Gideon or Alan.
‘Having fun?’
Brandon was leaning against the doorframe.
‘What are you doing here?’ Julia asked.
‘I live here, remember?’ he said.
He ambled over to her. His clothes were the same ones he’d been wearing the last time she saw him, as he stormed out of the house following that final argument with Genevieve. He reeked of sweat and stale beer.
‘It’s just, we’ve been worried where you were, Brandon.’
‘Sweet of you to care.’
He stood between her and the door and didn’t look as if he were moving any time soon.
‘Can I get you something – tea?’ Julia asked.
‘Tea – really? You want to talk about anything else – Genevieve, perhaps?’
‘You heard?’
‘I heard.’
He stepped closer to her.
‘Where is it, Julia?’ he said.
She looked to the patio doors for an escape – they were locked.
‘Gideon’s got your passport,’ she said.
Brandon stepped closer still. He couldn’t have washed for days. The stench was revolting. Julia wanted to gag. He jabbed her shoulder with his forefinger.
‘Where’s my money?’
Julia hesitated a fraction too long to make a denial credible. ‘I … I don’t know,’ she said.
‘But you do know about it?’
She nodded.
‘And what – you just left it where it was?’
The truth was probably her best defence right now.
‘I pushed it down the side of the bed. It was me who found Genevieve, you see. I didn’t know what to do with the money, so I hid it. And when I came back, it had gone.’
‘You expect me to believe that? Does Gideon have it as well as the passport?’
‘No – I don’t know.’
‘Are you two a couple now?’
‘No,’ Julia said.
‘A little threesome with Alan then?’
‘Brandon.’ She spoke softly. If she were calm and reasonable, perhaps he would be too. ‘It’s nothing like that. We just share a house.’
‘The same way you and me share a house? But you think you’re too good for me now he’s around. I’ve seen the way you look at him.’
‘I’m moving out soon. I doubt I’ll see him again.’
She began to edge away from him.
‘After he arrived you started to ignore me. Pretended it had never happened. You whine about how your fiancé went off with another woman but how do you treat people?’
She took another step back.
‘It was a mistake, wasn’t it, that night? I mean, we were never going to be boyfriend and girlfriend,’ Julia said.
‘Not with you sniffing round every man you come into contact with, like some bitch on heat. The second Gideon turned up, you were all over him.’
‘That’s not true.’
She was frightened now. Every word she spoke stoked Brandon’s anger. He was leaning over her and her back was against the wall. She had nowhere to go.
‘I’m not wasting my time worrying over a little slut like you,’ he said. ‘But I’m not leaving without my money. You and Gideon have come up with this together. Well, he’s not here now. So, you need to tell me where it is. What does he want in return – the phone?’
He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. It cracked against the wall. A sick pain ran through her neck to her stomach.
‘I don’t know, really, Brandon,’ she said.
‘Where – is – it?’
His face was an inch from hers. The stench of his breath was unbearable. She tried to twist away. He pulled her hair back farther, his weight against hers, so she couldn’t move her body, only her arms. His free hand travelled to her throat and he began to press. Julia tore at his hands with her nails. His grip only tightened and he moved his elbows to pin her arms low against the wall.
‘Tell me,’ he said.
Her heart banged against her chest. Her scream was stifled by the pressure applied to her neck. He was going to kill her. He’d find the money and disappear. She twisted and kicked. His weight didn’t move. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t raise her arms – Brandon still pinned them low to the wall. She scratched around the small bureau next to her. Paper, a pen, a ruler, then something cold and hard. Scissors. She grasped them, swung her hand as hard as she could. Adrenaline gave her strength. The points pierced the soft flesh under his rib.
Brandon released the pressure on her neck though he remained leaning over her. He looked more surprised than hurt. Julia wriggled and pushed him away. He fell back. She held one hand on her throat. The other was warm and wet. She looked down to see it thick with blood. Brandon clutched his side.
He looked at the scissors. ‘You bitch—’
He lurched forward, releasing his hand from his side. Blood gushed from his wound and he fell to his knees.
Julia dropped the scissors. She was still struggling for breath. Blood burbled up through the gash in Brandon’s side and she thought she was going to faint.
‘Call me an ambulance.’
Julia fell on the sofa. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move.
‘Call me an ambulance!’ he screamed.
Julia remained paralysed. The door opened.
‘What the hell?’ It was Alan.
Gideon pushed past him.
‘That bitch stabbed me,’ Brandon said.
Gideon was next to Julia on the sofa. He took her hands from her throat and examined it. ‘Did he hurt you?’
‘Fuck her,’ Brandon said. ‘I’m bleeding to death here. Call me an ambulance.’
Alan moved to the door.
‘Wait,’ Gideon said. ‘I need to think.
’
‘I’m bleeding out,’ Brandon cried.
Alan hovered at the door.
‘Get me an ambulance now. Or I’ll tell everyone about the phone.’
Alan moved to the door.
‘And that you took my money,’ Brandon said.
Alan stopped and looked at Gideon. ‘We have to get him to hospital.’
Julia tried to stand. Gideon pulled her back onto the sofa.
‘Think,’ he said. ‘You could go to prison for this.’
‘It was self-defence,’ she said.
‘He’s bleeding. You’ve barely a mark on you.’
She looked down at her sleeve drenched with Brandon’s blood.
‘Get me a fucking ambulance,’ he wailed.
‘We can’t let him …’
Julia stopped. Gideon was already striding across the room. She knew what he was going to do, before she had time to react. He picked up the heavy marble lamp, raised it high and smashed it onto Brandon’s head. The vibrations seemed to last for a whole minute, rippling through Julia in wave after wave. No one spoke. Brandon’s head lay split in two, dark sludge oozing onto the floor. The flow of blood from the wound in his torso slowed. Gideon brought the lamp down again with a sickening crunch. Brandon’s leg twitched one more time, before the blood from his wound ceased and he lay inert.
It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real – just slapstick, comedy violence, Tom and Jerry. Julia started to laugh. And once she started, she couldn’t stop.
‘Shut up,’ Alan said.
She kept laughing.
‘Will you shut up?’ Alan said. ‘What’s wrong with her?’
She was unable to stop, her whole body was shaking with laughter. Alan grabbed her arms and shook her.
‘Shut the fuck up!’
She looked a Brandon. The blood had seeped from his body and spread across the rug. He was dead. Not Tom and Jerry. Dead. Her laughter transformed into sobs.
‘What have you done, Gideon?’
‘I think you mean, what have we done.’
‘I didn’t … I never.’
‘You never what – stabbed him?’
She looked to Alan. ‘We have to call the police.’
The Verdict Page 30