Faith

by Lesley Pearse

  ‘Have you visited Stuart?’ David asked, beginning to feel angry.

  ‘I went there as soon as I heard about it, but he was in intensive care and not up to visitors. I haven’t been able to get there since due to pressure of work, but I do know that he has been able to give the police enough information for them to open a new investigation into Jackie Davies’s murder.’

  ‘He’s found evidence it was Charles?’

  ‘Apparently he alleges Belle killed her.’

  David left Julia and the children and drove straight down to the hospital in Kirkcaldy. The long drive, and the inevitable hold-ups because of the holiday traffic, only increased his anxiety and by the time he reached Stirling he had a thumping headache.

  For as long as he’d known Stuart he’d always been something of a madcap. He would be the first to take up a challenge, always inclined to take the side of the underdog, impulsive, daring and often reckless. Perhaps that was what David liked and admired most about him, but at the same time it had often infuriated him too.

  The night before Julia flew into Edinburgh, David had sensed Stuart wanted some kind of action. If he’d known that leaving him to his own devices would lead to him risking his life, he would have insisted he came up to the Highlands too. But his old friend wasn’t the kind anyone could lead around by the nose. And it certainly wouldn’t have occurred to him just how many people would have grieved for him if he had been killed.

  It was such a relief when he walked into the ward to find Stuart sitting up in bed, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Apart from his chest being swathed in bandages and his pale face, he looked remarkably well.

  ‘It’s a good job I didn’t rely on you to rescue me,’ he joked. ‘Some mate you are turning up nine days too late!’

  David didn’t consider himself to be an emotional man, but he felt like hugging Stuart just because he was alive. He listened to the story of exactly what had transpired in Kirkmay House: the fight in the kitchen, how Belle stabbed him and how he got out of the cellar. Although he chuckled along with Stuart as if he was relating some schoolboy adventure, in fact his blood ran cold and he felt sick at the thought of what could have happened.

  But he found he couldn’t hide his true feelings for long. ‘You harebrained imbecile!’ he blurted out once he’d heard the whole story. ‘What on earth possessed you to go there?’

  ‘I just wanted to stir things up,’ Stuart grinned. ‘I succeeded too, didn’t I?’

  ‘Stir things up!’ David shouted, forgetting that he was supposed to be a calm, mild-mannered man. ‘You could easily be dead now, or so badly injured you’d never work again. The ward sister told me it was touch and go when you were brought in here. Didn’t you think of those who care about you before you took such risks? You’ve got an elderly mother and a brother and sister, not to mention friends like me who love you!’

  Stuart had the grace to look a little sheepish. ‘Okay, maybe it was a tad extreme, but at least the police have arrested them both, they are looking into Jackie’s murder again, and Laura will almost certainly get bail if Patrick can get an emergency hearing in court for her.’ He paused, then went on, a sly grin twitching his lips, ‘I never realized you loved me, Davey! Good job I didn’t know that in some of the remote places we’ve been together!’

  David had to laugh then, but that was another thing he liked about Stuart – he could find humour in anything. And the man was right. Laura’s appeal in the High Court of Justiciary could now go through unchallenged, as long as the police had sufficient evidence that she hadn’t committed the crime.

  ‘It’s good to see you,’ Stuart said. ‘I’m sorry you had to cut your holiday short and drive all this way. Do you know if they’ve found my car yet?’

  ‘No, I don’t. Funnily enough, I was more concerned about you than your car,’ David retorted. ‘But I’ll find out for you. It will serve you right if Charles parked on double yellows and it’s been towed away. Anyway, you won’t be driving for some time.’

  ‘You can be a bit of an old woman, you know,’ Stuart retorted. ‘Now, stop worrying about me and go back to the Highlands.’

  David asked him about bringing Julia and the children back to stay in the flat the following week. ‘We could look after you, and we’ll keep the kids out of your hair.’

  ‘That’s still full of dried blood,’ Stuart grimaced, putting one hand up to touch his hair. ‘I still feel as if my lungs are full of coal dust too. But it would be good to have you all around for a bit. I’m sure Julia can be trusted to wash up occasionally.’

  ‘She can be trusted to wash your hair, feed you and tell you you’re a hero.’ David smiled. ‘She was horrified when we found out what had happened to you.’

  ‘Make out I’m more of a wounded soldier than I really am.’ Stuart laughed. ‘By the way, did you know that Belle’s been taken to Cornton Vale?’

  ‘Shit!’ David whistled through his teeth. It hadn’t occurred to him to ask where Belle had been taken. ‘Do you think she’ll come in contact with Laura?’

  ‘Belle will be on the remand block. But knowing Laura as I do, I’ve no doubt she’ll find a way of getting to her. I wrote to her a couple of days ago and warned her to keep away, but I don’t hold out much hope of her obeying. If I’d been locked up for two years for something I hadn’t done, I’d want revenge too.’

  As David was visiting Stuart, Laura was busy in the library, but it wasn’t revenge that was in the forefront of her mind, only a desperate need to know the truth.

  She had first heard the news about Stuart being taken to hospital from Beady, a week earlier. Beady had reported excitedly that when a photograph of him was flashed on to the screen, she recognized him as Laura’s visitor.

  Laura’s initial reaction to the information that Belle and Charles had been arrested for Stuart’s attempted murder was one of incredulity. She could understand them being furious that she was to inherit Brodie Farm, and her sisters to get Kirkmay House, but it made no sense that they’d taken their anger out on Stuart. She was convinced that it would turn out that it was merely a brawl between the two men which had gone too far.

  When Patrick Goldsmith came to visit her the following day, and told her that Stuart had been convinced for some time that it was Charles who killed Jackie, it began to make some sense. Laura could imagine Stuart going over to Crail with the sole purpose of provoking Charles. She had just about got her head round that, when Patrick went on to say that Stuart was alleging it was Belle who had stabbed him. Furthermore, Stuart was convinced that it was she who had killed Jackie, not Charles.

  But Patrick was a lawyer through and through. He used words like ‘allegedly’ and ‘it seems likely’, not once revealing his own personal opinion. Nor did he share with her any inside information gathered from the police, or even tell her the street gossip about it.

  He didn’t stay long with her either, leaving her with the news that the police had made a statement to the effect that they were opening a new investigation into Jackie’s murder, and as such he should be able to get an emergency appeal for her on the grounds that it had been an unsafe conviction.

  Laura was left totally bewildered. While it sounded very much to her as if her appeal was in the bag, and freedom was around the corner, Patrick’s coolness suggested she shouldn’t count on it.

  That night she would have given anything to be able to phone Stuart or David for a clearer explanation and their take on the situation. Ever since she was sentenced she had watched other prisoners fighting over phone cards, spending a whole evening queuing for their turn on the phone, and never once felt the desire to ring anyone herself. Suddenly everyone was prepared to stand back and let her make as many phone calls as she liked, but apart from Meggie there was no one she could call, for she couldn’t contact either of the men.

  Meggie didn’t know about the attack on Stuart as it hadn’t reached the newspapers in England, which made it tough on Laura as she had to explain the whole thing before
she could even attempt to get to the real point of her call. She never did get there, for Meggie swung between delight in speaking to her sister and anxiety about Stuart, not really taking in what Laura was trying to say. Once her phone card ran out, she was left just as bewildered and unsure about everything as she had been before.

  By the next day the whole prison was buzzing with the news that the press had gone into an orgy of rehashing Jackie’s murder and Laura’s trial. Beady brought one newspaper in for her with a large photograph of Laura on the front page and a headline, ‘Has she been wronged?’

  The press interest in Laura, and Belle’s arrival on the remand block, was the talk of the prison now. Laura found it quite amusing that all those who had so often scornfully disbelieved her protests that she was innocent were now sucking up to her. But rather more worrying was the general opinion among her fellow prisoners that she should get hold of Belle and wreak her revenge.

  She did want to get hold of Belle, but not to attack her. She just wanted to know the truth. It was patently obvious that Belle had stabbed Stuart, and he wouldn’t have said she killed Jackie too unless he was certain of it, but Laura still couldn’t quite believe it. She wouldn’t until she heard it from Belle herself.

  Nobody seemed to understand that, least of all Patrick Goldsmith who had merely shrugged and said that nothing was proved yet, but it would all come out eventually at her trial.

  Laura couldn’t wait that long. She had been the person who found Jackie dead, she’d even pulled the knife out of her. And there had been times in the darkest moments while she’d been in this place when she’d begun to think she must have done it, but blanked it out, just as the police psychiatrist had suggested.

  She had always thought of Belle as a younger sister, and as such she’d taken it in her stride when Belle was sometimes offhand with her. She did think it was unkind to banish her to stay at Brodie Farm just after Barney was killed, but she’d put that down to Belle being overwrought and not thinking straight. She had been nasty on several occasions after that too, but Laura had never had any inkling that Belle hated her. Yet she must have done if she would let her be wrongfully imprisoned for life. And that was what she wanted to know. Why she hated her.

  There was no shortage of news about how Belle was faring in prison, but then even the most trivial piece of news passed along the grapevine at the speed of light. By all accounts she was fluctuating between hysteria and aggression, and treating her fellow prisoners as if they were subhuman and she was royalty. Someone said she got up one morning to find her hair was coming out in clumps. Laura had known alopecia strike other women here, but to Belle, whose appearance was everything, it must have been a cruel blow.

  Laura was just putting a few returned books back on the shelves when she sensed everyone in the library stiffen. She turned to see that Belle had come in with Prison Officer Blake, whom Laura remembered well from her time on the remand block.

  Belle looked awful; her hair was like a bird’s nest, and she had bald patches. She was pale and drawn, and the oversized trousers and shirt she was wearing clearly weren’t her own, for they were made of the kind of polyester fabric she would never wear.

  She looked aghast at finding herself face to face with Laura. Clearly she hadn’t been warned that she worked in the library.

  ‘I don’t want any scenes, Brannigan,’ Blake said, her tone sharp and suspicious. ‘Howell just wants a book.’

  Laura could hardly blame Blake for her attitude towards her – she had after all been a difficult prisoner while on remand. Yet she had a sneaky feeling that Blake had brought Belle here hoping for trouble.

  ‘I don’t do scenes any longer,’ Laura said icily. She didn’t like Blake – the woman had a very cruel streak, she enjoyed giving prisoners bad news and was well known for inciting trouble on her block by setting one woman against another. She walked up closer to Belle. ‘Hello, Belle, what kind of book are you after?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said, her voice little more than a whisper. ‘Just something easy to read.’

  ‘There’s Danielle Steel or Catherine Cookson,’ Laura said. ‘The first book I read in here was The Wheel of Fortune by Susan Howatch. That would be appropriate for you too.’

  There was a flicker of something in Belle’s eyes; she’d clearly realized that was a sly dig at her. ‘Anything will do,’ she said.

  ‘I would really like to talk to you,’ Laura said. ‘Not here in front of everyone, somewhere more private. If I ask the governor, will you agree to it?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Brannigan,’ Blake roared out. ‘Now, get her a couple of books pronto.’

  After that chance meeting with Belle, Laura was even more unsettled and nervy. Word reached her that the police were coming almost every day to interview Belle, and she felt tortured by not knowing what was going on. She was worried about Stuart, for although he’d written from the hospital to say he was on the mend and he hoped to see her soon, the letter seemed very stilted and formal. That gave her the idea he was in a lot of pain.

  Finally, on the Monday, sixteen days after Stuart had been stabbed, she was called from the library because Patrick Goldsmith had come to see her.

  As she walked into the interview room, his face broke into the widest smile. ‘I’ve got some great news for you. We’ve got an emergency court hearing tomorrow. I’m ninety-nine per cent sure I’ll be able to get you bail until your appeal. The prosecution aren’t likely to oppose it, not after the recent developments.’

  Laura felt quite faint with the shock, not just of his news, but that Patrick was capable of being so jubilant. He had told her the previous week that this might be possible, but he hadn’t given her any indication that things could happen this quickly.

  You mean I can just walk away from the court?’ she said incredulously.

  Patrick laughed. ‘Yes, of course. There is one small problem though, you don’t have anywhere to live, and that will be a condition of the bail. As there was no time to arrange accommodation in Edinburgh, I’m afraid I took the liberty of ringing your sister Meggie to ask her if you could stay with her in London. I hope you don’t mind?’

  ‘No, not at all,’ Laura said. She had written to Meggie since her telephone conversation with her, but as yet she had not received a reply. ‘But more importantly, did she mind?’

  ‘She’s delighted, and what’s more, she’s flying up this evening to be with you in court tomorrow.’

  Laura’s eyes filled with tears of emotion. ‘That’s wonderful,’ she said in a choked voice. ‘Thank you so much, Patrick, I wouldn’t have liked to ask her myself, it’s a bit of an imposition, but I’ll be much happier to be in London than staying here.’

  ‘That was Stuart’s feeling too,’ Patrick said, and his voice had real warmth in it. ‘He thought you’d be the focus of too much media attention here. He came out of hospital on Friday and I popped in to see him last night.’

  ‘How is he?’ she asked eagerly, wishing she’d known he was back home so she could have phoned him.

  ‘Much better than he deserves to be. Weak and in some pain, but he’s his old irrepressible self again. David and his wife are looking after him. I don’t think he’ll be in court tomorrow, he really isn’t up to that, but he said he’ll be thinking of you, and hopes you and Meggie can spare the time to see him before you fly back to London.’

  ‘We’ll make time,’ Laura beamed, suddenly aware that this was for real, she was getting out of here, thanks to Stuart. ‘He’s been my guardian angel.’

  ‘Then I’ll see you in court at ten tomorrow,’ Patrick said as he got up to leave. He took her hand and, in an uncharacteristic display of affection, squeezed it with both hands. ‘It’s the appeal I’m really waiting for. I want to see you exonerated and this awful business over once and for all. But tomorrow will be pretty good too.’

  In a flash of intuition Laura suddenly understood the man better. He probably wasn’t cut out to be a criminal lawyer, and ov
er the years he’d almost certainly had to defend a great many people he found repellent. He dealt with it by detaching himself, doing the job as well as he could, but without any passion.

  A cynic would say he was only unbending with her now because at last he had a winner, but she would rather think that Stuart’s intervention had shown him that there was something to like about her.

  She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. ‘Bless you,’ she murmured. ‘And thank you for everything.’

  Bravo Block was alight with excitement that evening, just as it always was when one of their number was going to court and their release looked likely. There was a generosity of spirit at such times, everyone offering something, be it an article of clothing, a keepsake, or just advice and good wishes.

  Laura’s appearance had been scrutinized by everyone. Even the girls in their late teens and early twenties who normally believed a woman of fifty was too old for anyone to care how she looked, had offered suggestions for improvements. Laura had had her hair trimmed and coloured by the hairdresser during the afternoon. It was a sleek dark brown bob again, and one of the girls had given her a manicure and painted her nails a pretty pink. Shelley, one of the young girls on the wing, had plucked her eyebrows for her too.

  Getting back the outfit which had been in storage since the day she was convicted was bittersweet. The terrible memories of that day, and the sheer hopelessness she’d felt, came back with the force of a bulldozer when she was handed her clothes. But the navy-blue pinstriped suit and white shirt still fitted her perfectly, even if the power-suit shoulder pads had gone out of fashion while she’d been inside, and she began to feel excited rather than afraid. She wasn’t sure she could walk in high heels again, but they felt so elegant and feminine she didn’t care if they crippled her.