Mrs Hernan was a widow in her sixties and she often looked after Lucy for Meggie when she had to be away from home for more than a few hours. She was a stout, kind-hearted and sensible woman, not given to hysterics, so that made Meggie even more frightened.
Her neighbour explained how she rescued Lucy from the road and then called through the letterbox when Laura didn’t answer the door. ‘I couldn’t believe it when she called back telling me to get the police! When they got here and I let them in, I thought both Laura and the man were dead because she was slumped down on top of him on the kitchen floor. But she is all right, she’d just fainted. I suppose that was the shock. I nearly fainted myself, I’d had such a fright. Lucy’s still in my house.’
Meggie wasn’t one for telling anyone her business. All Mrs Hernan knew was that Laura had come to stay for a holiday. Meggie supposed she had no choice now but to tell her the truth; after all, it would be all over the papers once Laura was exonerated. ‘You go indoors out of the rain and have a cup of tea,’ she said. ‘I’ll come and get Lucy and have a chat once I’ve seen Laura.’
She found Laura lying on the settee in the sitting room, a tall, powerfully built sergeant with a crewcut perched on the arm talking to her. Laura looked awful; one side of her face was puffy and her eye red and swollen. There were also bruises on her neck as if her attacker had tried to strangle her.
‘Don’t panic,’ she said, trying to smile at Meggie. ‘It looks worse than it is. They’ve been trying to get me to go to hospital, but. as far as I know they’ve got no miracle cure for black eyes.’
She quickly explained what had happened, making light of it. ‘As for Lucy, she was as clever as Lassie, she charged out the front door and got help for me. We’d better give her something special for her tea.’
Meggie felt choked up by her sister’s courage and by the way she was trying to make her laugh even though she’d clearly had a terrifying experience.
‘I’ve got the gist of what happened, but if it’s okay with you I’ll call back tomorrow and take a proper statement,’ the sergeant said to Meggie. ‘Are you two going to be all right here alone, or would you like us to leave someone to stay with you?’
‘We’ll be fine on our own,’ Laura butted in. ‘Just make sure you keep Robbie Fielding under lock and key. The last thing I want is him coming round here in the middle of the night and showing his face at the window like Robert De Niro in Cape Fear.’
That did make Meggie smile. She could remember watching the video of it with Ivy, and her sister had been too scared to drive home alone.
The police left once they’d checked the kitchen for the second man’s fingerprints. Meggie got some ice cubes out of the fridge and made a pack to put on Laura’s face.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, shaking her head as she held the pack to Laura’s cheek. ‘Leave you alone for an afternoon and you invite a couple of men in! Sergeant Erskine was nice, did you try to chat him up too?’
‘No, I don’t think he realized how gorgeous I am normally,’ Laura laughed. ‘Anyway, I think he fancied you, I saw you whispering in the hall.’
‘We were talking about you,’ Meggie said defensively. ‘He said how brave you were; he’d obviously done his homework and knew your case inside out. He might not have mentioned your beauty, but he did comment on your sense of humour.’
‘I expect he thought it was warped!’
Meggie half smiled. Laura was right, Sergeant Erskine was nice, with soft brown eyes and a generous mouth, and he was clearly a sensitive man. ‘Your sister’s got a lot of guts,’ he said. ‘Most people in that position freeze up. But the thing that impressed me most was her control. She used just enough force to overpower her attacker. There was no viciousness, no spite. She was even concerned when the ambulance men said he’d had a stroke. Yet that thug was trying to strangle her.’
‘No, you genuinely amused him,’ Meggie said. ‘But he was concerned that your cheerfulness might be just a front to cover up something which had really upset you. I said that someone trying to strangle you was fairly upsetting, but he seemed to think there was something more. Was he right?’
‘He was very perceptive for a copper,’ Laura admitted. ‘And he was right, there was something. Robbie told me Charles was the hit-and-run driver who killed Barney.’
‘Charles? Belle’s husband? No, it can’t have been,’ Meggie exclaimed.
‘I think he was telling the truth,’ Laura replied. ‘I never really liked Charles, you know. He was too puffed up with self-importance, liked to be seen in smart places, mixing with the right people. But whatever I felt about him, he and Belle were good with Barney – they behaved as if he was their real nephew. That makes it very hard to take.’
‘Robbie Fielding sounds like a really evil man, and desperate too. I’d say it was just one last-ditch attempt to hurt you in any way he could,’ Meggie said soothingly. ‘Maybe he thought it would throw you enough to let him go?’
‘It had the ring of truth to me,’ Laura insisted. ‘And it makes sense of everything. Why Belle kept me at arm’s length before Barney’s funeral, why Jackie put up with so much from me afterwards when I was going round the bend. And everything that happened later.’
‘But surely Jackie would have turned him in?’ Meggie said. ‘That’s what doesn’t make sense to me.’
‘It does to me,’ Laura sighed. ‘It was for Belle, and for Frank and Lena too. And she probably thought I could cope better if I thought it was a stranger. No wonder she drank too much, the pressure of it must have been awful.’
Meggie put her hand on Laura’s cheek and caressed it. ‘And how is it making you feel?’ she said softly.
‘Desolate,’ Laura murmured and she began to cry.
Laura woke in the morning to bright sunshine slanting through a gap in the curtains. Her face, neck and ribs throbbed and she reached out for a hand mirror by the bed.
She looked a mess. Her eye was turning black, her right cheek was red and swollen, and there were fingermarks on her neck which made her shudder.
‘So much for believing the new hair colour made you look ten years younger,’ she muttered to herself.
The phone rang downstairs, Lucy barked, and she heard Meggie come out of the kitchen to answer it.
They had both cried a great deal the previous night and Laura had ended up telling her sister the whole story about Robbie, including the pornography and the making of the blue films. Up till now she’d only revealed an edited version of it, but she found she wanted Meggie to see the complete picture.
‘I’ve always felt Barney’s death was my punishment,’ she admitted. ‘But punishment means that once it’s over, you should start again with a clean slate. It won’t ever be like that for me.’
‘Of course it will,’ Meggie said firmly. ‘And especially now that you’ve brought everything out in the open and looked at it closely.’
Laura shook her head. ‘No, Meggie. That’s why when you and Ivy go on about Stuart, I know it won’t work out. You see, in the last ten years I’ve been out with dozens of men. A few of them I even liked enough to want to go to bed with. But it was a mistake, it brought it all back. I felt cheap and dirty again. I know now that I’ll only ever feel okay about myself if I stay celibate.’
Meggie put her arms around her and hugged her to her chest. ‘It’s like that for me too,’ she said softly. ‘I know too much, I’m tainted. I can’t even respond to men flirting with me because I’m afraid of where it will lead. The last thing I want is to end up a crabby old maid, but that’s how it will be because I’m afraid of exposing myself in any way, mentally or physically.’
The last thing Laura remembered thinking before she finally dropped off to sleep was that she had been better off in prison. Everything was predictable there, from what you ate on each day of the week to who would start the next fight on the wing. On the outside nothing was predictable, not even her own feelings.
Meggie’s voice wafted up to Laura from t
he hall below. She couldn’t hear what her sister was saying, but there was a tinge of excitement in her tone that made Laura curious enough to get up and open her door.
‘Bruised but not broken,’ she heard Meggie say. ‘The police thought she was incredibly brave and handled herself very well. But I think his visit is bound to have brought back nasty stuff from the past.’
‘Who is it, Meggie?’ Laura called out.
‘Stuart,’ Meggie shouted back. ‘I thought you were asleep.’
‘I always wake up when people are talking about me,’ Laura said as she padded down the stairs and took the phone.
Stuart was very concerned about her and explained that Fielding had fled to London because he’d attempted to kill David Calder, the solicitor. ‘It was three days ago,’ he explained. ‘Calder was walking from his office in Portobello to his car around seven in the evening, when a car came straight at him at speed, mounting the pavement. It knocked him flying and drove off. A witness got a partial number plate, described the driver, and apparently that description fitted Fielding. The car used had been stolen in Edinburgh earlier the same day. But by the time the police had got all this information and gone to Fielding’s pub to arrest him, he’d already flown. Tipped off no doubt by someone in the force he kept in his pocket.’
‘But why did he do it?’ Laura asked.
‘I’d make a guess that Calder was about to spill the beans about whatever it was the. pair of them had been up to.’
Laura told him that she thought Fielding had discovered Belle killed Jackie and was blackmailing the couple. Stuart agreed. ‘But I don’t think either of them knew about the new will. I’m pretty certain Fielding forced Calder to keep quiet about that, because he knew if the Howells got nothing, neither would he.’
‘Why didn’t Calder just destroy it then?’ Laura asked. ‘Who would have known?’
‘I think it must have been because his secretary witnessed it. It’s one thing to pretend you’ve forgotten about a legal document,’ Stuart said, ‘quite another to destroy it. Perhaps Calder was afraid the woman would remember its existence at some time. But I think it will transpire that there was more to Calder and Fielding’s relationship than just this stuff with Jackie and the Howells. I’ve heard a whisper about mortgage frauds and no doubt a great deal more will come out of the woodwork before long.’
‘Is Calder very badly hurt?’ Laura asked.
‘Well, he’s still in intensive care. But apparently they are hopeful he’ll recover.’
Laura told Stuart then that Fielding had claimed Charles killed Barney. ‘Tell me that isn’t true,’ she said. ‘He just wanted to hurt me more, didn’t he?’
Stuart’s hesitation in replying was enough.
‘Sorry, sweetheart,’ he said very sadly. ‘It is true. Charles has confessed to it. I’ve got to admit I suspected it some time ago but Patrick, David and I didn’t tell you because we knew how upset it would make you.’
‘And Jackie knew it was him?’
‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’
Laura fought back tears as Stuart explained why he thought she’d done it, and how everything else that happened later was because of it.
‘I don’t feel angry with her,’ she said. ‘I’m sure she thought it would be better for me to think it was a stranger. But she obviously never realized what it would do to her. It must have been agony for her watching me crack up while Charles got away with it.’
‘I think she hoped it would make Belle and Charles better people,’ Stuart said. ‘But look where that led!’
He suggested he came down to London to see her, but Laura put him off. She said that she’d taken up enough of his time and energy already, but the truth was she couldn’t bear for him to see her looking so battered.
‘I’ll see you at the appeal,’ she said. ‘Angie has said Meggie and I can stay with her for a couple of days and maybe we can all have some sort of celebration together.’
‘And afterwards?’ Stuart asked. ‘Have you made any plans?’
Laura told him about the property in Bromley. ‘We haven’t had much of a chance to discuss it properly, but Meggie and Ivy hope I’ll open a dress shop there.’
‘That sounds just perfect for you,’ he said.
Laura had hoped she might hear disappointment in his voice, but he didn’t even add a suggestion that maybe they could spend a little time together in Edinburgh before she returned to London. ‘Yes, I’m sure getting stuck into another business is just what I need,’ she said, forcing herself to sound excited. ‘But what about you? Are you all healed up?’
‘Pretty much,’ he said. ‘And I’ve had several offers of work, both here in Scotland and abroad. I think I’ll stay in Scotland though, at least until this probate stuff is sorted. Jackie would have wanted me to see it all through.’
He said then that he’d have to ring off as he had a lot of things to do, but he thought Patrick Goldsmith would be in touch with her any day with the date for the appeal.
‘So!’ Meggie said as she came off the phone. ‘Is he coming down? What are his plans?’
Laura smiled at the bright expectancy on her sister’s face. ‘His plans don’t include me, Meggie, though I’ll see him at the appeal. But after that it’s goodnight and goodbye, and we both move on.’
19
‘One more picture, Laura!’
‘How do you feel now you are free?’
‘What are your plans now, Laura? Will you stay in Scotland?’
‘Do you feel angry that you were put in prison for a crime you didn’t commit?’
‘You’ll be called as a prosecution witness when Belle Howell comes to trial. Will that be difficult for you?’
Laura fixed a smile on her face as the journalists outside the court fired questions at her. But what she really wanted to do was run away and hide, from them, the photographers and the television cameramen intent on sending her face out into every living room in the country.
She was of course ecstatically happy that finally it was publicly acknowledged that she was innocent of any crime. The judge had smiled at her and wished her well for the future, she’d been patted on the back, kissed, hugged and congratulated by a great many people. Patrick had even said she should get a hefty sum in compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
But she didn’t feel any joy at the smiles of the media people here today, for almost all of them had condemned her just twenty months ago, and revelled in all the dirt they managed to dig up on her.
It was tempting to remind them of that, even to quote some of the more salacious headlines they’d used at the time and make them squirm. But if she showed spite they were likely to reciprocate, and the sooner she said a few words, the sooner she could walk away and begin her new life.
Glancing behind her at Meggie, Ivy, Angie, Stuart and Patrick, the concern etched on their faces gave her the strength she needed.
‘I’m thrilled to be free, and my name cleared,’ she began, looking from one face to another and trying hard not to think how good it would be to slap some of them. ‘It’s too soon to know where I’ll live permanently. As for my wrongful imprisonment; my biggest sorrow is not that I lost my freedom for two years, awful as that was, but that people actually believed I killed my dearest friend.’
She paused for dramatic effect. ‘Jackie Davies had been my lifelong friend. We had grown up together and shared so much. I loved her and I still grieve for her. My life will never be the same again because she can’t be part of it.’
She was glad to see a few of them looked a little shamefaced, and that was all the revenge she needed.
‘But today isn’t one for blaming others, nor for anger or bitterness,’ she went on. ‘It is a joyful day because a wrong has been righted.’
She turned slightly, holding out one hand to indicate Stuart.
‘I would like to publicly thank my old friend Stuart Macgregor. Without him I wouldn’t be talking to you today. He believed in me when few others did, an
d dug up new evidence for my appeal. He even risked his life for me. I’d like you all to join me in applauding his courage.’
As she began to clap, the crowd joined in, many of them shouting bravo and stamping their feet in approval.
Stuart blushed like a bashful schoolboy.
‘I owe Stuart more than words can ever say,’ she added as the applause died down. ‘He was the real hero in all this, along with his friend David Stoyle who sadly couldn’t be here today. But I’d also like to thank my lawyer Patrick Goldsmith for working so tirelessly on my behalf. And for the unconditional love and support my sisters Meggie and Ivy gave me.’
There was another burst of applause but Laura made a gesture with her hands to end it.
‘I would ask you now to leave me and my family in peace to get on with our lives,’ she finished up. ‘Thank you.’
Patrick Goldsmith took her arm and led her away from the throng. ‘Well done, Laura. That was perfect,’ he said. ‘I doubt they’ll obey your wishes, they never do. But for now a celebration drink is in order, and I’ve taken the liberty of hiring a private room in a restaurant down the street.’
It was four in the afternoon, chilly and spitting with rain, but f r Laura Edinburgh had never looked so bright and beautiful. She and her sisters had flown up early that morning, and Meggie and Ivy would be going back the following day. Laura had not booked a return flight because she planned to stay a few days with Angie, then buy herself a car so she could go out to Fife to visit Barney’s grave. After that she intended to get her belongings from Angie’s mother’s house and drive back to London.
Stuart fell in beside her. ‘Did I tell you that you look beautiful today?’ he said.
Laura smiled. She had taken great care in picking her outfit, a fitted taupe linen dress with a cream striped jacket. It wasn’t just because she knew she’d be photographed, but because she wanted Stuart to see her at her best. ‘You look pretty gorgeous yourself,’ she retorted, noting how well the light grey pinstripe suit fitted him. ‘I’ve never seen you in a suit before!’
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