ONE-MAN BAND
ONE-MAN BAND
T he older I get, the less I understand the world and the terrible things that people do to one another. Being an author is like being in a one-man band and I like that aspect of my job. I enjoy the safety of solitude. Other people baffle me these days, and not in a good way. The horror inflicted by humans that Abby used to write about for the newspaper seems even more foreign and strange and disturbing to me now. I find it hard to comprehend that people capable of such things are the same species as us, and it makes me want to run away from the real world even more. I suppose, in so many ways, that is exactly what I have done.
As Columbo and I climb the hill and make our way through the forest, I feel a little bit jealous of my dog. He doesn’t have to deal with a world that is frequently too loud and too awful. His days are almost always the same, and so long as he is fed, and walked, and loved, he is happy. I wish my life were so simple. Still, there is lots to be grateful for, I remind myself. Again. I look forward to retreating to the cabin, a safe place to seek shelter from the madness of the real world. Until I open the door.
Someone has slipped another envelope beneath it.
It has the words Read Me written on the outside again, and contains another newspaper article written by Abby.
8 th January 2019 The Times Page 7
PRIVATE FAMILY FUNERAL FOR VICTORIA SPENCER-SMITH RUINED BY PRESS INTRUSION
Abby Goldman
W hat should have been a private family funeral for Victoria Spencer-Smith resulted in violence and two arrests yesterday.
The wife of MP Alfie Spencer-Smith died last week, two weeks after her husband’s affair with his secretary was front-page news for several tabloid newspapers.
According to friends of the family, Victoria was hounded by photographers once the news broke. She was followed everywhere, felt trapped in her own home by journalists camped outside, and withdrew into herself, shying away from the support she clearly needed.
She was convinced that her phone had been hacked and felt she couldn’t talk to anyone about what had happened.
Victoria Spencer-Smith took her own life. The coroner’s report said that there was a high risk of further deaths in similar cases if harassment by the British press was not stopped or at least tackled.
It is true that the whole family were pursued after the revelations about her husband’s affair. Even the couple’s teenaged daughter, Alexandra, was followed to school and photographed by the press
It was Alexandra who threw a brick at one journalist, breaking his nose, when she discovered him looking through the family’s bins after the funeral service. The journalist and another photographer were arrested, but it didn’t stop other press camping outside the family’s home again overnight.
Victoria Spencer-Smith’s sixteen-year-old daughter posted an emotional video of herself on social media after the funeral. In the video, which has since gone viral, she cut off her long blond hair in protest, blaming the press for her mother’s death.
I confess I don’t remember reading this newspaper article by Abby before. She always read my books cover to cover, but I didn’t read every single story that she wrote; there were so many. Perhaps, in hindsight, I should have. Maybe then I would understand why someone wants me to see these articles now. They clearly have something to do with her disappearance, I just don’t know what.