Chapter 66
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chris drove Jennifer in silence. They followed the cars with Freya, her team, and Malcolm Ripley in as they made their way back to Whitby.
Jennifer twinged.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
‘No. I’m not all right,’ she answered back, her voice hostile.
‘I mean with the babies.’
‘Oh. Sorry, Chris, I thought you meant … yes, I’m fine. They’re just really unsettled today. This can’t be right, can it? Surely?’ She looked across at him with hopeful eyes.
‘I don’t know. A DNA match is strong evidence. Was he home late on the night of the storm? Can you remember?’
She frowned as she thought. ‘He was always home late. He worked on the council. I’d been spending a few days at my mother’s.
I’d … I’d been going through a bit of a tricky time.
I’d found a lump on my breast. My auntie, my mum’s sister, died young from breast cancer and I was so scared.
I just wanted to be with my mum. I went back home on the night of the storm.
I remember driving and hardly being able to see the end of the bonnet.
I think I got home about eight. I … I don’t recall what time Malcolm got in. ’
‘Was everything all right, you know, with the lump?’
‘Yes. It turned out to be benign. It was scary for a while though.’
‘I can imagine,’ Chris said.
They drove in silence for a while until Jennifer started to sob.
Chris looked across at her. He didn’t know what to say. He could tell her everything was going to be all right, but that was as far from the truth as it was possible to be.
‘Malcolm is not a rapist. He’s not a murderer. I know him.’
Chris wondered who she was trying to convince. There was no denying a DNA result.
She leaned back in her seat and cradled her unborn twins.
‘Today was supposed to be such a good day,’ she said to herself.
By the time they’d managed to find a parking space and Chris had helped Jennifer out of the car, Freya had already taken Malcolm into custody where he was formally charged and taken to an interview room. All Chris and Jennifer could do was wait.
Two hours went by before Freya found them both looking uncomfortable on the hard plastic chairs, empty polystyrene coffee cups on the chipped table beside them.
Jennifer looked at Freya hopefully. ‘Please tell me there has been some gigantic administrative cock-up and we can all go home.’
Freya looked worn out. She shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry, Jennifer.’
‘What are you saying?’ Jennifer asked, trying to sit up.
‘Malcolm has refused a solicitor. He’s confessed.’
‘He’s … what?’
‘He’s admitted it.’
‘That can’t be.’
‘I shouldn’t allow this as he’s been charged, but he really wants to see you to explain.’
Jennifer’s eyes darted around the room. She couldn’t focus on anything as she tried to work out everything in her head.
She was seven months pregnant with twins.
She was about to go on maternity leave. They had a nursery to finish decorating.
They had so many plans for the future. How could this possibly be true?
‘Will you come in with me?’ she asked Freya.
Freya nodded. She took Jennifer’s hand and helped her up from the chair. She stole a look at Chris and gave him a sympathetic smile.
‘We’ve only got about five minutes or so,’ Freya told her.
They walked slowly down the corridor to the interview room.
‘I feel like I’m walking to the gallows,’ Jennifer said. ‘If this is true, I would have known. Surely.’
‘Look, Jennifer,’ Freya stopped and placed her hands on her shoulders. ‘You’re going to learn a lot about Malcolm in the next few minutes that you never knew before. I need you to remain calm, for yourself, and your babies. I’m always going to be here for you. Understand?’
Jennifer was shaking with nerves. ‘Thank you.’
Freya pushed open the door to interview room one.
Malcolm was sitting alone at the table. A uniformed police officer stood by the door.
Malcolm had removed his jacket and tie. The top button of his shirt was undone, and his sleeves were rolled up.
He looked drawn and pale. His eyes were red from being rubbed.
He looked up and started crying the second he saw Jennifer enter the room.
Jennifer approached the table. Freya pulled out a chair and sat her down.
‘Jen,’ Malcolm reached out to her, but she pulled her hands away.
‘What have you done?’ Her voice was quiet, but there was so much energy and emotion behind her words.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said.
‘Tell me everything that happened. Leave nothing out,’ she seethed.
He nodded. ‘I used to visit a prostitute on Canal Street,’ he began.
‘What?’ Jennifer’s mouth fell open. ‘How long had this been going on?’
Freya intervened. ‘Jennifer, let him tell you what he needs to say. We don’t have much time.’
‘I’d been visiting them on and off for a number of years.
Sometimes months could go by between visits.
The night of the storm, you’d been away for a few days visiting your mum.
You’d found that lump in your breast, remember?
The results came back fine. It was a cyst, but it was a prominent lump and you said it made you feel unattractive.
I said to come home and we’d have a nice meal, bottle of wine, and I’d make you feel attractive, but you said it would be a while before you’d let me see you without any clothes on. ’
‘So, you went to a prostitute because of my lump?’ Jennifer spat.
‘No. It wasn’t because of you. None of this is because of you. It’s all because of me. I went down to Canal Street, but there was no one there. I should have guessed; the storm was pretty bad. But, I was… I…’
‘You were horny,’ Freya said for him. She’d heard his side of the story so knew what he was struggling to say.
‘Yes. All right. I was horny. I don’t think the storm helped. It seemed to make things worse. I needed to… I drove around and I pulled over in the woods and I … I was masturbating when I looked up and saw … and saw…’
‘Oh my God.’ Jennifer was crying. Freya handed her a tissue. ‘Alice saw you. Didn’t she?’
Malcolm wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands. He nodded. ‘I didn’t see her. I didn’t notice her sheltering under a tree. She was looking straight at me. I … I wound down the window. I asked … I asked her to…’
‘Oh my God,’ Jennifer said, wrapping her arms around herself, rocking slightly.
‘She screamed. She just started screaming. I didn’t know what to do. I opened the car door and got out. I looked down and saw that I hadn’t done up my trousers. She ran off. I ran after her.’
‘Why?’
‘To explain… I don’t know why. I caught up with her. I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. I was still … I was still hard. The rain, the wind, the intensity of the storm… I kissed her.’
Jennifer slapped a hand to her mouth to hold in a scream.
‘I really don’t remember much of what happened next. It’s like I was taken over by something, and I don’t know what. I remember leaning back after I’d r— r—’ He struggled to say it.
‘Raped her,’ Jennifer completed the sentence for him.
He nodded. ‘I looked down at her. She was so scared. She looked so young. I couldn’t believe what I’d just done.
She was crying. She said she wanted to go home.
’ He was struggling to get the words out through his tears.
‘I just thought, this is where it all ends. I’m on the council.
I want to be an MP. I’ve ruined everything, before it’s even started.
And then there’s this massive crash of thunder and the lightning and I realise that nobody’s going to be out in this weather.
Nobody will have seen me. If I could get home without being seen, I could pretend like it hasn’t happened.
And I look down, and I see her looking at me and I swear to God she knows …
she knows what I’m going to do. I strangled her, Jen.
I strangled her.’ His words were lost to his cries.
‘All this time. When I spoke to you about representing Anthony and how much I believed him. You knew the truth, all this time.’
‘I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t tell you.
I knew how disappointed you’d be in me. Everything started snowballing out of control.
First, you were representing him, and when you lost I thought that was it, but you wouldn’t leave it alone, you wouldn’t stop.
You believed in him. Then you set up the charity and you got people out of prison, but you kept going back to Anthony.
Time and time again, you kept returning to that case and there was nothing I could do to stop you. ’
Jennifer didn’t say anything.
Malcolm didn’t say anything.
The silence between them grew.
Jennifer found her voice. ‘You raped and killed an innocent woman. You allowed Anthony to go through so much unnecessary pain and suffering. You allowed me to fight for a truth that I couldn’t quite get hold of.
And all the time, you knew. You knew absolutely everything that had happened.
You could have stopped all the horror Alice’s family and Anthony’s family were going through. And you just sat back and did nothing.’
‘The longer it went on, the harder it was to say anything. There was more and more to lose with each passing day.’
‘You have caused so much agony to so many people, including me, and our unborn children,’ Jennifer started crying again.
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘I don’t think you are. I think you’re sorry you’ve been caught. If you were genuinely sorry, you would have admitted it a long time ago and faced the consequences, because the truth would have meant more to you than anything else. But it didn’t. Did it?’
‘I never meant to hurt you,’ he cried.
‘Another lie.’ She turned to Freya. ‘I need to leave.’
‘OK.’ Freya helped her up.
‘No. Jennifer. Please don’t go.’
‘I can’t stay here.’
‘Please. Don’t.’ Malcolm jumped up from his chair and ran to her. ‘Jennifer. Please, I can’t do this on my own. I need you. I love you. I’m sorry.’ He grabbed her.
‘Don’t touch me!’ she screamed, shaking him off.
‘Constable,’ Freya instructed the PC to grab Malcolm and pull him off Jennifer.
She held Jennifer by the shoulders and took her out into the corridor where Chris was still waiting.
‘Are you OK?’ he asked when he saw Jennifer in floods of tears.
Jennifer was cradling her stomach and sobbing uncontrollably.
‘We need to get her to calm down,’ Freya said.
Jennifer’s cries were loud and echoing off the walls.
‘What did he say to her?’
‘I’ll tell you later. Help me get her somewhere she can be more comfortable.’
‘Where?’
‘I don’t…’ Freya stopped and looked down as Jennifer screamed.
Her waters had broken.