Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
JESS
Jess felt like all the air had vanished from the room. She thought of little Maisie fast asleep in her bedroom, whilst she was sharing her sofa with a killer.
‘You killed him,’ said Jess, when she finally found her voice.
‘It was an accident,’ he told her as he met her gaze. ‘You must believe that.’
‘But I remember reading about that,’ she said as the realisation dawned that Declan had been all over the regional news more than five years ago. ‘The person did time in jail. That was you?’
Declan could see the colour drain from her face.
‘The police thought I had motive, which to an extent I guess I did. But I swear on my own life and everyone I know, that was not the case,’ he said calmly.
He could feel his hands trembling as he reached for his coffee.
‘But, yes, it was me. I was handed a five-year jail sentence for causing death by dangerous driving, reduced to three years for good behaviour,’ he confessed, with a mixture of shame and a pleading look flitting across his face.
‘You killed Tony Callaghan?’ said Jess, her mouth gaping open, hardly able to take it in.
‘By accident.’ He sighed. ‘I can explain if you will hear me out.’
Jess found herself nodding, not trusting herself to speak.
‘I remember the day as if it was yesterday,’ Declan told her.
‘There was a low autumn sun in the sky, and it was blinding. As I drove along the street just outside the town centre my vision was blurred. Tony walked out between two parked cars with his phone stuck to his ear. Neither of us saw each other until it was too late,’ he explained, before putting his head in his hands.
Jess took a glug of wine as her thoughts whirred around in her head. He had to be telling the truth. Declan was no cold-blooded killer. Was he?
‘So why did the police think you might have had motive?’ asked Jess, her head all over the place.
Declan told Jess all about his sister’s problems with drugs.
‘Tony was the kingpin, so I guess the police thought I had deliberately targeted him after what happened to Kelly.’ He still caught his breath at the mention of her name.
‘Oh, Declan, I am so sorry,’ said Jess, instinctively taking her hand in his. ‘Did she…?’
‘Die? Yes.’ He nodded. ‘Ketamine. She reacted badly. I hadn’t even realised she had moved on to that kind of stuff.’
He shook the picture from his mind of her lying in a hospital bed hooked up to machines.
‘So you see, when I told the police about what happened, even though every word of it was true, I had a really hard time getting them to believe me. The jury too.’ He sighed.
‘In the end, I didn’t get a more serious prison sentence, but if I had, I’m not sure I’d have blamed them, given the circumstances. ’
‘I take it there was no CCTV or dashcam footage?’ asked Jess. She could not begin to imagine what Declan and his family must have gone through.
‘There was a camera further along the road that captured nothing. Dashcam wasn’t such a big thing back then.
Maybe if it was, the jury would have seen Tony talking on his phone and not looking where he was going.
’ He pushed away the picture of Tony falling to the ground. The one that had given him nightmares.
It all felt like too much to process. Declan had served time in prison for killing someone. Could Jess be certain he was telling her the truth about it being an accident? She thought once more of Maisie lying innocently in her bed, oblivious to the evils of the outside world.
She prayed that she would be a happy teenager and not remotely interested in drugs.
All she could do as a parent would be to advise her daughter and be there for her, as she imagined Declan’s mother was.
It was hard to imagine the pain Declan’s mother must have endured, losing a daughter and a son too when he served his prison sentence.
Jess needed to get her head around the news that Declan had just imparted.
‘I know this is a lot to take in,’ said Declan, reading her thoughts. ‘So I will go now. I just thought you deserved the truth,’ he told her as he stood to leave.
At the door he stopped and searched her eyes. ‘I like being around you, Jess, and I hope I haven’t screwed things up. But I don’t want any secrets between us,’ he said, and despite the revelation she still felt something stir inside her when he stood close.
‘I appreciate it.’ She smiled.
‘Well, I will leave you to it. I know it’s a lot to get your head around, but I promise you it was an accident. Anyway, goodnight, Jess. Thanks for giving me a chance to explain,’ he said, wondering if she would ever go out with him again.
‘Goodnight, Declan.’
After he left, Jess topped up her glass and sat staring into space from the sofa, until the sky outside darkened and she stood to close the curtains. Declan’s secret was huge, but how many of us harboured secrets, however small?