Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
Victoria
‘Do you have someone you can call?’ asks the policeman driving the car.
‘My phone is broken,’ I tell him. ‘Lawrence threw it against a wall when I was trying to call the police.’ I am conscious that every word I say is being listened to and remembered.
At the station, I catch a brief glance of Reese going into a separate room, her blood-covered hands clasped in front of her.
She doesn’t look at me.
Will she tell the same story I do? I need her to tell the same story.
I am allowed to use the phone to call Ed but he doesn’t answer as I knew he wouldn’t. His phone is probably on silent. Instead, I am given a mobile phone that I use to send him a message.
Will be home very late. Will explain when I see you. Everything is ok. I am fine.
A message filled with lies but I have no other choice. If they tell me I can’t go home, I will need to contact him again but I pray that I am allowed to go home.
Once my hands have been swabbed, I am at least allowed to wash away the blood. I watch it swirl down the plughole, letting the thought, I killed a man, bounce around my head.
My clothing is taken and I am given a new baggy, white paper jumpsuit to wear.
And then I am left alone in a room until a woman knocks and enters.
‘I’m Detective Sergeant Mulholland,’ she says, her brown eyes bright despite the hour. ‘Can I get you something to drink?’
I shake my head because I don’t feel able to swallow a single thing.
‘Right,’ she says, sitting down. ‘Let’s start from the beginning.’
I nod my head as I remember the first time I met Camilla on a summer’s evening, at a party where I played a game with two strangers, and thought I had found friends for life.
‘The truth is…’ I say clearly, even though I know that most of what I’m about to say is a lie.