Chapter 30
Eve loaded an icebox into her car boot. It was Good Friday and the entire family was descending on Sascha and Graham, including Eve’s parents, who were over from France.
Sascha would be making roast lamb and potatoes, while Eve was on vegetables and had already prepared green beans and sprouts with chestnuts.
Mackenzie and Simon were bringing dessert.
Eve’s parents would no doubt have brought plenty of wine with them.
She hadn’t seen them for over a year and was looking forward to everyone being together.
She pulled into Sascha’s road just before twelve and was surprised to see Simon’s car parked outside; she hadn’t expected Mackenzie and Simon to arrive before her.
Graham answered the door and gave her a quick hug, but he seemed a little distant and not his normal jovial self.
She followed him down the hallway and into the kitchen, bracing herself for the possibility that he and Sascha had had a row.
The table had been extended and covered with a chintzy blue tablecloth and was already set for nine.
She smiled across at Mackenzie and Simon, who were already seated at the far end, but before she could greet them properly, she caught sight of her mum, who got up, smiling, from the sofa in front of her, and then her dad was pushing away Pooh, the dog, and getting up too, and there were lots of warm hugs and welcomes.
Then Eve’s nieces were there and Sascha was busy calling out orders to bring this and take that, chop this or pour that.
Eve unpacked her vegetable dishes onto the island and Sascha said, ‘Thank you,’ somewhat curtly.
Eve asked if she should heat them, but Sascha said no, she would do it, and asked her to open the wine instead.
Mackenzie and Simon remained seated at the table and Eve flashed them another smile, which Simon returned.
Mackenzie quickly became absorbed in something on her phone and Eve wondered if it was perhaps Simon and Mackenzie who had had the row.
It wasn’t until they were halfway through lunch that Eve realised she was the problem.
Eve’s nieces and her parents and Graham and Simon were all chatting away as normal, but each time she spoke, Eve noticed Mackenzie and Sascha exchanging looks across the table, and it sank in that neither of them had made eye contact with her since she’d arrived.
Immediately after dessert, Graham stood up and announced that Pooh needed a walk.
Simon jumped up, a little too quickly, and said that he would come too, and then Sascha said that everyone should go and have a walk along the Thames Path towards Chiswick and give her a chance to clear up.
Eve got up too, but Sascha hissed, her voice low, ‘Not you!’
And then Graham had ushered everyone but her, Sascha and Mackenzie out of the door, and the house fell silent.
‘What’s going on?’ Eve asked, looking from her sister to her daughter and back again.
‘What’s going on?’ Sascha repeated. ‘Now let me see.’ She wiped her hands on a tea towel, looking as though she might cry.
Eve glanced at Mackenzie, who sighed, shaking her head from side to side and making a disbelieving face. ‘We know, Mum,’ she said. ‘We know about your boyfriend.’ She spat the word out.
‘Oh, yes,’ Sascha jumped in. ‘That’s it. You’re sleeping with a convicted murderer and rapist. That’s what’s going on.’
For a brief moment, Eve felt as though she was going to faint. ‘How did you find out?’ she managed to say, sinking back into her former seat at the table.
‘The police came,’ Sascha said. ‘A detective. He told us everything. He told us that your boyfriend’s real name is Jamie Clarke and that—’
‘—that he’s not long come out of prison,’ Mackenzie chimed in.
‘And that he isn’t rich and he doesn’t own the house in Norham Gardens.’
‘And that he’s on the sex offenders register.’
‘And that he tied a woman up and raped her – brutally raped and strangled her – in front of her seven-year-old daughter!’
‘What! No! The police told you that?’ Eve gasped.
‘Mum, it’s all over the internet!’ Mackenzie challenged her, looking disgusted. ‘Your boyfriend is all over the internet!’
‘You told us he was famous!’ Sascha said, letting out a strangled cry, a half sob, half laugh. ‘But this …’
‘The bit about her daughter seeing him – that’s a lie,’ Eve said. ‘And they had no right talking to you.’
‘Oh, so the police are wrong and you’re right in this fucked-up scenario?’
‘Yes, because he didn’t do it!’
‘Oh my God!’ Mackenzie cried out. She looked incredulous for a second, then, placing her elbows on the table, she put her head in her hands.
Eve could see her daughter was upset and she wanted to go over and comfort her, but she knew she couldn’t. Instead, she watched as Sascha went over and stroked Mackenzie’s shoulders for a moment before sinking onto her own seat and picking up her wine glass.
‘He’s not my boyfriend,’ Eve said weakly. ‘I’m not sleeping with him.’
‘Don’t lie, Mum!’ Mackenzie cried out, lifting her head. ‘Why do you have to keep lying? You sat there at the wedding and you told us you were!’
‘I didn’t! That’s not what I said.’
‘How could you, Eve?’ Sascha burst out. ‘How could you even want to have sex with someone who tied up and beat and raped and strangled a woman and … and left her on the floor half-naked. Half-fucking-naked, and … and dead. And with her daughter right there,’ she added, her voice shuddering. ‘Her seven-year-old daughter!’
‘He didn’t do it.’ Eve spoke more forcefully this time. ‘It wasn’t him!’
‘Mum!’ Mackenzie made a wake-up face. ‘They all say that! How can you be so naive!’
Eve sighed. ‘I can’t believe you’re judging him like this when you don’t even know him.’
‘And we can’t believe you’re defending him!’ Mackenzie retorted.
Eve squeezed her eyes shut, blinking back her own tears, then took a deep breath. ‘He’s appealing his conviction. He has a lawyer and she believes him, and she’s going to get his conviction overturned—’
‘Of course she is. Lawyers are ambulance chasers. It’s what they do.’
‘She’s doing it for free. Pro bono.’
Sascha curled her mouth dismissively, as if she didn’t believe this for one minute.
Eve took a deep breath, deciding to keep the conversation on point. ‘He’s served his sentence,’ she said. ‘He’s out on licence, which means he’s done his time.’
‘Oh my God. And that’s what matters?’ Mackenzie wailed. ‘He’s done his time? Is that all you care about?’
‘Aren’t you worried about what he could do to you?’ Sascha asked, her eyes wide. ‘He could kill you!’
‘He’s innocent,’ Eve said. ‘How many more times do I have to say that? He didn’t do it!’
‘You don’t know that, Mum!’
‘You don’t,’ Sascha agreed. ‘How can you possibly know that?’
Eve took another deep breath. ‘How can anyone possibly know unless they were there? How can anyone know for sure?’ She paused. ‘We learn how to trust people by the way they are towards us, towards others. And I’ve seen the way Joe is. I know him.’
‘You’ve known him three weeks!’ Sascha exclaimed.
‘It’s been longer than that.’
‘A month, then.’
Eve glared at her sister. ‘If he’s exonerated, will you believe him then?’
Sascha and Mackenzie exchanged glances, but neither answered.
‘Only, there have been quite a few other people locked up for rape or murder over the years,’ Eve continued, ‘and everyone called them monsters – right up until the moment when they found out they hadn’t done what they were accused of.’
‘Like who? Who has that happened to?’
‘Peter Sullivan. Andrew Malkinson. Victor Nealon. Sam Hallam. Colin Stagg. The Birmingham Six. The Guildford Four. The Cardiff Three. Judith Ward. Timothy Evans … I could go on. So, if Joe gets his conviction overturned, too, will you still think he’s guilty?’
‘Joe’s not even his name,’ Sascha said, ignoring Eve’s question. ‘He’s even lied about that.’
‘No, he hasn’t,’ Eve said staunchly. ‘That’s his name now. That’s one of the few freedoms he has left – to choose what he’d like people to call him.’
‘So why didn’t you tell us the truth?’
‘Because of … this!’ Eve spluttered.
Mackenzie’s head shot up. ‘You haven’t given him any money, have you?’
Eve realised she couldn’t take any more.
She pushed back her chair and stood up. ‘I’m going to leave now,’ she said, ‘before the others come back. Tell them what you like. Tell them I had a headache. I presume Simon and Graham know. Tell Mum and Dad I’ll call them tomorrow.
I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I had my reasons, but I doubt there’s any point in explaining, or asking you to understand. ’