Chapter 43
‘Sarah? It’s Eve here. Can you speak?’
‘Hold on a second. I’m just in the car. I need to step outside …’ There was a pause and then Sarah said, ‘OK, go ahead.’
‘I’ve just been to visit Joe.’
‘How was he?’
‘Bearing up. Just about.’
‘So what’s going on? I haven’t managed to get a legal visit yet. Frustratingly, it’s often quicker to get socials.’
‘Well, he told me what happened,’ Eve said.
‘And?’
‘He talked to Bella. Christy’s daughter.’
‘What? How? And why?’
‘She found him through his mother, apparently. Persuaded him to meet her. He was reluctant, but the upshot is that she isn’t sure about the original evidence she gave.’
‘Hang on a minute,’ Sarah said. ‘I’m standing in the middle of the street. I just need to get somewhere more private.’ Eve could hear the sound of traffic and footsteps, and then Sarah was back. ‘What do you mean when you say she isn’t sure?’
‘She’s been having flashbacks. Nightmares. It’s made her question the evidence she gave in Joe’s original trial. She isn’t sure she picked the right man.’
‘So, let me get this right … she wants to retract her statement?’
‘I think so. I hope so. She seems to believe Joe didn’t kill Christy. Joe thinks she was coerced.’
‘OK. But now he could be accused of coercing her. That’s why he had those conditions not to talk to her.’
‘I know,’ Eve said, ‘and I told him that this presents a problem for us. But we wouldn’t know any of this if he hadn’t talked to her, would we?’
‘Well, I suppose she ought to have gone to the police. But I can see why she wouldn’t want to.’
Me too, Eve thought. ‘I told him that you probably wouldn’t be able to talk her. But someone needs to and—’
‘No,’ Sarah said sharply.
‘I just meant that I could broker whatever needs to happen next?’
‘No,’ Sarah said again, then her voice softened.
‘Not you, Eve. It can’t be you. You’re …
involved with Joe. And that’s OK. It’s fine for you to be in a relationship with him.
But this makes you the last person who should be talking to Bella.
We have to make sure her evidence will stand up in court. ’
‘OK, but, Sarah, someone needs to do this sooner rather than later, because … because there’s stuff going on.’
‘What kind of stuff?’
‘Bella thinks there was someone in her house the night her mum died – someone besides Joe. She thinks it might have been a cop.’
The line went quiet for a few seconds. ‘Sarah?’
‘Yes. Sorry. Just thinking about what you said.’
‘Look, there’s this DI who’s been going around telling lies about Joe to my family and my boss, and probably anyone who will listen, and I’m pretty sure he’s behind Joe’s recall.’
‘What’s his name?’
‘He says it’s Carver. DI Jon Carver. He came to see me about Joe.
Tried to warn me away from him, under Clare’s Law, you know.
But then he talked to my sister and my daughter and told them stuff that was untrue.
And I’m pretty sure it’s him who went to see my boss and told him Joe was seen on campus at the college where I work. ’
‘But he wasn’t?’
‘Joe says not, and I believe him – it would make no sense for him to have been there.’
‘Which force is he from, this DI?’
‘He said it was Thames Valley Police, which I guess would be the force to keep tabs on Joe as he’s living in Oxford.
But I’ve looked online for him and I can’t find him.
I’ve searched news reports and the Police Federation and IOPC websites, but nothing came up.
I didn’t want to call 101 and ask for him in case it gets back to him, but, Sarah, I think he’s following Bella and trying to put the frighteners on her, and he probably knows where she lives by now, and …
and if we want this retraction, we need to get to Bella before he does. ’