Chapter Four #2
Meena’s lip curled. ‘Was he ever ruled out?’ she asked.
‘Not by the tabloids as far as we can tell,’ Jacks replied.
‘But he was by the police,’ Connor added. ‘Obviously, they had the twins’ DNA, but no match was ever found to identify a father …’
‘Nicole always said she didn’t know,’ Cristy told them.
Meena frowned in confusion.
‘She was a promiscuous girl,’ Cristy explained.
‘But she must have known who she slept with,’ Meena protested.
Cristy suddenly found herself half-overcome by a flush of heat starting to build inside her.
‘All I can tell you,’ she said, looking around for something to fan herself with, ‘is that she was assessed for post-partum depression before the trial … It wasn’t as big a thing back then as it is now, I mean obviously it was, it just wasn’t recognized in the same way.
Anyway, the defence psychiatrist claimed she had it and what do you know, the prosecution leans in heavily on all the stereotypes of mental instabilities and irrational behaviours that can come with it.
It was pretty misogynistic actually, not to mention insulting and insensitive. ’
‘Was it generally believed that she really did have it?’ Clove wanted to know.
Flapping a useless Post-It back and forth, Cristy said, ‘Much depended on who you spoke to, and what their pre-conceived opinions of the condition were. I don’t suppose much has changed there, actually, although on the whole I think people are more sympathetic even if they don’t really understand it.
Anyway, moving on,’ she said to Jacks, ‘have you found addresses for any of Maeve’s family yet? ’
‘Doing my best,’ he assured her, ‘but there’s a lot to go through, and trying to pick out their names … Her sister’s married, apparently, so no longer a Reynolds – Maeve’s maiden name – and for the moment, nothing on the brother.’
‘That makes me suspicious right off the bat,’ Meena declared.
Cristy didn’t disagree, although she didn’t recollect anything in particular about Nicole’s uncle coming up at the time.
‘Remember,’ she said, ‘everyone, even Maeve herself, was under suspicion for a while. It was held by some – I never found an actual source for it – that both she and Ronnie could have been part of the same cult or sect that wanted the babies for sacrifice.’
Wrinkling her nose, Clove said, ‘Are we talking actual sacrifice here, as in killing them? Or as in like, you know, giving them up for … like adoption or something?’
‘I guess it could mean anything,’ Cristy replied. ‘But once again, no actual evidence of them being involved in a cult.’
‘Although it’s kind of speaking to me,’ Clove confessed, ‘but maybe I’ve read too much of that stuff.’
‘Going back to the blood in the house,’ Harry said. ‘The fact that some belonged to one of the twins is what led to Nicole being charged?’
‘And tried and found guilty,’ Jacks pointed out, once again reading from his screen.
‘I mean, there were other factors, but that was the main one. During the trial, her defence barrister made a big deal out of how regularly small children fall over and graze or cut themselves, so no house in the land with kids living there could be free of blood traces …’
‘So it really was only traces?’ Meena interrupted.
‘That’s what it says in this report,’ Jacks replied.
‘It’s from the Western Daily Press, dated halfway through the trial.
Same date, different paper, says there was a “bloody scene” in the children’s bedroom.
This line was taken by the nation’s sweetheart – not – Molly Terrance, never known to let facts get in the way of a good story.
There’s also a report of hers claiming that Nicole was soaked in blood when she ran screaming out of the house to raise the alarm, but no mention of a source.
And here we have a statement from Julian Hargreaves’s office calling the exaggerations and misinformation in certain sectors of the press “shameful”. ’
‘That still doesn’t tell us how much blood there actually was,’ Harry pointed out.
‘How did the prosecution describe it at trial?’ Meena asked.
Taking the question, Clove said, ‘We don’t have a transcript of the trial yet. I’ve put in a request, but given how they work, I’m not expecting to hear back this side of next Christmas.’
‘We’ll hope to get more out of Julian Hargreaves when we see him,’ Cristy said. ‘Now, as I think it’s a given that we’re moving forward with this, here are our next moves—’
‘Hang on, don’t we want to run it past Iz first?’ Meena asked.
Cristy stared at her, while Connor glared.
Isabel “Iz” Penny – and the Sponsorship Liaison Group who employed her – were their main source of funding, and Iz had been known to kick back on some of their ideas in the past. Connor, in particular, was deeply resistant to the money men having any say at all regarding editorial input or final content.
Although Cristy was of a similar mind she was perhaps less hostile, but bringing this up now was, for her, an untimely reminder of how much bigger and better financed the series could be if they turned it into a flagship for Paul Kinsley’s and Vikram Rathour’s RK Media.
Pushing the thought aside, she said, ‘I don’t think anyone here expects Iz, or any of her team, to push back on the story, but I’ll call her this evening to talk it through with her.
So, our next steps … Jacks and Clove, I know you’re still info gathering from the archives.
Anything back from Matthew yet about my own reports? ’ she asked Connor.
‘Yep, he’s on it, says we should have something soon.’
Cristy shot a quick glance at Meena, who was undoubtedly expecting, or hoping, Matthew would come back with a reminder of how the case had affected his now ex-wife back in the day.
When Meena said nothing, Cristy continued.
‘We’re going to need a list of all the main players: lawyers, police officers, witnesses – I’m talking forensics, psychiatrics, anyone else who was put on the stand – also, try to find out if Nicole made any particular friends in prison.
If they’re out now and willing to engage, they might have some insight on who visited her, who she talked about, if she ever mentioned the twins. ’
‘Where did she serve her time?’ Harry asked.
‘She was at Bronzefield for most of it,’ Clove informed him, ‘but ended up at Eastwood Park until she was paroled.’
‘So not too far away,’ Connor commented, bringing the prison up on a map. ‘Could that mean she’s staying nearby? Isn’t that how it works where parolees are concerned?’
Reading from his screen, Jacks said, ‘It depends on the risk assessment and the conditions imposed, so it’s not mandatory that she stays local to the prison. What are the chances of Julian Hargreaves telling you where she can be found?’ he asked Cristy.
‘Small, I’d say,’ she replied, ‘and I’m afraid it’s not going to be this afternoon.’ Looking as fed up as she felt, she said, ‘I’ve just had an email from his PA. Apparently, he’s been called into court so he has to reschedule. Will four o’clock next Thursday work for us?’
‘Shit!’ Connor muttered under his breath. ‘He’s kind of key to everything.’
‘Only if he’s willing to tell us what we want to know,’ Cristy pointed out. ‘For now, let’s focus on the detectives who worked the case and hope that at least one of them has retired by now – surely a good chance of that – and is ready to share.’
‘Sending a few names your way,’ Jacks told her. ‘Something else we need to do is go door to door over at Randall Lane, see if anyone there has an idea where Maeve might be – unless she’s come back in the last couple of days.’
Cristy said, ‘We knocked on a few doors while we were there, but it was a working day, so maybe you and Clove could try again over the weekend?’ To Connor, she said, ‘We have a lot of reading and viewing to do, so maybe not such a bad thing that Julian Hargreaves has bumped us. We’ll have more to go in with next week this way. ’
Getting to her feet and stretching luxuriously, Meena said, ‘You won’t forget to call Iz, will you? It’s not just polite to keep her up to speed – it’s necessary if we want her to bring the right sponsors on board.’
Such a horrible put-down flashed in Cristy’s mind that it almost made her head spin.
Remind me again what you and Harry do now that Iz controls the funding?
Thank God the words hadn’t escaped her – and nor would they, ever.
Hurting the people she cared about was not who she was, and besides, she knew very well that Harry and Meena worked closely with Iz and the SLG, always with Hindsight’s best interests at heart.
So where the hell had that nastiness even come from?
Was this the kind of person she was about to turn into via hot flushes, sleepless nights, weight gain and hair loss?
Later, as she walked along the Harbourside towards home, umbrella up, ankle boots splashing in puddles, she quizzed herself again over that awful moment.
Though she knew she’d been irritated with Meena over the untimely reminders of her mental health issues back in the day, not helped one bit by the fluctuation of hormones now, there was also the underlying stress of Kinsley’s offer.
It was undoubtedly playing its own part in skewing her reactions to things, and if it was going to assist in changing her into the sort of person who turned on her friends, then maybe she ought to refuse it now.
She had Kinsley’s number; it would be the easiest thing in the world to connect to him or even to send an email saying thanks, but no thanks. No hard feelings.
So why didn’t she? There was nothing to stop her, and no harm would be done because no one even knew about it yet.
The fact that she didn’t want Kinsley to think less of her was an ego-driven pathetic excuse – or was she actually seriously considering accepting?
Was her conscience – her sub-conscious – already trying to create a distance between this life here in Bristol and a new one in London by taking the gloss off treasured and established relationships by hardening her heart?
Deciding there was no point tormenting herself any further over one random – and, thank God, unspoken – thought that wasn’t even meant, she pushed it aside and refocused on the Ivorson case.
There was a time, maybe a year or so into her sentence, when Nicole had agreed to a visitor request from Cristy, only to turn into a no-show when Cristy had got to the prison.
After that, she’d never replied to any of Cristy’s letters; nor had Maeve.
It was Ronnie who’d finally got in touch, not with her but with Matthew, to ask him to persuade Cristy to let things go.
She’d forgotten that until now: Ronnie had actually rung Matthew to get her to back off.
By then, she’d just given birth to Aiden, and because Matthew had been afraid that she’d start imagining Noah Ivorson was reincarnated in their son, he’d literally ordered her to stop.
She actually hadn’t suffered any such craziness after Aiden; his had been a much easier delivery.
However, after a fight with Matthew over his offensive manner, she had decided it was time to move on, in spite of still feeling quietly desperate to know what had really happened to the twins.
That feeling was back, that burning need to find out what had really taken place that hot July day back in 2005, when Nicole had gone out to bury a dead cat and returned to find no sign of her twins.
It had been implausible then, and remained so now, but what was just as intriguing, unsettling even, was why Nicole had decided to confess to the killings after all these years. And why was nothing being said about the bodies?