Chapter Thirty-Five
The following afternoon, the whole team was in the office, working through the weekend again to put together an episode for Tuesday.
The debriefing of Cristy and Connor’s visit to Bryn Helyg had to wait, for now.
With most of the backstory having been covered in the first three episodes, it was time to move on to Nicole’s sentence and continued claims of innocence – until her sudden and so far unexplained confession.
All this could be achieved without giving rise to suspicions that they were in touch with her; however, any mention of Claude Meier’s and Lauren Hawkes’s prison visits was proving tricky.
It wasn’t the right time to play in Meier’s interview, since it had to be combined with Nicole’s, and as for Lauren …
Given they still didn’t have a way of contacting her, there was nothing much they could say about her really.
‘Obviously we can reveal, through ex-DS Patten, that the police spoke to Meier at the time of Nicole’s arrest,’ Cristy decided, ‘and maybe we can say that he’s had contact with her since she was sent down …’ She stopped to think that through.
Connor said, ‘It wouldn’t cast any doubt on her confession or link us to any sort of contact with her, only mark him out as a person of interest during the initial police inquiries.
So yeah, I think we can go with that, and maybe end with something like: “Next time, we’ll bring you some intriguing details of Nicole’s relationship with Jean-Claude Meier, whose police statement seems never to have made it to Nicole’s defence team?
” We won’t be able to use her actual recording, obvs, but no reason not to play in at least some of his. ’
Cristy nodded agreement and was about to start typing it into the script when both her and Connor’s phones signalled an incoming WhatsApp from Honey.
Putting the call on speaker, Connor said, ‘Working on a Sunday? Whatever next?’
‘Is Cristy with you?’ Honey asked sharply. ‘She needs to hear this.’
‘I’m right here,’ Cristy called out. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Nicole has been returned to custody,’ Honey informed them.
Cristy’s heart stopped.
‘Why? What happened?’ Connor demanded.
‘Someone let it be known that she was in touch with you guys.’
‘Jesus Christ!’ Connor muttered.
Cristy was reeling, but shock yielded fast to fury. ‘It has to have been Meier,’ she seethed, and snatching up her phone, she scrolled straight to his number.
‘So everything you told us was a lie,’ she accused when he answered. ‘You don’t want to see her at all, and now you’ve got her locked up again—’
‘Cristy, stop! What are you talking about?’
‘You let it be known that she’d spoken to us. No one else knows that—’
‘But why would you think I’d do something—’
‘You tell me why you did it.’
‘I am trying to tell you that I didn’t—’
She wasn’t listening. ‘You know exactly what happened to the twins, don’t you?
’ she cried furiously. ‘You convinced – brainwashed – Nicole into confessing … Well, take it from me, the whole world is going to know the part you played in this, and if you think the location of your precious compound is safe, think again.’ As she slammed the phone on the desk, cutting him off, she was shaking so hard that Clove came to put steadying hands on her shoulders.
‘We fell for it,’ Cristy shouted at Connor.
‘We were taken in like everyone else. All that bullshit about some special connection, one true love, belief in her innocence. He did it! I’m telling you: he took those twins.
Not only that – I’ll stake everything I own that he knows exactly where they are now.
Lying, cheating, manipulative bastard …’
‘Cristy, there’s something here you need to see,’ Jacks told her.
She turned to her screen as he shared his findings.
Clove read out Molly Terrance’s latest article:
Exclusive: Baby Killer Returned to Custody.
Police were called to a South Gloucestershire location early this morning to arrest Nicole Ivorson, who is said to have broken the terms of her licence.
Ivorson, convicted murderer of her own children, Noah and Abigail, when they were only eleven months old, recently confessed to her crime after years of maintaining her innocence.
A condition of her parole was that she would have no contact with the press, but this reporter can reveal that she has been working with Cristy Ward’s Hindsight team to try and prove her innocence.
Cristy was speechless.
‘How the hell does she know that?’ Connor growled. ‘Who the fuck told her?’
Cristy’s eyes closed as the horrible, unthinkable truth dawned on her. ‘I told Meier about her,’ she confessed. ‘It doesn’t matter how it came up – it just did – and so I’m to blame for this.’
Connor stared at her, as did the others.
‘I’m still here,’ Honey reminded them. ‘I heard all that, so at least we know how it happened.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Cristy said. ‘I could—’
Honey was still speaking. ‘Obviously you guys can’t have any more contact with Nicole, and I doubt Maeve will want to hear from you either.
I’m truly sorry this hasn’t worked out. I was actually starting to hope we were getting somewhere, but this …
It’s hard to see how to get past it now that Nicole could be facing an increase, rather than a reduction, to her sentence.
Thanks for everything you’ve done – for believing in her even.
It’s just a shame it turned out this way. ’
As she ended the call, Cristy felt herself dying inside.
‘I’ve fucked up so badly here,’ she groaned.
‘I’m sorry, guys. I don’t know what to tell you …
There isn’t anything … I’ve just well and truly screwed our entire series, not to mention put a potentially innocent woman back in prison … Fuck, fuck, fuck!’
Her head went back in an attempt to stem the tears, but they just kept coming, faster and unstoppable. ‘Oh hell,’ she choked. ‘I’m sorry, I …’
‘It’s OK, shit happens,’ Connor told her, trying to calm things down, ‘and we’re here for you – you know that. We’ll sort something out. We just need to take a breather, let it all sink in and come up with a plan. We can still try to clear Nicole’s name.’
Appreciating his unswerving support, not to mention blind optimism, Cristy swallowed hard and said, ‘I need to make a call … I shouldn’t be long …’ And picking up her phone, she took it across the hall to the deserted meeting room.
As she scrolled to Paul Kinsley’s number, she knew that any going back on the decision she’d already reached to turn his offer down was completely lost to her now.
If she could make this sort of mistake, misjudge someone as badly as she had Claude Meier, thereby losing a possibly innocent woman her liberty, she had no right even to be thinking about trying to create a new empire of podcasts.
She wasn’t fit to continue this one, given the state of her mind, and the fact that even now she had no idea whether she was overreacting or not only went to prove her point.
Kinsley picked up on the fourth ring. ‘Cristy! On a Sunday, no less. Can I assume that’s good? Did you see my links, by the way? Great apartment Dinah found, don’t you think?’
She still hadn’t opened the links, and probably never would now, so there was no point getting into it.
‘Paul, I’m really sorry,’ she said quietly, ‘but I can’t accept your offer.
I’ve given it a lot of thought, obviously, and honestly, I came within a heartbeat of accepting, but something’s happened …
Actually no, it’s not about that – it’s about my team, my life here in Bristol, realizing I’m actually really committed to what I have …
’ She didn’t add if I still have it – there was no need.
‘Obviously, I feel really honoured that you thought I was the right person, and maybe I would have been once, just not now.’
There was a lengthy silence before Kinsley said, ‘So what’s really going on? Is it still the Molly Terrance thing, because—’
‘It’s not her. I mean, I sure as hell never want to work with her, but to be completely honest, I’m going through a bit of a challenging time personally, which will make it hard for me to give a hundred percent to something as demanding as what you’re proposing.
Plus, as I said, I find I’m even more committed to my team here than I realized. I’m sorry, Paul, I really am—’
‘Don’t apologize,’ he interrupted, ‘just keep thinking, because I’m not giving up on you yet.’
Both touched and annoyed, she said, ‘My decision is made. If you don’t let me go, you’ll just make it harder.’
‘I’m not here to make it easier. I’m here to give you the opportunity you deserve, and no matter what you say, you are the best person for the job. So, go away, sort out whatever shit needs sorting, and we’ll talk again in a week or two. Sorry, I have to ring off now – we have guests in for lunch.’
‘Of course, I …’
Realizing he’d already gone, she clicked off at her end and sat with the phone between her hands, staring at nothing, while seeing images in her mind of Nicole being taken from the converted stables in South Glos, feeling frightened and confused …
She presumably had no idea at this stage that Meier had played a part in the revoking of her licence …
Cristy frowned as something snagged in her mind. It was about the location. The Terrier had apparently known where Nicole could be found. The only person who could have told her was Meier … Except she, Cristy, couldn’t remember telling him.
She reconnected to his number and was surprised when he answered.
‘I was about to call you,’ he told her. ‘I’ve seen the online article now, so I have a better understanding of why you’re so angry, but I can assure you I am not behind this, and nor is anyone here. I’m as upset as you are …’
‘If it wasn’t you, or anyone there, then who? Because I swear it wasn’t one of us.’
‘You know your team better than I do, so I’ll take your word for that. I’m just sorry you felt that I wasn’t to be trusted … I thought we’d reached an understanding … Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. All that matters to me is Nicole.’
As he ended the call, Cristy looked up to find that Connor had come into the room. ‘Did you hear any of that?’ she asked.
He nodded. ‘Here’s a question for you,’ he said. ‘If we ever found ourselves in Terrance’s position – a rival running away with a story we badly wanted – what would we do?’
Cristy frowned as she thought, until finally connecting with where he was leading her, she said, ‘She had us followed. That’s what happened, which means we’re still to blame, for not being more vigilant, but …’
‘She’ll have used a PI,’ Connor stated.
Getting to her feet, Cristy said, ‘Let’s give her a call, find out what she has to say for herself. And I think we’ll record it.’