“Do you remember what happened next?”
“Yes – I arrived at her house about midnight, but I didn’t go in straight away. I started to have second thoughts. I wasn’t even sure she would still be up, although I could see a light on.”
“But you did go in?”
“Yes. The curtain twitched and I realised she must have seen me. It’s all a bit of a blur after that. I remember sitting in her living room, talking and drinking coffee, and it was all quite civilised, except I was getting awfully sleepy. Then Isabel said she had a box of Julio’s things in the garage, and could I give them to him? I said I’d go with her to get it, but that’s all I can remember.”
I cover my mouth with my hand. Why not finish the job? Why not go all out and say that I was the one who attacked her? That’s clearly what she’s implying. But Holly hasn’t done that. She’s left that little, niggling room for doubt. That’s the way Alicia likes it. She knows it’s the not knowing that drives me crazy.
But worse is still to come. Julio is called to the stand.
“Isabel Anderson is your sister?”
Julio wrinkles up his face, as if he’s just swallowed a spider.
“Half-sister, yes.”
It’s like he’s ashamed of me!
“How did she react when you started going out with her best friend, Kate?”
“Delighted – she was over the moon.”
“And when you married her?”
“So excited. She helped organise the whole thing. You’d think she was the one getting married.”
“So how did she take it when you broke up?”
“Not well at all. She didn’t speak to me for several months.”
“Would you say it affected her badly?”
He clears his throat. “She was devastated.”
“And when did she start speaking to you again?”
“When I invited her over for Christmas. I wanted her to meet Holly and see that I was serious about her.”
“How did Isabel react when she met Holly?”
Julio shifts uncomfortably. “I thought she liked her at first but…”
“Go on.”
“Then she started hounding her, ringing her up at all times of the day and night. She wanted Holly out of my life,” he pauses dramatically. “At any cost.”
My jaw drops open. The lying toad!
“How far do you think she was willing to go to achieve this?”
Julio gestures towards poor, damaged Holly.
“See for yourself.”
As time goes by, the audience in the public gallery dwindles. Most days it’s just me, slumped, semi-comatose in my chair as the lawyers argue over the finer details. And each night I return to my cramped, squalid, little cell, the events of the day replaying in my head, as my cellmates snore.
Kate is cross-examined about the prosecution’s theory that I did this to get her back with Julio. To me, the theory seems ludicrous, and yet, when I look over at the jury, they all look thoughtful and solemn-faced. But Kate is the only person who will admit to seeing Holly at the reunion. None of the other ex-campers will testify, and the bar staff all claim not to remember. How on earth can Brian prove my innocence when so many people are willing to lie?
“I’d like to call my next witness – Alicia McBride.”
Just hearing her name makes me quiver. I watch nervously as she places her hand over the Holy Bible. This is the first time I’ve seen her in months.
My hands make involuntary fists. I don’t know how to hold in my hatred. I long to leap over the dock and pummel her to a pulp.
You don’t know how close I’ve come to losing my mind.
I stare at her with intense hatred, revulsion even.
I hate you Alicia McBride! I wish you were dead.
I’ve built her up to be so much bigger in my mind, but here she is, looking sweet and innocuous as she stumbles her way through the oath. The prosecution lawyer begins to question her and her high-pitched voice breaks as she says the very words I ought to be saying:
“I don’t know why she’s saying these things about me. I don’t know what I did wrong.”
She glances fearfully in my direction and tears trickle down her cheeks.
“Take your time,” he tells her, softly.
I squirm in my seat. The prosecution must think Christmas has come early. Alicia is too convincing, too conniving. The entire courtroom is under her spell. I see one of the jurors reach up and pat her eye with a hanky.
I don’t believe it. Is that a tear?
I try to catch Brian’s eye, but he is focused on the next witness, who is already making her way to the stand. My heart beats a little faster as I catch my first proper glimpse of her. The likeness is uncanny. So much like Alicia, only more weather-beaten and wrinkled. She pauses a moment and looks guiltily in my direction. I look deep into her eyes, but it’s not there, the wickedness that lurks beneath. Finally, I know for certain. She isn’t the one. It really is Alicia who is behind all this. Jody is just too weak, too pathetic to refuse to do her bidding.
The prosecution lawyer questions Jody about her whereabouts on the night of Holly’s attack but she lies through her teeth. She admits going to the reunion, but as an ex-camper, there is nothing really incriminating about this. She denies seeing Holly there, denies ever having met her. The way she tells it, she just finished her lemonade and went home to bed.
But she isn’t Alicia. Is there a chance the jury won’t believe her?
Finally it’s Brian’s turn to speak up for me. He puts on a good show, but I can tell he’s lost some of his usual confidence. After questioning me in detail, he calls Deacon to the stand. I hadn’t even known he was going to testify. If Deacon is feeling nervous, he shows no sign of it. His tone is confident and straightforward as he answers Brian’s questions:
“Where was Alicia McBride staying on the night in question?”
“At my house.”
“And do you know what time she went to bed?”
“Yes – around half past midnight.”
“And do you know if she remained in her room for the rest of the night?”
“She did not.”
I sit up straight.
What?
“How do you know?”
“Because I looked in on her later and she was gone.”
“Do you know what time that was?”
“Yes – it was a quarter past two in the morning. I know because I’d just got a text which I thought was from Isabel, asking me to meet her at Robertson’s.”
Why has he never mentioned this before? Unless… unless he’s made it up. I watch him closely.
He has! He’s lying under oath!
My heart swells.
I can’t believe he lied for me!
The prosecution lawyer is quick to jump on him, though.
“Could she have been elsewhere in the house?”
“I don’t think so – she wasn’t in the en suite and there was no one in the lounge or kitchen when I left the house.”
“But it is a big house, isn’t it? Is it possible you missed her?”
“It’s possible, but I don’t think so.”
I brace myself as Brian calls his final witness – my neighbour, Mr Krinkle. Neville, apparently. Funny, I had never thought of him as having a first name before. I chew on a jagged thumbnail. My previously manicured hands are now rough and calloused, my nails brittle and broken. I work intently on the nail. I can’t watch. Everything hinges on his testimony.
“Did you see anything unusual in the early hours of February 27th, the night Holly was attacked?”
“Yes, I did.”
“What did you see?”
Mr Krinkle straightens his tie.
“I saw a blue Honda pull up outside Isabel’s house, just after midnight.”
“Did you see who was driving?”