Page 115 of The Mercy Chair

Poe shook his head. ‘According to Israel Cobb it never got that far. He also said it was a one-way thing. That Aaron became attracted to Bethany when he was going through puberty but she rebuffed him. I think she thought he was being silly.’

‘Which isn’t as uncommon as you might think,’ Doctor Lang said. ‘Once you put teenage hormones and insular childhoods in the melting pot of puberty, anything can happen. A brother developing a crush on his sister is surprisingly common. It rarely leads to anything, but it does happen. Was there a catalyst?’

‘Aaron was caught with Bethany’s underwear under his pillow. More than once, I think. That was what had got him in so much trouble on the night Bethany described in her journal.’

Poe stopped to trace a circle in some spilled tea.

‘Grace spoke to Cornelius about it and Cornelius said he would cure Aaron the same way he cured homosexuality. Israel only became aware of what Cornelius had been planning when Aaron turned up with an overnight bag. By then Bethany was already sedated and secured somewhere in the compound.’

Doctor Lang shook her head in dismay. ‘They sacrificed their youngest daughter to cure something a first-year psychologist wouldn’t break a sweat on?’

‘The more we delved into this case, the more we came to realise just how expendable Bethany was to Noah and Grace. It wasn’t that they didn’t care about her; it was more that they actively hated her. Cornelius knew about their feelings towards their daughter and, when he explained what they needed to do to cure Aaron, they jumped at the chance. Probably wished they’d thought of it sooner.’

‘They were monsters,’ she said.

‘They were.’

‘And you watched this video?’

‘I did,’ Poe said.

Chapter 102

‘You’ve got to understand how small Aaron Bowman was,’ Poe said to Doctor Lang. ‘I mean, he was tiny. We had the video cleaned up later, of course, but even on the rough cut Israel Cobb showed me, Aaron could easily have passed for eleven or twelve years old.’

‘You don’t have to tell me this, Washington,’ Doctor Lang said. ‘Not if you don’t want to.’

Poe continued, as if he hadn’t heard her. ‘He was terrified,’ he said. ‘So was Bethany, of course, although she also had a resigned look. Almost as if she’d expected something like this to happen to her. But, out of all the videos I watched, Aaron kicked back the most. He resisted to the point I thought Cornelius might actually give up.’

‘But he didn’t?’

‘No, he was enjoying himself too much to stop. I have no idea what Bethany could have done to make so many people hate her, but Cornelius was definitely one of them. In fact, the only person in her life whodidn’tseem to hate her, was the person throwing rocks at her.’

‘Cornelius convinced Aaron in the end?’

‘Convinced isn’t the word I’d use. It took almost an hour of in-his-face ranting, but in the end, yes, Aaron surrendered to the inevitable.’

Poe closed his eyes as he recalled the final moments of Bethany Bowman’s life.

‘Aaron could barely lift the first rock Cornelius handed him,’ he said. ‘He had to throw it underhand, like he was playing French cricket. It bounced harmlessly off Bethany’s shoulder. I doubt it even bruised her.’

‘And the second?’

‘There was a break between the first and second.’

‘What happened?’

‘Cornelius and Israel had a blazing row. Israel was begging him to let Bethany wear the hood and Cornelius was refusing.’

‘She wasn’t offered a hood?’

‘No, for some reason Cornelius was being particularly vindictive with her. He’d instigated the murder of five men before Bethany, but he hadn’t taken any pleasure from their deaths. Like I said, he referred to them as “it” if he referred to them at all. They were just things to him, of no more importance than the toy from a Christmas cracker. But when Israel was begging him to let Bethany wear a hood he seemed genuinely happy. As if Israel’s distress was equally as important as Bethany’s terror.’

‘Like he was punishing Israel as well.’

‘That’sexactlywhat it was like,’ Poe agreed. ‘I asked Israel why Cornelius had acted this way and he swore he didn’t know.’

‘Bethany was never offered the hood?’

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