Page 43 of Cuckoo

Anyway, I don’t know why I’m sitting here writing about Mother when I’m on my way to Italy with a gorgeous man. I’mgoing to write a list of the things I want to do so that when we land we can look at them together and work through the checklist.

Have some great red wine

Have a great pizza

Have some great pasta

Have great sex (obviously)

Visit an outdoor market

Go on a gondola

A sight-seeing tour?

Visit Doge’s Palace

A sunset cruise

Walk over Rialto Bridge

And can you see the weird red smudge on the side of the page here? I somehow cut my finger open when I was trying to open a dodgy can of fizzyaranciatafrom the airport shop. The metal must have been old because the part you pull open just basically crumpled and ripped in half and cut my finger. Noah took it to the counter and complained and they gave me a plaster, but it’s bled through. We joked about it and said it’s probably an omen that something terrible and gruesome will happen to me when we get there, some sort of tragic boating accident where I’ll lose a limb next!

Things can’t stay perfect forever, after all.

Claire

Chapter Forty-One

Dr Dianne Campbell

The jury is silent as each of them takes in the injury documents and photographs that Dodgson has submitted to the court. Grosvenor tries to turn her body away from me, to shield me from seeing the photographs in front of her, but I catch the flash of crimson and I remember standing in that perfect cream room with Lilah’s skull caved in, bleeding out onto the carpet.

I feel momentarily light-headed and grip the table with my hands to stop myself from swaying.

‘Have some water.’ Grosvenor slides a cup towards me, her voice uncharacteristically gentle. ‘And try not to look at the photographs.’

I close my eyes, gathering myself, as Dr Campbell begins to speak, her thick Scottish accent making me frown in concentration.

‘You can see here,’ she says, pointing at a medical illustration which I refuse to look at, ‘the skull has been dented at the pterion, just by the temple. This was the main injury that would have led to death by bleed on the brain.’

‘Is it common for this sort of injury to occur?’ Dodgson asks her.

‘It is not an uncommon head injury, and in fact there is an artery which runs right below the pterion here’ – she points again – ‘which means that any sort of traumatic impact to the skull in this area can very easily lead to aneurysms or haematomas.’

I’m trying to follow as best I can, but the medical language is throwing me and I’m not sure what’s going on. I look to Grosvenor for reassurance, but she’s scribbling away on a pad as though it all makes perfect sense to her. I risk a glance at the jury and can see a few frowns as they try to keep up.

‘And so you’re saying that the cause of death was an injury or impact to the skull?’ Dodgson confirms.

‘I am, yes.’

‘And do you think it possible that the injury stemmed from the victim knocking her head against the mantelpiece as shown?’ he asks, a picture of the crime scene appearing for those in the courtroom to assess. The mantelpiece looms in the centre of the room, and all I can think is how sharp the corners look, how hard the marble surround must have felt when Lilah hit her skull against it.

‘Yes, I do think that if a person were to hit their head on the corner of this mantelpiece it could very easily impact the skull hard enough to cause the brain to bleed,’ Dr Campbell confirms.

‘Can you tell us about her other injuries?’ Dodgson asks.

I take a deep breath– this is the evidence I am most concerned about.

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