Page 154 of Don't Believe A Word

It was making Cristy feel sick, and strangely exhausted, weighted by all the lies and deceit, the tragedy and the terrible, inexplicable fate that had bound them all together. The note Janina had tucked into her little girl’s pocket all those years ago …I know you are good people. Please take care of her until I can come back for her.

It was too tragic, too awful to think of what had happened when she had come back.

Janina and Sadie, Lottie and Mia. In a sane world they’d never have known one another; in that same sane world Sadie would never have been born. Lottie might have made a life with Robert. Mia might have found someone to love her in the end, and she, Cristy, might not be feeling so wretchedly, painfully mixed up about her own feelings for the girl who had never had the chance to know her mother. Being so close to her own daughter, and in no doubt about how much Janina had loved Sadie, it was tormenting Cristy to think of what Sadie had missed out on – and what was likely to happen to her now.

‘Cristy?’ Connor said quietly.

She looked up, saw his concern, and for one crazy moment she almost told Jacks to erase the call. In the end, because she had to, she made herself say, ‘We don’t have a choice, we need to send it to the police.’ She nodded to Jacks, an instruction for him to do the honours.

Out of nowhere she thought of Gabe and Lukas and found herself close to tears. This was going to be so devastating for them that she was already regretting bringing Sadie into their lives.

‘Why did she do it?’ she asked, barely above a whisper. ‘She had the journals … She was already using them to stop Mia changing her will, and yet she pushed her over anyway. Why? I don’t understand it.’

‘Because she’d had enough,’ Connor replied. ‘I’m sure that’s what she said. And if there was no more Mia, there would be no more threats, no more anything to stop her from getting – and doing – exactly what she wanted.’

Looking up from his computer, Jacks said, ‘It’s ready,’ and they all fell silent as they waited for Cristy to give the final instruction to press send.

She gave it and closed her eyes. Mia’s final moments, and Sadie’s fate, were now in the hands of Guernsey’s law enforcement officers – there was no going back.

*

Oddly, unnervingly, thirty or more hours passed with no word from anyone. The silence seemed to have a power all of its own, making them feel as though they were holding their breath, hardly daring to move, as they waited for something to happen.

‘Someone has to be in touch with us soon,’ Cristy remarked to David over a FaceTime call on Thursday evening. A whole week since Mia’s death that felt more like a year – and strangely like it had all been a bad dream.

‘There’s been a lot more police activity in the villa today,’ he said, ‘and around the cliffs below.’

Picturing it, wondering what they were hoping to find, she said, ‘They’re surely interviewing Sadie by now. Have you heard anything about that?’

‘No, but I do know that Victor Dubois has already told the police he had an appointment set up with Mia for Friday of this week – tomorrow in fact – to discuss a codicil to her will. So it’s possible she did mean to cut Sadie off if she refused to stay.’

‘I’m pretty sure that was behind it all,’ Cristy said.

‘Go on,’ he prompted.

‘We’ve wondered if Sadie was playing us right from the start – she lied about the pages, remember – but I think she really was just foolish where they were concerned. No, I’m certain everything changed for her when she read the journals to Mia and let rip with her fury. At some point then, or shortly after, she began to realize how useful the journals could be if she took out an injunction that she could hold over Mia. The journals – or the incriminating parts of them – would never be made public as long as Mia never changed her will. And it would probably have worked if Mia hadn’t gone ahead and threatened to cut her off again, as she did that night. Whether Sadie decided in that moment to put an end to the threats once and for all, or whether she went to the villa already knowing, even fearing what she was going to do … I guess only she knows. But whichever way you look at it, I’m sure, in the end, it was every bit as much about the money as it was about revenge.’

David audibly sucked in air as he considered her thoughts. Finally, he said, ‘I can see it, I only wish I couldn’t. Are you going to share this with the police?’

‘If I’m asked to, but I’m not sure they need anything from me now. The pocket-dial speaks for itself.’

‘That’s true. I don’t suppose Gabe or Lukas have been in touch since they sent the video?’

‘No, but I wouldn’t expect them to be.’

‘And the video’s lost all its power now anyway. Or it will once it’s known Sadie’s under investigation for murder.’

Glancing up as Aiden came into the flat, Cristy said, ‘My son has just turned up looking very wet and hungry so I’d better feed him. Are you still coming tomorrow?’

‘Of course. I should be in Bristol by six at the latest.’

‘Great. Jodi and Connor have invited us for a bite to eat, so maybe take a taxi straight there.’

*

By the time David arrived the following evening, there was still no word out of Guernsey, not from the police, nor Sadie and her family, nor any of David’s contacts.

‘You’d have thought someone would want to speak to us by now,’ Connor remarked, putting a drink in David’s hand as Cristy gave a pained look and pointed at the phone while mouthing,Matthew.

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