Page 126 of Don't Believe A Word

‘You keep saying that,’ Cristy told him.

He glanced over at her. ‘She is completely batshit,’ he stated.

‘But still clever enough to know that we don’t have a definitive answer to anything,’ she said. ‘So I guess it’s down to the lawyers whether or not we get to use anything from the journals in the final podcast now they’re under injunction.’

Connor grimaced. ‘Are we going to tell Sadie what her aunt just accused her of?’ he asked, accelerating out of the gates.

‘I don’t see how we can avoid it.’ She turned to him. ‘How much of it did you believe?’

His breath expelled in a humourless laugh. ‘I don’t even know where to start with that,’ he confessed. ‘Sadie writing the journals? Sadie offing her aunt?’ He shook his head incredulously. ‘What are you thinking?’

Cristy gazed out at the passing landscape, wondering if they were anywhere near the spot where Janina had lost her life. ‘I’ll admit she’s got me as confused as she no doubt intended,’ she replied, ‘which has to make her one of the most deviously manipulative, not to mention cunning and calculating individuals we’ve ever encountered.’ The ghastly image of the noose came back to her. ‘Do you think she really would hang herself if we got clearance to use the journals?’ she asked. ‘Or was it just an act?’

‘She’d never do it,’ Sadie declared when they returned toPapillonand put the question to her. ‘It’s the kind of crazy thing she does to get her way. Suicide threats, locking people up, acting insane … It sounds like she got really extreme today … I’m sorry …’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Anna jumped in. ‘You can’t be responsible for the way she is.’

Smiling her thanks, Sadie said to Cristy, ‘Did she let you record anything?’

Cristy shook her head and decided they could go no further until Sadie knew what she’d been accused of. As the girl’s mouth fell open and tears flooded her eyes, Anna went to put an arm around her.

‘I’m sorry,’ Sadie choked. ‘I – I had no idea … Oh my God! I’ve shown you the journals, you have copies, so you can see it’s not my writing. I can give you samples of Lottie’s that match … But why would she try to make out I interfered with Lottie’s medication? I’dneverdo anything like that. IlovedLottie. I love them both, but this … It’s a form of coercion, isn’t it? If we keep going she’ll accuse me of a murder I didn’t commit, of forging Lottie’s journals … She’d never be able to prove it, because none of it’s true … Oh my God, this is terrible. First she kills my mother, then her own sister …’

‘So you believe in Lottie’s journals?’ Cristy said gently.

Sadie nodded. ‘Yes, I do. I think everything happened the way Lottie wrote it, maybe until the car was forced off the road. And that, maybe that’s something they did together?’

Cristy nodded, suspecting the same. Seeing the way Sadie was trying so hard not to show how broken and betrayed she felt inside, Cristy’s heart went out to her.

‘What I’m asking myself now,’ Connor said, ‘is why would Lottie write it all down?’

Sadie swallowed hard. ‘It must have been in case it did all come out. If it did, then she’d have a version that she could claim had more credibility because it was written at the time.’

‘But pushing all the blame onto her sister,’ Cynthia said. ‘What a terrible thing to do, if she was involved too.’

‘I’m sure Mia would have done the same if she’d thought of it first,’ Sadie responded bleakly. ‘It’s only now that I’m really seeing just howtoxictheir relationship was.’

Holding firmly to one of Sadie’s hands, Jasper said, ‘We’re going to have some big decisions to make in the next few weeks, such as do we want to stay on at the lodge after all this?’

Sadie looked lost, haunted, as she rested her head against his and said, ‘Before that we’ll need to do what we can to get the injunction lifted on the journals. I can see,’ she said to Cristy, ‘that it would totally screw up your series if you can’t use the most … damning parts, and after everything you’ve done, all the research and moral support …’ She sighed despairingly. ‘I don’t want to do it to Mia,’ she said, ‘but at the same time we can’t let her hold us to ransom like this. I mean, I don’t think for one minute that she’s serious about using that noose, or about trying to blame me for something she knows I didn’t do … But once I leave, if she feels she doesn’t have anything left to live for … Maybe she will do her worst.’

‘We need to talk it through with the lawyers before we go any further,’ Cristy said. ‘We know we can’t use Lottie’s record of the crucial day as it stands, but maybe there are ways around it?’

Sadie looked confused.

‘Sorry, thinking aloud,’ Cristy told her. ‘But whatever we do, we have to be certain it doesn’t fast track us straight into court.’

‘Definitely not where you want to end up,’ David declared, glancing up from his phone. ‘Right now though Sadie has other things to think about.’ His eyes were on her and his voice softened as he said, ‘They’re just coming in through the gates.’

As colour rushed to Sadie’s cheeks Cristy felt a wrenching of nerves in her own heart. It was hard to imagine how momentous this was for Sadie when she, Cristy, like everyone else in the room, had always known exactly where she was from, and who her family was. Today, the next few minutes, were probably going to change everything for Sadie in ways too big and too subtle even to guess at, and Cristy could only wish she wasn’t feeling so uneasy about it. Why was she so tense, so worried that something would go wrong, that it would all blow up in their faces, when she had no logical reason to feel that way?

Picking up on Sadie’s nerves again, she said, gently, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to do this alone?’

Sadie shook her head unsteadily. ‘No, I want you to be there,’ she insisted. ‘I think it helps that you’ve already met them, and like I said, I’d really love to have a record of it.’

‘In which case,’ Connor said, ‘shall I video it for you?’

Sadie broke into a smile. ‘Yes, please, that would be lovely.’ Then to Jasper, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening.’

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