Page 181 of Murder in the Family

JJ NORTON

Well, I know what that’s like. But what about ‘spoiling’ them in other ways – were they an affectionate family?

REVEREND CORMIER

I wouldn’t exactly say that. Larry was a pretty strict father, if you want an honest opinion. But I guess Marie did cosset Jonah a little. Tended to overreact if he had a sniffle or a grazed knee. I suppose she’d waited so long to have him she was terrified he’d be taken away.

JJ NORTON

(sitting forward)

I think you said you have some pictures you could show us?

Cormier reaches to a side table and hauls an old-fashioned photo album onto his lap. He reaches for his glasses and opens the pages. They’re so dry the paper crackles.

REVEREND CORMIER

My wife used to run Junior Church on Sunday mornings. Both Rebecca and Jonah would come. Though by the time Jonah was old enough Rebecca had graduated to organizing a lot of the activities. She always did love kids.

He gestures to JJ, who pulls his chair a bit closer. Camera angle over Cormier’s shoulder zooms into CLOSE-UP, tracking across a series of images: kids of six or seven sitting demurely listening to a woman with grey hair reading from a book of Bible stories; a sports day; a Nativity play with a dark-haired girl as Mary and a little blond boy in a bushy ginger beard as Joseph.

The camera comes to rest on a group photo with all the children lined up in rows, the older woman is standing on one side of the group and a tall red-hairedyoung woman in glasses is on the other. Someone has written all the names neatly along the bottom of the page. The red-haired young woman is ‘Rebecca’, Mary from the Nativity is ‘Julie-Ann’, and Joseph is ‘Jonah’. He’s wearing a T-shirt with a whale on the front and is standing next to Rebecca; she has one hand on his shoulder.

REVEREND CORMIER

(gesturing)

That’s Rebecca’s handwriting.

JJ NORTON

I assume the whale thing on the T-shirt was deliberate?

REVEREND CORMIER

(smiling)

It was his favourite Bible story. For obvious reasons.

JJ NORTON

Looks like Rebecca was quite protective of him.

REVEREND CORMIER

Oh yes, most definitely. There was this one time – Jonah was around nine – when one of his classmates stole something from another boy and claimed it was Jonah who’d done it.

It was Rebecca, not Larry or Marie, who went round to the guilty boy’s parents and insisted he confess his lie. It was in her nature: she couldn’t rest until the situation had been set to rights and the boy responsible was punished.

JJ NORTON

Where is she now?

REVEREND CORMIER

Moved away. Went into nursing. Last I heard she was working for one of those charities who help people in need overseas. MSF, I think.

(sighs and shakes his head)

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