Page 232 of Murder in the Family

MAURA HOWARD

(shrugging)

So it must’ve been Beatriz who put on the machine – what’s the big deal, for fuck’s sake—

She stops and bites her lip.

ALAN CANNING

(quietly)

It’s a big deal because Beatriz wasn’t there that evening. She’d left the house by 2 p.m. There isn’t a washing machine on the planet that has a cycle lastingeight hours.

(There’s a silence.)

It was Amelie, wasn’t it?

It isn’t a question. She doesn’t reply.

Do you know what I think happened?

She turns away; she seems on the verge of tears.

I don’t think you walked home with Amelie after Mitch dropped you off at all. I think you stood around waiting for her for quite a while before you realized she must have left the film early, just like you did. So you headed home, assuming she’d already be there, and you were right, she was.

But nothing could have prepared you for what you found.

CUT TO: RECONSTRUCTION. As previously shown, ‘Maura’ gets out of the Ford, but this time she waits there on the street, checking her watch. She hangs around for a while then starts towards Dorney Place, where she taps in the entry code at the gate and goes down the drive.

She lets herself into the house but there’s no one around. Looking slightly confused she goes into the kitchen. She can hear a noise, and when she opens the door to the utility room, she sees that the washing machine is on. She looks perplexed, but then something makes her turn round: it’s Amelie, blood on her face, as white as a sheet. Something terrible has happened.

ALAN CANNING

She was desperate – panicking – half out of her mind. She says she didn’t realize it would be Luke babysitting or she’d never have come home early. She says they had a godawful row – maybe she’d threatened to tell her mother what he’d been doing to her, who knows.

He continues to speak over RECONSTRUCTION.

Whatever the trigger, there was a struggle and at some point her hair got caught in the zip of his jacket.

She managed to get away and tried to escape across the garden. But he followed her, ran her down at the steps, they struggled again, maybe she pushed him, maybe he slipped—

CUT BACK TO: Dorney Place. Maura has her hand to her mouth, sobbing noiselessly. Guy steps forward and puts his hand on her shoulder.

ALAN CANNING

She doesn’t know what to do. She begs you to help her, and you say you will.

She’s your sister and you love her, and you agree to help her cover it up—

MAURA HOWARD

(shaking her head)

No – it wasn’t like that—

LAILA FURNESS

(gently)

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