Page 51 of Murder in the Family

(shrugs)

You were there too – you’d have seen just as much as me.

GUY HOWARD – off

I don’t think I would. I was only 10, and to be honest I don’t think I was very observant.

MAURA HOWARD

(sighs and looks away)

Mum was – distracted. She was going out more during the day and getting back late. There were phone calls too – phone calls she’d take upstairs and close the door.

GUY HOWARD – off

Could she have been having an affair?

MAURA HOWARD

(looking back at him)

I never thought so at the time. I guess it wouldn’t have occurred to me.

GUY HOWARD – off

Seriously? You were 15. You had a boyfriend yourself by the following summer.

MAURA HOWARD

Look, I told you, I didn’t think about it.

GUY HOWARD – off

What about Amelie?

MAURA HOWARD

(starting to fiddle with her sleeves)

You’d have to ask her that, not me.

GUY HOWARD – off

She doesn’t want to talk about it – you know that. She doesn’t think we should be ‘raking up the past’. That’s why she’s refusing to be interviewed on camera.

MAURA HOWARD

(takes a deep breath)

Look, if you’re asking if Amelie thought something had been going on with Mum that summer then the answer is Yes.

She had to go home at lunchtime one day because she’d forgotten her swimming kit, and as soon as she opened the door she could hear people upstairs. Grunts, moans. Sex noises, basically. Which was, of course, excruciatingly embarrassing, so she just went and got her stuff as quickly as she could and tried to pretend she hadn’t heard anything, but when she got back downstairs Mum was in the kitchen. Apparently she looked a bit flushed and her blouse was buttoned up all wrong.

GUY HOWARD – off

Am told you this at the time?

MAURA HOWARD

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