Page 253 of Murder in the Family

(quietly)

Amelie – it wasAmeliewho cleaned it. The blood Maura saw, in the utility room. It was fromthis—

She must have seen what happened—

She’s known the truth this whole time—

Her cheeks are flushed. Some of them are glancing towards Guy, but the screen is off-camera. We can’t see him.

BILL SERAFINI

(shaking his head)

No wonder she needed therapy – Jeez – that poor kid—

MITCHELL CLARKE

(frowning)

So what was in the washing machine?

JJ NORTON

(turning to him)

My guess would be his pyjamas – they’d have been soaked in it—

LAILA FURNESS

Oh my God, she must have washed him, changed him, put him back to bed—

JJ NORTON

(nodding)

And then let Maura think that she was responsible – thatshewas the killer. She’s been protecting her little brother for nigh-on twenty years—

MITCHELL CLARKE

But she couldn’t really have thought he’d be locked up, surely? He was only 10 years old, for Christ’s sake—

HUGO FRASER

(quietly)

So were the boys who killed Jamie Bulger. Theyweresent to prison, and they were still there, ten years later, when ‘Luke’ was killed. It was all over the papers. And Amelie was 13 – easily old enough to have known all about the case.

MITCHELL CLARKE

But the Bulger killers were psychopaths – we’re talking aboutGuy. What the fuck could lead a normal 10-year-old kid to do something like that?

LAILA FURNESS

But 10-year-olds aren’t ‘normal’, Mitch – at least not in the way adults are.

Like I’ve said before, children don’t think like adults – you can’t talk about motive with a child that age, just impulse.

And that ‘impulse’ could have been everything from a visceral dislike of the man who took hisfather’s place, to being angry about missing a TV programme or not getting to play cricket—

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