Page 65 of The Cut
JUNE 2024
Catherine Maddock looked Max directly in the eye. Her face filled the entire wall of The Volume; the image was distorted because of the format. There was music playing in the background. Mendelssohn.
‘The investigation dragged on for almost a year, isn’t that right?’
‘Yes, the police were under enormous pressure to solve the case.’ Catherine held the camera in her gaze, staring directly into Max’s eyes.
‘And do you think they did?’
‘It was never clear what happened at the mill, but we all had to just trust the evidence.’
‘All the evidence except for the murder weapon?’
‘Yes, that was never recovered.’ Catherine swallowed down tears as the past suddenly came rushing back like a flood.
‘And there was more than one person’s DNA found on your sister’s body?’
‘Yes.’ She exhaled and gathered herself. ‘But it was the night of the leaving party. She could have danced with anyone, she could have kissed … anyone. She was a teenager. But the fact that they found her blood on Dave’s trainers was enough. Witnesses saw him at the scene. All the video tapes he made of her hidden in his bedroom, and the other personal items he stole from her, of course.’
Max closed his eyes; it was unbearable. He knew all too well what Catherine meant by other personal items. The trail that had248been left in the wake of his design, and he had done nothing to stop it.
‘You were friends with Mark Cherry.’ A flicker of something passed over her face.
Max closed in on the screen; he felt tiny in front of her towering image.
‘Marcello … yes.’ She smiled to herself and her eyes found the light at the window. ‘Best friends.’
‘And yet he didn’t testify at the trial, despite being at the scene of the crime.’ The interviewer paused.
‘Mark … wasn’t well in the days and weeks following …’ Catherine stared into the lens again.
‘Go on.’
‘His mind wasn’t clear … he … he had a breakdown. As an eyewitness, he could have changed everything … but he was … he was in hospital and then after that, he just vanished. We lost contact.’
Max slowly began to step away from Catherine’s face. The music was still playing the undulating chords like waves crashing against jagged rocks, mirroring the violent turbulence surging inside him.
‘I just want closure, Dad too. Mum has forgotten; in a way it’s a blessing that she has. Everyone got so caught up in the trial because it was all about Dave. But somewhere in the middle of it all, Annie got lost. My sister became just a body that had washed up downstream. I left her that night to go and watch the fireworks. If only I’d stayed.’
Max’s mouth tightened as the tears began to fill his eyes and the lump in his throat threatened to choke him.
‘They said all kinds of things about her – that she led him on, that she wasn’t a virgin. They said that he groomed her. I don’t249think any of it was true. They were fixated on Dave. A fight had broken out between Ben and Dave over her at the party; they said Ben was defending her. It got violent, but it became all about the boys. My sister was somehow sidelined as a statistic, like she was just a piece of meat.’
Catherine dabbed her face with a handkerchief and recovered her composure, staring directly at Max. The digitised face of his childhood friend penetrating his soul.
‘I just wish I knew exactly what happened to my sister that night, what she went through, so that we can all finally rest.’
Max was bent double; he crouched to his knees and clasped his hand over his mouth. He knew there was a way to give Catherine the closure she needed. He had always known there was a video tape that hadn’t been seen by anyone else. He had to find it.
Had he started on this journey for her or for himself? To release the grip that guilt had taken on his heart. Perhaps that’s how it had all started but now he knew he had to finish the story, not only for Cat but for Annie too.250
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JULY 1994
St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
