Page 55 of High Season
“Honestly? I didn’t have anywhere else to go. And I thought…” she trails off, shaking her head. “I don’t know what I thought. But whatever it was, I was wrong. This place isn’t good for me. I never should have come back here.”
Nina swallows. This place isn’t good for any of them. Too many memories, too much pain.
Josie straightens fully.
“I’m sorry about your sister,” she says. “I always was. But you can’t fix things, Nina. Not for me. It’s too late to take back what you said.”
@TRUECRIMEFANGIRL_2002
POSTED THREE WEEKS AGO
Hey, true crime babies. Me again! You’re back watching my series on the unaliving of Tamara Drayton. And boy, you guys have been loving this series. Loving it! In fact, these videos have been the most popular since my JonBenét Ramsey series, and I know how much you little freaks loved that one.
But you guys seriously need to relax in the comments. Because these videos have attracted some people who are obviously not real true-crimers, saying we need to chill out, and that it’s—I don’t know—gross to be talking about someone’s death like this or something? But you guys need to understand that we do this because we care. Because, at its heart, that’s the point of our true crime community, right? We are all about cracking forgotten cases wide open and bringing new information to light, and hopefully getting justice for people. Seriously.
And yeah, we have a bit of fun with it along the way, but that’s how we get attention for our cases, OK? So I do not appreciate all the commenters calling me a voyeur, or a tragedy whore, or whatever.
But look, I read my comments. I really do read each and every one of them. And trust me, I have seen the people who have been coming for me, saying that I’m biased, saying that I’m ignoring anything that supports Josie Jackson being Tamara Drayton’s killer. So I want to be fair with you guys. I want to switch things up today, and go over all of the evidence that Josie unalived Tamara Drayton.Because I am nothing if not fair to these victims. And that’s what it’s all about really, isn’t it? Making sure these victims get their stories heard. So let’s get into it, and talk about why people think that Josie Jackson is guilty.
So the biggest piece of evidence used at trial was the testimony of little Nina Drayton. Needless to say, that was the smoking gun. Pretty much all the other evidence against Josie was circumstantial. But sure, there’s some stuff that’s hard to explain away.
So, first of all, there’s the relationship between Josie and Tamara. I have a whole separate video about this. I’ll link so that you can check it out, but turns out these guys actually knew each other a lot more than either of them had let on to other people, and there was a pretty complicated history there. Enough, some might say, to give Josie a motive for killing Tamara.
Now, second of all, Josie’s fingerprints were found in Tamara’s room. And this might not sound like a big deal, but Evelyn swore up and down that Josieneverwent into Tamara’s room. Tamara was pretty private, and her room was usually locked. The prosecutor suggested that after killing Tamara, Josie might have gone up to her room to dispose of evidence—remember the ten-minute time slot that I talked about before? Tamara’s diary was recovered, but numerous pages appeared to have been torn out of it, and Josie’s fingerprints were found on the drawer where the diary was kept. Could Josie have ripped out the missing pages? Could there have been incriminating evidence inside that diary?
Another thing that’s interesting is that a big part of Josie’s defense was that she was completely dry when she was arrested. Her clothes weren’t wet, she didn’t have a bathing suit with her, she didn’t look like someone who had just been in a pool. Now, this is huge, and you’ll see it mentioned in absolutely any post or podcast defending Josie Jackson. It’s actually the thing that got me on to the case in the first place. But when police were searching Tamara’s room several days later, they also found a discarded swimsuit which was covered in Josie’s DNA. Like, we’re talking so much that shehadto have been wearing it. But here’s what’s weird. That swimsuit—it actually belonged to Tamara. Did Josie get into the pool wearing that swimsuit, and then change back into her own clothes before anyone could find Tamara?
So, look, I get that this is a lot to process, a lot of information. But I would love to know what you guys think. Are you team Josie? Or does this stuff change your mind? You know where I stand. Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to like and follow if you want more juicy details on this story.
Crimebusta: TEAM JOSIE!!!
Helena_murderess: Yeah, like, this stuff could so easily be explained away.
Holistichealing89: I mean, honestly, this is making me question everything. Sure, that stuff is circumstantial, but along with the Nina Drayton stuff? It sounds pretty watertight to me…
Adrianna3210: This case honestly drives me CRAZY. Tamara Drayton was found fully clothed, but Josie was supposedly wearing this swimming costume? That doesn’t fit with what Nina Drayton said. None of it makes any sense! Thanks for giving me another sleepless night trying to figure this out
SEVENTEEN
2004
FIVE WEEKS BEFORE THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
Josie knew, although she would never say it, that Hannah felt sorry for her.
She saw it in the way that Hannah always looked at her with a sympathetic tilt of her head when Hannah did better at school. How Hannah always tried to excuse the fact that she still lived with both her parents by complaining too much about her dad, talking about the fights that often brewed at home with an eagerness that made Josie suspect she was trying to make her feel better about her own parents’ divorce. The way that she extended the invites that Blake Drayton occasionally tossed out to her as if she was doing Josie a favor.
Sometimes, Josie wondered if she and Hannah would ever have become friends if Josie hadn’t encountered her on her way to the sea in those hazy first few weeks in France. If this meeting, along with the fact that they were both outcasts at the money-soaked school over the hill, had thrown them together far more than any shared interests or commonalities. She suspected that, in another world—back in England, perhaps—the two of them would not have become close at all.
As summer drew to a height, the crowds on the beaches thickening, the sea bloating with swimmers, Josie barely saw Hannah. Hannah said that it was because she was busy at the dive shop, helping her parents out, but Josie knew. She always knew more than Hannah thought she did.
Besides, Josie was busy, too. She was at the pink house most days, babysitting Nina. Evelyn was even more frantic than usual, her quest to hold Harrison’s interest giving her a frenzied, manic air as she planned nights out at romantic restaurants, days when she would give Josie a handful of cash to keep Nina busy and entertained.
Josie pocketed most of the money, amused by how demanding Evelyn must imagine her five-year-old daughter to be. Instead, she took Nina down to the beach to paddle in the shallows. She took her to a cheap burger joint and laughed at Nina’s evident delight at the mounds of fries and sickly sweet ice cream milkshakes. She took her to the small art deco cinema in the town, a relic of the resort’s past, and promised her popcorn if she was good for the entire film.
Once, Tamara, seemingly running out of things to do when her mother demanded a free house, joined them. They went to get pizza at a place usually filled with locals. They sat at the Formica table, Nina swinging her legs between them, a pizza slice the size of her head clutched in both hands.
“What’s your brother doing tonight?” Josie had asked.
