Page 123 of Worse Than Murder
‘It was early evening, but with the storm, it was as black as night,’ Lynne says.
‘But I was asleep. I never sleep in cars.’
Lynne shrugs.
‘You always told me it was you who lifted me out of the car, but I remember a man in dripping waterproofs picking me up. Who was that?’
‘I don’t know, Alison,’ Lynne says. She stands up and goes to the window. ‘It was so long ago. I don’t… I just remember seeing the car and jumping out of Iain’s truck and running towards it. Maybe Iain picked you up and he handed you to me. I honestly can’t remember. I was just so relieved you were all right.’
‘What happened the next day?’
Lynne turns back from the window. ‘What?’
‘The next day? What happened? I have no memory of it.’
‘We’d called the police as soon as we got you back home, but they were so busy with the storm. It wasn’t until the next morning when someone came out to the house and a search began.’
‘Where was I?’
‘You… you were in bed.’
‘All day?’
‘Most of it.’
‘Why?’
‘You were tired. You’d been through an ordeal.’
‘No, Mum, I hadn’t. I was asleep in the back of the car. When I was picked up, I was half asleep. Then you put me to bed with a hot Vimto. I remember all that now. From my point of view, there was no ordeal. Why was I asleep for the following day?’
Lynne looks at her blankly.
‘Mum, was I drugged?’
‘What?’
‘On the night of the storm, was I drugged? Did someone drug me and rape me?’
Lynne crumbles. She almost bends in two as emotions grip her like a vice. Alison runs to her and holds her in her arms.
‘I’m so sorry, Mum, but I need to know what happened to me as a child,’ she cries.
‘I’ve told you everything I know, Alison,’ Lynne screeches through her tears. ‘I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to protect you. Please forgive me.’
Alison holds her mother carefully. She hasn’t received the words of comfort she had hoped for. She hasn’t received the harsh, naked truth. In fact, she’s left with more questions, and she doubts she’ll ever get the answers to them. Despite her mother’s clear distress, Alison has the dark feeling there is something that is being kept from her. Surely, the day after the storm, with Alison feeling tired, a doctor would have been called. Had one come out to the house and diagnosed signs that she’d been drugged and possibly raped? Just what is everyone hiding from her and how the hell is she going to find out the truth?
Philip Meagan knows that, if he begins tearing down a wall while his son is at school and misses all the excitement, his life won’t be worth living. So, with tools bought from the local hardware shop, he waits until Carl is home before telling him of their plans for the evening once the restaurant is closed. Before Carl can even ask, Philip tells him, yes, he can stay up past his bedtime.
Like most Thursdays, business is slow in Nature’s Diner, and Sally asks me and Adele to have dinner in the restaurant to give the illusion they’re busy. A free meal is never to be refused so we accept and dress for the occasion. Sally comes to the rescue once again and furnishes us with evening wear from her vast collection. We’re like two little girls playing dress-up with their mother’s wardrobe.
We sit in the window of the restaurant. I’m wearing a figure-hugging dress with thin straps.
‘I know inside you’re probably a mess,’ Adele says. ‘But from the outside, you look so healthy. The outdoors obviously suits you.’
‘Running and swimming seem to be the only things that stop the screams in my head. I still cry but I can’t tell what are tears and what’s sweat pouring down my face.’
‘I still can’t believe it,’ Adele says. ‘Penny. Joseph and Nathan. How can someone do something like that? And for what?’
