The Vow - Debbie Howells Page 0,88

lied, Ms Reid? What are you hiding?’ The pause is ominous. ‘We’ve found your friend. Allie Macklin.’ There’s another pause, in which my brain seems to become paralysed. ‘These days, known as Fiona Rose. I find it very hard to believe that when your pasts are so entwined, you honestly didn’t know about her and Mr Roche.’

‘What?’ I stare at him, utterly shocked.

The DI leans forward. When he speaks, his voice is disbelieving. ‘Surely you must have known that it was Ms Rose that Mr Roche was planning to leave you for?’

As he speaks, it’s as though I have no breath in my lungs. ‘I didn’t know.’ I stare at him, my heart racing. Imagining them together, an image fills my mind, expanding until I can’t think of anything else. ‘It can’t be her.’ It’s too far-fetched to believe it was her he was having an affair with – of all people. She must have known, all along.

The DI looks disbelieving. ‘Surely you’re not expecting us to believe that you didn’t know about Ms Rose or where she lived? She’s a lawyer, by the way – with a firm in Brighton. She was on her way home from work when she saw you.’

Dazed, I’m still reeling. So Allie – or Fiona – was the witness. As it sinks in she’s now a lawyer, I realise she’s given herself the credibility she always said she would. ‘You said the anonymous letter was addressed to her?’ Frantic, I seize the last chance to make them see reason. ‘It makes even more sense now. She would have known where we lived, wouldn’t she? Even as a teenager, she was selfish and reckless. Don’t you see how easy it would have been, for her to kill Matt and frame me?’ I’m pleading with them, desperate for them to see what to me is obvious. But they don’t know what Allie is like. How furious she was with me. How she’d say anything to anyone, just to get to me.

The DI doesn’t respond. ‘There’s one thing I don’t understand. It’s why you’ve lied about your house.’

Still stunned by the revelation that it was Allie Matt had been seeing, I shake my head. ‘But you didn’t ask about my house.’

‘You lied by omission, Ms Reid. You let us assume facts which weren’t correct. And the house is only part of it, as you know. Can we continue talking about the day your sister died? Ms Rose has already told us her version of events. We know something happened there, that until now, the two of you have kept secret. What was it?’

This is the moment I’ve dreaded. The moment I thought would never come, knowing that after the lies I’ve told, when I tell them the truth, they won’t believe me. ‘Kimberley drank a herbal remedy. Only it wasn’t one of my gran’s. Allie – Fiona – and I made it.’ As I pause, silence falls. ‘She was jealous of Kimberley. She had a crush on Kimberley’s boyfriend, Charlie. She wanted him for herself, it was as simple as that. When Allie got something into her head, she could be ruthless. One night, when she saw them together, something snapped inside her. The next day, she persuaded me that we could prepare a potion to make Kimberley fall out of love with Charlie.’

‘You went along with it?’ The DI sounds disbelieving.

I nod. ‘It was honestly intended to be innocuous. Kimberley was my sister. I would never have wished her any harm. Allie and I climbed into the walled corner of the garden where my gran worked. There was a door which she always kept locked, but part of the wall was crumbling – it had completely collapsed by the time I moved there. We found her notebook.’ In the small room, my voice seems to echo. ‘It listed what each plant symbolised. I don’t remember exactly what we used, but it was probably something like cyclamen, which means goodbye. Yellow rose for infidelity – Allie thought if Kimberley was unfaithful to him, Charlie would break up with her. Five-leaf clover for bad luck. Then …’ Remembering, I shake my head. ‘Allie added something from a bottle she found. I didn’t see her do it. I found out later, it was labelled darkness. She didn’t tell me until after Kimberley had drunk it – we’d poured the potion into her orange juice. We were always making potions – harmless ones, from lemon balm and mint or other