The Vow - Debbie Howells Page 0,95

‘She told us about the small bottle labelled darkness.’

Silence fills the room, as I nod, my stomach turning over. ‘Amy was jealous of her sister. She was obsessed with her boyfriend. She wanted Kimberley to dump him, but at the last minute, I think she saw her chance and got carried away.’

DI Lacey shakes his head. ‘And the pair of you told no-one.’

Ashamed, I nod. ‘But in actual fact, Kimberley was hit by a car.’

‘Which would never have happened if the poison wasn’t taking effect,’ the DI points out. ‘In any case, the post-mortem showed she’d ingested enough of it to kill her.’

‘I don’t remember the details.’ My voice is low.

‘Tell us the reason you and Emily kept your secret all this time, Ms Rose.’ The DI’s voice is harsh.

I shake my head. ‘I think we both wanted to forget. Nothing we did was ever going to bring Kimberley back. My parents moved me to another school. After that, we lost touch.’

‘Let’s go back a bit.’ The DI pauses. ‘To right after Kimberley was hit by the car. What did you and Emily do next?’

‘I don’t know. We were too shocked to do anything. It was horrific.’ My shoulders tense as I remember.

‘Not too shocked to steal away and cut your fingers, then press them together in some sort of twisted little ritual while you swore a vow of secrecy? Minutes after your friend’s sister had died?’

‘That isn’t what happened.’ My teeth are gritted. The only reason he knows this is because Amy’s told him.

‘That’s not what we’ve been told. And you still haven’t really answered my question. Why have you never told anyone?’

I sigh. ‘Emily’s grandmother took the blame – she felt it was her responsibility to ensure the jars weren’t accessible. They didn’t prosecute her, because it wasn’t her fault. But you don’t forget something like that. The reality stays with you. Forever.’

‘Is it true she found the bottle labelled DARKNESS in your pocket?’

Startled that he knows about the bottle, I shake my head. ‘I don’t remember. But if she did, it doesn’t mean I put it there.’

Clearing his throat, DI Lacey looks at the papers on the table in front of him. ‘Emily was punished for her part – eventually, after her grandmother’s death. She left Emily the house, but in the intervening years, she’d planted a memorial garden to Kimberley, so that each day Emily lived there, she would always be reminded of what she’d done.’ He pauses. ‘There was another proviso in her will, that Emily could never sell. If she did, your secret would have been out. Her grandmother had left a letter with her solicitor, addressed to the police, explaining Emily’s involvement in Kimberley’s death.’ He leans towards me. ‘My question to you, Ms Rose, is what punishment did she mete out to you?’

My first instinct is to say none, because I wasn’t guilty. ‘She didn’t need to. She told my parents what happened to Kimberley. They sent me away to a vile school where I was bullied. Then they cut me off. I never went back home again. From the moment she told them, I was on my own.’

‘But at least you were alive.’ This time, the DI speaks quietly. Then he shakes his head. ‘While Kimberley wasn’t. And when you met Mr Roche, you had no idea it was Amy who he was living with?’

‘None whatsoever.’ This time, I’m completely straight. Glancing at my watch, I’m unable to believe how much time has passed. It’s early afternoon already.

DI Lacey notices. ‘We’ll take a break. Twenty minutes. There’s still something I don’t understand.’

*

Outside the police station, I have a cigarette for the first time in years.

‘I’ll go and get us sandwiches.’ Bill looks up and down the street for a shop.

I shake my head. ‘Don’t worry on my account. I won’t be able to eat anything.’

‘This is a mess, Fiona.’ Bill’s voice is quiet, urgent. ‘Your word against Amy’s, no proof on either part …’

‘I know.’ I exhale slowly. ‘There is one factor in this. Emily – Amy – is completely unstable. I wish I knew what she’d said to the police. She’s probably sent them all around the houses before finally coming up with her version of events – a version she believes, even though it’s wrong, because she can convince herself of anything.’ There’s a bitterness in my words that comes from knowing the way she works, her ability to play the innocent victim. ‘We’ve both come across those types