Stop asking about Patrick, Melissa wanted to say. My younger daughter’s about to be arrested!
‘He’s fine,’ Bill said.
‘He’s awake,’ Melissa added, watching Grace for a response. But there was no response.
‘Do you want to go and make us a cuppa with Jackie?’ Bill asked Ross, the message clear in his eyes: Leave us all alone.
‘Of course,’ Ross said, placing his newspaper down and walking from the room, gently closing the door behind him.
Bill nodded at Melissa, a silent message that everything would be okay. Melissa went to Grace, crouching down on the floor and taking her hands. She explored her face. She looked so innocent, so young.
‘Dad told us what happened,’ she said, eyes still on Grace. ‘The nice detectives are going to take you to the station and ask you a few questions, darling,’ she said softly. ‘And you must tell the truth, you hear me?’
‘What did Dad say?’ Grace asked.
Detective Crawford stepped forward. ‘He said you stabbed him, Grace.’
‘But I didn’t!’
Melissa frowned. ‘Then what happened, darling?’
Grace looked first at her mother, then her grandfather, then she sank her head. ‘I can’t say.’
‘Come on, then,’ Detective Powell said, giving Grace a rare smile. ‘Let’s head down to the station. My daughter will be very jealous you’re getting to see where I work when she hasn’t!’
Melissa looked at the detective in surprise. She’d presumed she didn’t have children.
‘Am I allowed to take my book?’ Grace asked, hugging her battered book close to her chest.
‘Of course,’ the detective replied.
Detective Crawford peered up at the ceiling. ‘We’ll need to question the twins too. Best we chat to Grace first, though.’
‘And me,’ Melissa said. ‘I want to tell the truth.’
‘Melissa,’ Bill said in a low, warning voice.
‘It’s time to tell the truth, Bill. The whole truth.’
Chapter Forty-Five
Forest Grove Facebook Chit Chat Group
Saturday 27th April, 2019
11 a.m.
Andrea Cooper
Just in case people haven’t heard, I have some truly wonderful news: Patrick Byatt is awake and well! Wishing him a speedy recovery!
Charlie Cane
Oh, that is wonderful news . . . I wonder if they’ll put him forward as a candidate now he’s awake? I hope so!
Barbara Bell
Been reluctant to share this but it has to be said: I just saw Melissa and little Grace being led to the police station by the detectives in charge of Patrick’s case. Looked very serious to me . . .
Graham Cane
Well well well.
Rebecca Feine
Why Grace? She’s only little – what could she possibly have to do with it?
Eamon Piper
Melissa hasn’t been by Patrick’s bedside since he woke, according to my sister-in-law, who works at the hospital. Just his parents.
Belinda Bell
That speaks volumes.
Kitty Fletcher
Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?
Belinda Bell
That Melissa has been arrested for her husband’s attack? Yes, that’s precisely what I’m suggesting. These things are always closer to home than you think. What did I say about something not being right about this whole thing?
Pauline Sharpe
Her poor children.
Kitty Fletcher
Yes. People are very good at putting on these personas in public but, behind closed doors, it’s a different matter. Imagine what those poor kids must have witnessed.
Rebecca Feine
Now come on. We don’t know the whole story.
Belinda Bell
Exactly. We don’t know the whole story. We never have with her. It’ll all come out in the wash, it always does.
Chapter Forty-Six
Saturday 27th April, 2019
11.35 a.m.
‘Must feel a bit like déjà vu?’ Detective Powell asked as she sat across from Melissa in the small interview room, Grace next door with Detective Crawford. Melissa was pleased it was Detective Crawford interviewing Grace. He had kind eyes, not Detective Powell’s hard, relentless, dark ones.
‘Shall we start at the beginning?’ the detective said. ‘So, from the moment you arrived home from work the day Patrick was stabbed.’
Melissa nodded. ‘It’s exactly as I told you in my original statement. I walked in and found Patrick on the floor with what I thought was just a head wound but then turned out to be a stab wound too. The kids told me they’d found their dad like that too. What I didn’t tell you,’ Melissa added with a sigh, ‘is that I saw a knife on the kitchen floor. The knife you discovered was missing from the knife block? When I left the kids alone to let the paramedics in and came back into the kitchen, that knife was gone.’ She looked down at her lap. ‘I knew then something wasn’t right.’