A Room Swept White (20 page)

‘Seb, calm down,’ said Grace in a resigned voice, as if she didn’t expect him to take any notice.

‘It might not have killed him, but it’s still a fucking skull
fracture!’ Having made this declaration, Sebastian sat down again, shaking his head. Was he done? Sam hoped so. His own fault for asking.

‘One expert witness for the defence said the fractures could have been caused by something called Transient Osteogenesis Imperfecta, but there’s no evidence that such a thing exists,’ said Grace. ‘OI’s real enough, though rare, but Transient OI? No proof whatsoever – not so much as one recorded case. As Judith Duffy pointed out at the trial, OI has other symptoms, none of which applied to Rowan Yardley – blue sclera, wormian bones . . .’

‘When Duffy said there was no such thing as Transient Osteogenesis Imperfecta, the defence QC tried to make her look arrogant by asking how she could possibly know that for sure,’ Sebastian took over. ‘Could she point to any research that proved OI could never take a transient form? Of course she couldn’t. How do you prove that something doesn’t exist?’

‘I can’t remember who’s supposed to have said it, but it’s true,’ Grace muttered. ‘ “The greatest fool can ask a question that the wisest man cannot answer.” ’

‘The defence tried everything. They even wheeled out the old chestnut of what-if-he-fell-off-the-sofa? I’m a lawyer,’ Sebastian announced, as if Sam might not already be aware of his occupation, ‘and if there’s one thing I know, it’s this: when you’re running more than one defence, it’s because you know you’ve got no single line of defence that’s going to work.’

A loud sigh from Grace made him stop and look at her. ‘None of this is how
I
know Helen Yardley was guilty,’ she said. ‘You can argue endlessly about medical evidence, but
you can’t argue with an eye-witness account from someone who had no reason to lie.’

‘Leah Gould,’ said her husband, taking her hand again as if to thank her for reminding him. ‘The contact supervisor at the care centre where the Yardleys went to visit Hannah.’

Paige
, thought Sam. Not Hannah; not then.

‘Leah Gould saved our daughter’s life,’ said Sebastian.

‘Helen tried to smother Hannah in front of her,’ said Grace, her eyes filling with tears. ‘Pressing her face against her chest so she couldn’t breathe. Two other people saw it too – Paul Yardley and a detective sergeant called, of all things, Proust – but they lied in court.’

Sam did his best not to react. The Snowman, lie under oath about having witnessed an attempted murder? No. Whatever other bad things he was capable of, he wouldn’t do that. Sam knew Helen Yardley had included her version of the incident in
Nothing But Love
– Simon Waterhouse had told him. Sam needed to read the book, however much he didn’t want to.

‘You’d expect her husband to lie,’ said Sebastian bitterly. ‘For better or for worse, even if you’re married to a killer, but a police officer?’ He shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, at the trial, DS Proust’s remembrance of things past was flawed to say the least. He testified that in his opinion Leah Gould had overreacted, that all Helen did was hug Hannah tightly, as any loving mother would if she thought she might be about to be separated from her daughter for years, if not for life. Eleven out of twelve jurors ignored him. They trusted Leah Gould not to have plucked an attempted murder out of thin air.’

‘Though that’s exactly what she herself ended up claiming to have done,’ said Grace bitterly. ‘That dreadful Nattrass
man made so many waves in the media that everyone, even most of the original prosecution witnesses, ended up on the side of the convicted murderer against her victims. Nattrass made sure every tabloid scumbag got his very own Judith Duffy scoop, whether it was her promiscuity as a teenager, her callous childcare arrangements as a young mother, the job she’d been fired from as a student . . .’

‘It wasn’t about the evidence any more,’ said Sebastian, clutching his wife’s hand in a way that looked to Sam as if it might be painful for her. If it was, she said nothing. ‘It had become political. Helen Yardley had to get out of jail free, and quickly; she was becoming an embarrassment to the system, even though all Nattrass had in his arsenal was a case against Dr Duffy, one prosecution witness among many. All right, her behaviour was questionable, but she was only a small part of the case. Except, suddenly, she wasn’t. Some of the other doctors who’d testified against Helen Yardley changed their tune – none of them wanted to become Nattrass’s next victim. The prosecution team didn’t push for a retrial when they could and should have. Ivor Rudgard QC will have had it spelled out for him by someone from the Lord Chancellor’s office as was: drop this or you’ll never make red judge. So Rudgard dropped it.’

‘Next thing you know, Laurie Nattrass interviews Leah Gould in the
Observer
, and she says she’s no longer sure she saw Helen Yardley try to smother her daughter by pressing her face into her jumper. She now thinks it’s likely she panicked for no reason, and she deeply regrets the part she played in convicting an innocent woman.’ It was clear Grace could hardly bear to utter those words in connection with Helen Yardley.

‘Of course she’d say that once Helen Yardley’s free and everyone’s talking about witch-hunts and the persecution of grieving mothers,’ said Sebastian. ‘It isn’t easy to be the lone voice of dissent. More than ten years after the event, you can convince yourself that things were different from how they actually were, but the fact is that when she was in that room at the contact centre, Leah Gould pulled Hannah away from Helen Yardley and she believed that, in doing so, she saved Hannah’s life.’

Sam was starting to feel sorry for the Brownlees. Their obsession was weighing them down, sucking the life out of them. He suspected they went over and over the story, feeling fresh outrage each time they reached the part where Helen Yardley was freed. ‘How long have you lived in this house?’ he asked.

‘Since 1989,’ said Grace. ‘Why?’

‘So before you adopted Hannah.’

‘I’ll ask again: why?’

‘The Yardleys’ house is on Bengeo Street, only about five minutes from here.’

‘In terms of distance, perhaps,’ said Sebastian. ‘In all ways that matter, Bengeo Street is worlds away.’

‘When you adopted Hannah, did you know where the Yardleys lived?’

‘Yes. There were . . .’ Grace stopped, closed her eyes. ‘There were some letters forwarded to us by social services. From Helen and Paul Yardley to Hannah. Their address was on the letters.’

Needless to say, Hannah had never clapped eyes on them.

‘Did you consider moving?’ Sam asked. ‘Once you decided not to tell Hannah who her birth parents were, didn’t you
think it might be a good idea to move out of Spilling – to Rawndesley, perhaps?’

‘
Rawndesley
?‘ Sebastian reared in horror, as if Sam had suggested he move to the Congo.

‘Of course we didn’t,’ said Grace. ‘If you lived in this house, on this street, would you ever move?’ She gestured around the room.

Did she want Sam to answer honestly? Had she really said that? Staring at her, wondering how to respond, he suddenly had it. He knew why he was suspicious of the Brownlees, in spite of their solid alibis and middle-class respectability: it was something Grace had said as she’d let him in. He’d shown her his ID, explained that he was DS Sam Kombothekra from Culver Valley CID, but that there was nothing to worry about, his visit was a formality, nothing more. Grace’s response had been almost exactly what you’d expect from a blameless woman. Almost, but not quite. She’d looked Sam in the eye and said, ‘We did nothing wrong.’

It was dark by the time Simon got to Wolverhampton. Sarah and Glen Jaggard lived in a rented flat above a town centre branch of Blockbusters on a busy main road. ‘You can’t miss it,’ Glen had said. ‘The sign’s been vandalised and someone’s scratched out the first “B”, so now it’s “Lockbusters”. Talk about sending the wrong message,’ he’d attempted a joke. ‘No wonder we’ve been burgled twice since moving here.’

The Jaggards had been homeowners once, but had sold their house to cover Sarah’s legal costs. Simon hadn’t been convinced by Glen Jaggard’s determined cheeriness on the phone. He detected in it the underlying fatigue of someone
who feels he has no alternative, in the face of life’s unremitting grimness, but to be upbeat all the time.

The flat looked as if it had an upstairs and a downstairs, judging from the windows. It was a decent size: probably about the same square footage as Simon’s two-up two-down cottage, or Charlie’s two-bed terrace. We ought to sell the pair of them and buy a bigger place together, thought Simon, though he knew he’d never suggest it and that, if Charlie did, his first reaction would be fear.

He remembered the Snowman jumping down his throat when he’d suggested Sarah Jaggard wasn’t the victim of a miscarriage of justice. How could she be, when she’d been unanimously acquitted? Proust evidently thought that to be tried for manslaughter constituted miscarriage of justice enough, and Simon wondered if the woman he was about to meet agreed. Did she see herself as a victim, rather than someone who had triumphed over adversity? The shabby exterior of her home and the deafening traffic noise outside it made Simon think that she might, and he wouldn’t blame her if she did.

Rusty wrought-iron steps led up to the flat, speckled with the black paint that must once have covered them. There was no doorbell. Simon knocked, then watched through the panel of cracked opaque glass as a large shape lumbered towards him along the hall. Glen Jaggard threw open the door, grabbed Simon’s hand and shook it, simultaneously leaning forward to pat him on the back with his other hand, a manoeuvre that put the two men in awkward physical proximity. Simon took in Jaggard’s checked shirt, jeans and walking boots. Was he planning on climbing a mountain later?

‘You found Lockbusters, then?’ Jaggard laughed. ‘I couldn’t believe it when our DVD player packed up about a week after
we moved in. Talk about sod’s law: you move to a flat above a DVD rental place and your DVD player packs in!’

Simon smiled politely.

‘Go through to the lounge.’ Jaggard pointed down the hall. ‘There’s tea and biscuits in there already. I’ll get Sarah.’ He took the stairs two at a time, calling out his wife’s name.

Simon had been in many people’s homes over the years, but this was a first: tea being made before he arrived. If he’d been late, would he have had to down it cold?

He was expecting the Jaggards’ lounge to have nobody in it, since Glen and Sarah were both upstairs, and was surprised to find Paul Yardley there, looking terrible. His eyes were puffy, his skin waxy and greasy.
Like the congealed fat in a frying pan after you’ve cooked sausages
. The first time Simon had interviewed him after his wife’s death, Yardley had said vehemently, ‘Most people in my position would be thinking about topping themselves. Not me. I fought for justice for Helen once, and I’ll do it again.’

Now, with equal intensity, he said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not staying,’ as if Simon had protested at his presence. ‘I only came here to talk to Glen and Sarah about Laurie.’

‘Laurie Nattrass?’ On the wall behind Simon there was a framed newspaper photograph of Nattrass, Yardley and a tearfully smiling Helen, holding hands like a row of paper dolls. Taken on the steps of the court building after Helen’s successful appeal, Simon guessed. It was the only picture the Jaggards had put up in the living room of their rented flat. Beneath the grainy black and white image was the headline ‘
JUSTICE AT LAST FOR HELEN
‘.

From the relative lack of furniture – two red chairs, one with a torn seat, a coffee table, a TV – and the bareness of the
walls, Simon guessed that most of the Jaggards’ possessions were in storage.
We won’t be here long, no point filling the place with our stuff
. That’s what Simon would tell himself, in their position. He wouldn’t want to unpack anything that mattered to him and bring it to this dump with its damp-stained ceilings and cracked plaster. Did the Jaggards dream about buying a place soon, far away from the video shop with the damaged sign, so that they could put the past behind them once and for all?

Hadn’t Sarah Jaggard also been photographed outside court after her acquittal? Simon was sure she had; he remembered seeing it on the news and in the papers. With Laurie Nattrass by her side, unless his memory was playing tricks on him. Why wasn’t Sarah the one up on the living room wall?

‘Do you know where Laurie is?’ Paul Yardley asked. ‘He’s not returning our calls – not mine, not Glen’s or Sarah’s. He’s never done that before.’

Nattrass had been eliminated; he’d been in meetings at the BBC all day Monday, so there was no reason to keep track of his movements. ‘Sorry,’ Simon said.

Paul Yardley stared at him for nearly ten seconds, waiting for a better answer. Then he said, ‘He wouldn’t ignore us. Do you know where he is?’

There was a creak of floorboards from above, followed by the sound of very slow footsteps, as if a ninety-year-old was coming down the stairs. Yardley sprang out of his chair. ‘Don’t worry, I’m going,’ he said, and was down the hall and out of the flat within seconds. Simon made no move to stop him or ask where he was going; he knew he’d feel bad about that later. Talking to a man who’d lost everything was no fun, but you had to make the effort.

He picked up one of the three chipped mugs on the coffee table and took a gulp of tea that was somewhere between hot and cold. He wanted a Bourbon biscuit as well, but didn’t take one.

Glen Jaggard steered Sarah into the room with both hands. She was tall and thin with wispy brown hair, dressed in pink striped pyjamas and a white towelling dressing-gown. She looked at Simon briefly before averting her eyes.

‘Sit down, love,’ said her husband.

Sarah lowered herself into one of the red chairs. Everything she did – walking, sitting – had an air of awkward inexperience about it, as if she was doing it for the first time. She was nervous in her own home.
If that’s how she thinks of it; if she doesn’t think of her home as the place she had to sell to stay out of jail
.