The Optician's Wife (28 page)

‘Yes. That’s why I’m here.’ Verity was clearly shaken up.

‘OK then. Sit down. I’ll tell you everything.’

She stood for a moment looking at the door, still deciding whether to stay or go.

‘Look, we got off on the wrong foot. Sit down.’ My voice was softer now. Verity walked back around the table and took a seat. ‘Thank you.’

‘So tell me about my aunt.’

‘No.’ I replied coldly. ‘Let’s go back to the beginning. We’ll come to her later.’

‘Fine. Where do you want to start?’ Verity removed the Dictaphone from her jacket pocket, turned it on and put it back down on the table.

‘Before I begin I need you to understand something.’ I placed my hands palm down on the table. ‘You cannot leave this room until I have finished telling you my story. If you will agree to that, then we can begin.’

‘OK. I agree.’

‘Good. So, the truth is that Larry was a killer.’ I raised one hand to stop her interrupting. ‘Let me finish.’

Verity took a bottle of water out of her small black leather handbag and took a long sip. I noticed her hands were shaking.

‘I am going to speak and you are going to listen. I will not repeat a single word I say. This will be the last time you ever hear me speak of this again. Understand?’

She nodded meekly.

‘Right. I am admitting to the murders of Ms Faulks, Jane Shanks, Rose Delaney, Sandra Morrison, Mark McCarthy, Dawn McCarthy and Daisy McCarthy. I killed them all. Dawn and Daisy were unfortunate. I’ll come to that later. As for the rest, every one of them deserved it.’ I watched as Verity removed a notepad and pencil from her bag and started to flick through some notes. ‘Ms Faulks, as you will know, was my first. That nasty old bitch thought she was so much better than me. But I showed her.’ The memory of it made me feel warm all over. ‘I owe a lot to her, I suppose. She woke something inside of me. A hunger I didn’t know existed and when I’d killed her, and cut out her eyes, I felt more alive that you could possibly imagine.’

The horror on Verity’s face only added to my enjoyment.

‘The next one, Jane Shanks, needed to be put in her place. I saw her with Larry, talking and flirting. I was so angry. One night I followed her from work. It was dark. I saw an opportunity and I took it. I pushed her over and punched her in the head until she wasn’t moving. Then I took out my penknife and carefully removed her eyes. I didn’t know she was still alive when I dumped her in the river. I thought she must already be dead.’ I paused trying to remember back to that time.

‘Rose was next. She was a hooker. I’d seen Larry talking to her when I’d followed him one night. I watched them fuck up against a wall. It made me feel sick. They didn’t know I was there.’ I lifted my glasses and rubbed my eyes. ‘He has such an appetite for sex. It was relentless. Nothing could satisfy it in those days. When I got pregnant with Sue-Ann he didn’t want to fuck me any more so he turned his attention to prostitutes. That made me really angry. I knew he was getting it somewhere else so I would follow him. I must have watched him shag lots of different women over the years. In the end I started to find it a bit of a turn on.’ I licked my lips.

Verity had turned very pale. ‘But why did you take their eyes?’ she spoke in a whisper, her voice sounded dry.

‘I’ll tell you. Larry loved eyes. He said my eyes were the reason he fell in love with me. He was obsessed with them. He became an optician, after all.’ I reminded her. ‘Ms Faulks was different. I took hers because I didn’t like the way she’d looked at me, but with the others,’ I paused for a moment trying to order my thoughts, ‘I took them because I knew that was what Larry had liked. If he hadn’t liked their eyes he would have never slept with any of them. That was his weakness you see.’ I looked up at the CCTV camera and spoke directly to it. ‘Can we get some tea in here please?’

Verity shifted in her chair and hugged herself. The room didn’t feel cold to me.

‘Sandra Morrison was different. I did feel a little bit bad about her, I suppose. She didn’t do anything really wrong, just wound me up I guess.’ I remembered back to the night I had seen Larry talking to her outside a pub. ‘He had been trying it on but she wasn’t interested. Still that pissed me off. What made her think she was too good for my Larry? Little cow was stuck up and that annoyed me.’ I looked up at Verity and saw the disgust written across her face. ‘You think you’re better than me, too. Don’t you?’

Verity said nothing. I shrugged.

‘My favourite was Mark. He got what he deserved. He was scum. He raped me, you know. That was true. I never lied about that.’

‘You were a prostitute,’ Verity reminded me gently. That made me angry.

‘So what? You think hookers can’t be raped.’ I spat my words across the table and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

Just at that moment the door was unlocked and an officer came in carrying two plastic cups of tea. ‘There you go, ladies.’ He winked at Verity. ‘All OK?’

She picked up her tea, took a small sip and nodded.

‘Fair enough. You behave, all right?’ the gruff officer turned to me.

‘Yes sir.’ I gave him the finger as he left the room. ‘Some of them are real dicks. Some aren’t so bad.’

‘Do you have any friends in here?’ she asked tentatively.

‘I do actually. Sonya Lily.’

‘The Sonya Lily?’ Verity couldn’t disguise her shock.

‘Yes. As far as I am aware there is only one.’

‘I suppose you both have things in common.’

‘You’re right.’

Sonya was locked up for 12 years for a catalogue of sex offences against teenage girls in her care. She had worked at a children’s home, which is where she met her victims. It turned out to be her dream job. She understood what it was like to want to hurt other women and how good it made you feel.

‘I’ve taken her under my wing and been showing her the ropes.’

Verity looked like she might be sick.

‘So, Mark McCarthy.’ She returned to flicking through her notes.

‘Yes. I invited him to come back. Told him he could do what he wanted to me. He was so stupid.’ I couldn’t help but smile. ‘It was a piece of cake. He came over, I took him upstairs and while we were…’ I paused for a moment, ‘intimate, I put a knife in his back. The look on his face was priceless. I took the knife out and did it again and again until he wasn’t moving.’

‘They never recovered his eyes,’ Verity probed.

‘No. I never took them. I didn’t want them. He could keep them.’ I picked up the tea and took a sip. It was bitter. Normally I liked sugar in it. ‘When Larry came back from work I got him to help me bury the body. I told him Mark had come over and tried to rape me again. Said it was self-defence. He felt so bad he hadn’t been there to protect me I was able to persuade him to dig a hole in the garden. We chopped him up with an axe and threw the pieces in. It was simple really. Nothing fancy.’ I looked down into the watery tea and thought for a moment.

‘Everything started to go wrong when Dawn married that idiot Ian. If she hadn’t, then things would have been different. Larry might even still be alive.’ Even now, thinking about him made me feel sad.

‘You loved Larry?’

‘He was everything to me.’ I looked up at her. ‘Don’t be so surprised. I’m not dead inside.’

‘After Mark, what happened next?’ I could see that she was beginning to enjoy listening to my story. The journalist in her had taken over and she was no longer so concerned about her aunt.

‘Well, at some point in September 1993 Dawn and Daisy moved in. Ian had beaten her black and blue and she’d had enough. She was my sister and I’d always looked out for her. I was happy for her to stay with us for a while.’ I noticed the sadness in my own voice. ‘Things were fine for a bit. It wasn’t ideal having her there, but we managed.’

‘So what happened?’

‘I walked in and found her fucking my husband.’ I stared blankly at Verity. ‘Dawn could never keep her legs closed and had to take what wasn’t hers. That’s what happened.’

Verity picked up the pencil and jotted something down on the notepad.

‘So that’s why you killed her?’

‘Yes. She was shameless. Wasn’t even embarrassed by her behaviour. I’d welcomed her into my home, not into my husband’s pants. She just had to be centre of attention. That was always her big problem.’

‘When he was interviewed Larry told police he killed her when he found her stealing. You’re now telling me that was a false confession?’

‘Yes I am.’

‘So Larry knew you murdered Dawn and was protecting you?’

‘No he didn’t know for sure. When I walked in on them I started screaming. I was so angry with her. He pulled his trousers on and ran out the room like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. That night he stayed away. When he came back I told him she’d moved out. He never asked what happened and we didn’t talk about it again.’

‘Did he know about any of them, apart from Mark?’

‘I don’t really know. I think he must have suspected. Otherwise why confess?’

‘Why do you think he did confess?’

‘Because he loved me. And he felt guilty about Dawn probably.’

‘What exactly happened to Dawn?’ Verity’s pencil hovered above the pad.

‘I strangled her until she passed out. Then I carried her down to the cellar. Daisy saw me dragging Dawn’s body down the stairs and started to cry. So I had to shut her up. I grabbed her by the hair and pulled her down to the cellar. She was so scared she wet herself and she wouldn’t stop crying. I put a plastic bag over her head and suffocated her. It was all over pretty quickly.’

Talking about Daisy made me feel uncomfortable. I didn’t want to dwell on what I did to her.

‘Next, that bloody dog started barking. Wouldn’t stop. It was giving me a headache so I smashed his skull in. Then Dawn woke up and saw Daisy lying on the floor near. I was just sitting on the bottom step of the cellar stairs looking at the ground. Dawn started screaming and kept trying to wake Daisy up. I told her there wasn’t any point, but she wouldn’t listen. I hadn’t decided what I was going to do with Dawn but then she told me something that changed everything. She told me Daisy was Larry’s daughter.’

I sniff and wipe a tear away. ‘I had no idea they had been sleeping together for that long. As far as I know, Ian found out and that’s why he battered Dawn. It all started to make sense.’

‘Did Larry know about Daisy?’ Verity asked.

‘He didn’t know she was his kid. No. He never knew that. Dawn never told him. She only ever looked after number one. It suited her to keep the lie going. But when she told me I was livid. I made her tell me everything about her affair with Larry. She said she was in love with him, but she only ever loved herself. We sat in the cellar for hours. Dawn kept cradling Daisy’s body. I told her if she didn’t tell me the truth I’d kill her too. She really believed I’d let her go. It’s funny really,’ I shook my head, ‘Dad used to say she was the smart one. How wrong he was.’ Verity put the pad and pencil back on the table and moved her chair slightly so the gap between us was wider.

‘We used to keep the toolbox in the basement. Dawn sat on the floor holding Daisy. She didn’t try to get up. I went over to it and removed a screwdriver. Then I prised her eyes out. The axe we’d used to chop up Mark was lying there against the wall in the cellar so afterwards, when I’d taken her eyes, I picked it up and brought it down into her skull. I’ll never forget the noise.’

Verity sat, mouth open opposite. ‘And there you have it.’

It took her a moment to compose herself.

‘What about Joanne? You didn’t explain about her.’

‘Oh well, that’s simple. Larry killed her. I told him to. Told him to make her pay and he did. He really liked it when I suggested he took her eyes as a keepsake. I thought he would.’

Verity buried her face in her hands.

‘I’m sorry about that,’ I huffed. ‘But she ruined me and he was so upset. He needed a vent.’

‘You are a monster.’ Verity’s eyes filled with tears.

‘That’s not very polite. I’ve just given you the interview of the decade.’

‘Why? Why have you told me all of this?’ A large tear rolled down her cheek.

‘I’m tired.’ I admitted. ‘I’ve been in prison for a long time and a lot of lies have been said about me. I thought it was time people knew the truth. You know I killed one of those bitches when I was pregnant? That’s one of the ones I’m most proud of.’ I put my hands behind my head. ‘Owen stopped coming to see me. I don’t have to protect him any more. It’s probably better that he hates me. It will be easier for him if he does.’

‘You sound as if you actually care about him.’

‘I do. He was always my favourite. He was such a good boy.’ I placed my chubby hands back on the table. ‘So what now?’

‘Now I go and write this all up.’ She picked up her water bottle and the Dictaphone. ‘You know I’ll have to pass this over to the police.’

‘Do what you like with it.’

‘Just one question,’ she said standing up, ‘Why now? Why confess all this now?’

‘Because of you.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Verity looked perplexed.

‘When Sonya came to the prison she became my friend. We would talk about lots of different things. I told her I’d been approached by you and she said I should do the interview.’

‘Why?’

‘Because of your relationship to Dr Hewitt.’ I smiled standing up. ‘Sonya told me you were Hewitt’s niece. She’d read an article you’d written some years ago talking about the trauma families of murder victims faced. It was a golden opportunity.’

‘So you knew she was my aunt before today?’ Verity looked horrified.

‘Sure did.’

‘Why didn’t you say something then?’

‘I thought it might put you off coming and that would put a spanner in the works.’

Before she had a second to react I reached for the pencil on the table. It only took me a second to get around the table and stab her in the eye with it. She cried out in horrendous pain. I pulled the pencil from her left eye, wrestled her to the ground and jabbed it into her right. The popping sound was delicious.

‘I’m never getting out of here.’ I leant close to her ear and heard the shouting coming from outside the room. ‘You were my chance to own another life. To have one more turn at having some fun.’