A Greater Evil (40 page)
‘Yup. His solicitor was here. He signed the statement. It’s all on the level. He killed Cecilia Mayford, just as you thought, not after a plan but in an excess of frustration when she wouldn’t agree to hide what she knew about the building he’d ruined with his mistake in the diameter of the cables.’
It didn’t seem right to congratulate Caro or express any kind of relief, so Trish produced a complicated, non-specific murmuring sound.
‘We’d never have got there without you,’ Caro said. ‘I … I’m too played out to say it right now. We’ve been at it all weekend as well as today. But I’m sorry. For the things I said and even more for the ones I thought.’
‘I know. Don’t worry,’ Trish said, feeling the lids slide over her eyes. ‘I’m just glad to know he really did do it.’
‘So you
weren’t
sure?’ Caro said. ‘You always managed to sound pretty confident.’
‘Sure? I don’t know what that means any more. You can want something to be true so much that you can’t let yourself believe it isn’t; and you can be so afraid it’s not that your subconscious paints pictures of the very thing you most dread, until you can’t remember what’s real and what’s not.’ She paused, wondering why the relief didn’t make her feel any better. The street lights came on, casting a warm yellow light over the dusk. ‘I wish Cecilia hadn’t died.’
‘Thanks to you, her child will grow up with her father, unlike Cecilia herself – or you or me,’ Caro said, generous again now they’d lost the huge obstacle that had grown big enough to block their friendship. ‘There should be some comfort in that.’
‘I suppose there is.’
‘Good. Oh, and by the way, I don’t know whether it’s of interest to you, but Sam Foundling asked us for a copy of the DNA fingerprint we took while he was with us.’
And Maria-Teresa was tested too, Trish thought, so maybe he does know who she is.
‘So shall we meet?’ Caro said down the phone. ‘We never did have that lunch.’
They made a date and Trish walked on, home to George and David, and her own life.
Epilogue
Gina Mayford was drafting the judgement she was due to give next week when her clerk brought in a cup of ginger-and-lemon tea. The slice of ginger was so perfectly peeled and shaped Gina knew it was an expression of sympathy in itself. She glanced up to smile her gratitude. The clerk nodded, looked as though she was about to speak, then backed away. Gina tried to concentrate on her judgement, but there were other things she had to do, and there wasn’t much time. She saw her rolly suitcase out of the corner of her eye and checked her watch. There was just under half an hour before she had to leave to pick up Sam and Felicity.
They were all off to Paris by Eurostar so that she could babysit while Sam was presented with the Prix Narcisse for his
Head of a Boy
, with all the formality and glamour the Parisians did so well.
A batch of photographs he’d taken of Felicity lay beside the phone. Gina reached for one and had to smile again at the sight of the small pudgy face, already so individual it barely reminded her of Cecilia’s in babyhood. She pulled out a sheet of paper from the box, found her old fountain pen, shook some ink down into the nib and wrote:
Dear Andrew,
I think it’s time we
…
She paused, still not sure how to put it, and stared unseeingly at the tall oak bookshelves opposite her desk. They held all the legal texts that had formed and buttressed her life for the past thirty-six years. After a moment she started to write again, but the ink had dried. Shaking the pen this time, she dropped a huge blot on the paper. When she’d screwed it into a ball and flung it into the wastepaper basket, she tried once more.
My dear Andrew
…
Bello
hidden talent rediscovered
Bello is a digital-only imprint of Pan Macmillan,
established to breathe new life into previously published,
classic books.
At Bello we believe in the timeless power of the imagination,
of a good story, narrative and entertainment, and we want to
use digital technology to ensure that many more readers
can enjoy these books into the future.
We publish in ebook and print-on-demand formats
to bring these wonderful books to new audiences.
Copyright
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2007
This edition published 2016 by Bello
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-5098-2568-4 EPUB
ISBN 978-1-5098-2566-0 HB
ISBN 978-1-5098-2567-7 PB
Copyright © Natasha Cooper, 2007
The right of Natasha Cooper to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This book remains true to the original in every way. Some aspects may appear
out-of-date to modern-day readers. Bello makes no apology for this, as to retrospectively
change any content would be anachronistic and undermine the authenticity of the original.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for,
any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset by Ellipsis Digital Limited, Glasgow
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of
trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without
the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than
that in which it is published and without a similar condition including
this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Visit
www.panmacmillan.com
to read more about all our books
and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and
news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters
so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.
Author’s Note
I finished writing this novel in May 2005, that is about two months before the appalling events of 7/7. When I heard the news my first instinct was to cut the scene on pages 92-96 out of respect for the victims of the atrocity. Then I came to believe that if writers start to censor themselves because of terrorists’ actions we will be making a kind of surrender. And that cannot happen. So, with the deepest sympathy for everyone who suffered then, and admiration for the emergency services and all the people involved in the clear-up, I have left the scene as I wrote it.
One other scene that I might have altered in reflection of real life is that on page 308, when the judge is summing up the cut-throat rules. As any lawyer will know, they have been changed.