Promise (38 page)

‘Why didn’t you wait until the child’s mother got home and return the child to the mother’s care?’

‘Because once we got inside my house Charlie told me that her mother had stood by and watched as her stepfather put her head down the toilet and flushed it. After that I didn’t trust the mother’s ability to keep her child safe. And later, once we reached my friend Pat’s place, she told me that her mother hurt her arm.’

‘Your Honour, that’s the evidence in chief of Ms Pierce, but before Ms Carson cross-examines, may I please tender a photo taken by my client of the child’s arm, the evening before she took the child. In the transcript of the CAS interview with Charlie Seybold, she said that her arm had an injury at the time Anna Pierce took her, and that the injury occurred when her mother pushed her down some stairs at their home. Thank you.’ She sat down and shuffled her papers.

Anna glanced at the judge and found that he was looking at her. He had a kindly face, despite the strange wig, and he looked tired.

The crown prosecutor cleared her throat. ‘Ms Pierce, on the day you abducted Charlie Seybold, why did you not call the police, as the woman on the Child Protection Helpline suggested to you?’

‘Because the police had come before, and Charlie told me she got in a lot of trouble after their visit. I was afraid, given what had happened in her backyard just half an hour earlier, that if she got into trouble, she might be badly injured – or worse.’

‘Were you concerned that your actions in taking and detaining the child would be detrimental to her mental and emotional health?’

Anna took a breath. She would tell the truth, as if that might make up for all the other lies that would be told here today, and that she’d been telling all along.

‘Not at first, but once we reached my friend Pat’s place, yes, I did worry. And then, as time passed, I became less worried about that.’

‘Why did you become less worried?’

‘Because she seemed happy and not very troubled being away from her mother.’

‘You say
not very troubled
. So she was still somewhat troubled?’

‘She talked about wishing her mother would come and live with us but she didn’t ask to go back to her mother.’

‘So she did ask you to take her back to her mother, in the beginning?”

‘She wanted to see her mother but she said she didn’t want to go back if he was there. Harlan, I mean.’

‘How many times did she say that she wanted to see her mother?’

Anna thought back to the night that Charlie sprinted into the darkness. ‘Maybe three or four times.’

‘Did that concern you, her expressed desire to be with her mother rather than with you?’

‘Yes, I felt concerned, but I decided that taking her from her mother was the lesser of two evils.’

The prosecutor paused and crossed her arms. ‘Would you have stayed indefinitely in the cottage near Patrick Fenlan’s property, if you hadn’t been arrested on the second of March?’

‘I knew we’d be caught eventually.’

‘Would you have stayed there indefinitely if you hadn’t been arrested?’

‘I would have thought about it. Yes.’

‘Thank you. No further questions.’

•

Anna felt drained and shaky. Had it been a mistake to say she would have stayed there indefinitely? That didn’t show much remorse, did it? She needed to wee and she needed a jacket. She tried to look like she was listening as Lindy tendered a report from the psychologist Anna had been to see, and a report on how under-resourced FACS was. Then Lindy was saying something about Dave and the courtroom door swung open and Dave bowed to the bench, then strode across the carpet in his dark suit. That lanky walk was so familiar to Anna, so dear. In their last phone conversation, a week before the trial, she’d asked him whether it was over and he said, ‘I just need to press pause until the trial.’

In the witness box, he made an affirmation that he’d tell the truth, and looked expectantly at Lindy. Anna wished he’d look over to her, for even a moment.

‘You are Anna’s Pierce’s partner?’

‘Ah, yes. At that time, yes.’ So it was over. She had no claim on him anymore.

Lindy gave small nod, and if she was surprised, didn’t show it. She led him through what happened the night they went over to Charlie’s house, then asked, ‘And did Ms Pierce tell you of other occasions when she was concerned for the child’s safety?’

‘Yes, there were several occasions. The night before she took the child she called me to say that Charlie was locked outside her own house at 11 pm. Anna texted me a photo of an injury to the child’s arm that she first saw that evening.’

Dave looked over at Anna at last, with a fleeting, tender expression.

‘Mr Wilkins, when you spoke to Ms Pierce on the phone as she left Sydney with the child on the fifth of December 2015, you told her not to take the child and that child abduction was a very serious offence, is that right?’

‘Yes. That’s right.’

‘During that phone call, what did Ms Pierce tell you about the assault she witnessed that day, on the morning of the fifth of December?’

‘She said,’ he cleared his throat, ‘she said that she saw the stepfather holding the child up in the air by the feet and shaking the girl violently back and forth, and that the girl’s head was snapping about. And that he was screaming at the child and only stopped when Anna shouted at him to stop.’

‘And when, in that phone call, you urged Ms Pierce to take the child back home, what did she say?’

‘She said she was afraid the child would be killed.’

‘Did you have any doubt she was genuine in her fear?’

‘No doubt whatsoever.’

‘Based on what you heard and saw on the evening of the first of December 2015, and on what Ms Pierce recounted to you subsequently, were you concerned for Charlie Seybold’s safety?’

‘I was.’

As Dave left the court, he stopped in the public gallery and shook Anna’s dad’s hand. She’d told her dad that she went to visit Dave each Saturday. Now he’d heard Dave say that they weren’t together anymore.

Anna was sick of all the lying. And soon Prue would stand up and perjure herself as well. What if Prue slipped up? It would be so easy for Prue to reveal that she knew Anna or mention something Anna had told her. Anna felt a dull sense of inevitability, as if the momentum had already built for a custodial sentence, and there was no way for her to change the course of things.

Lindy gave the judge documents she’d subpoenaed from FACS then referred to Charlie’s police interview and the girl’s account of Harlan’s abuse. Anna tried not to listen. Charlie’s childish words describing the brutality were hard to hear in this place, where the decision might be made to prevent Anna from helping Charlie. Anna knew Prue was rough with the girl. What would happen without Anna around to mediate?

Over in the public gallery were a couple of men who looked like they could be cops, and, at the back, the woman detective. Karen.

Anna’s dad sat in the front row in his good suit, making notes. He and Anna had driven over from Orange the day before and were staying in a hotel at Darling Harbour. He looked small and frail, or maybe it was just how he seemed next to the fresh-faced, chunky guys in suits near him.

She’d never doubted her dad’s love for her, but until Charlie, she’d not thought much about all the practical ways he had cared for her as a child: making her school lunches, buying her clothes, driving her to netball games. Anna watched him as he bent over his pad and scribbled intently.

Anna crossed her legs. She was so cold that she’d lost sensation in her feet.

•

Lindy had found Nella, Charlie’s neighbour from the caravan park. She looked about seventy, and was thin and nuggetty with jet-black hair. Nella wrung her hands as she spoke.

‘Gabby yelled at her all the time. And I saw her smack her plenty.’

‘Did Gabby ever leave Charlie on her own?’ Lindy’s voice was kind.

‘Yes. Often. And I’d give the little one food and get her to come over to my van.’

‘How long did the mother leave the girl on her own for?’

‘The worst was two whole nights. That was when she was only just turned four.’ She shook her head.

‘Did you contact the Child Protection Helpline, Mrs Alberti?’

‘Yeah. My daughter helped me.’ She looked to the gallery and smiled at someone there.

‘How many times did you call the helpline with your concerns about Charlie?’

‘Once.’ Her voice was quiet.

‘Thank you, Mrs Alberti.’

•

Anna was glad to get out of the dock at the tea-break; she let Lindy shepherd her out the doors to the waiting area. She spotted Prue, slumped in a seat, her walker in front of her. Lindy guided Anna into a small bare office near the waiting room.

‘You did well, Anna. And Nella was good, too,’ said Lindy as she removed her wig and laid it on the desk. ‘She was nervous but she did really well.’

‘Have you any more sense of whether I’ll get a suspended sentence?’ asked Anna. Surely Lindy had more idea now that things were underway.

‘Well, we knew she’d ask for a custodial sentence. Like I said, she’s more or less obliged to. We’ll just have to see how things unfold. As you know, this is an unusual case. The judge won’t have other cases to use as comparatives.’ She smiled. ‘We’re doing our best. I’m hopeful.’ She drank from the metal water bottle on the desk. ‘I should go and introduce myself to the grandmother. I’ll be back in a moment.’

Anna’s dad handed her a styrofoam cup of tea. ‘Here you go, love.’

‘Thanks, Dad.’ He’d put heaps of sugar in the tea. She looked out the half-open door and wondered if Dave had already left. He’d know where she’d be at tea-break, surely.

Lindy walked back in, her robe billowing.

‘Bloody hell, Grandma is not a well woman, is she? Poor thing. I hope she’s up to it. Carly’s gone to get her a pastry.’

‘But she’s diabetic,’ said Anna.

Lindy gazed steadily at Anna for a long moment. ‘Is she?’

Anna nodded, her jaw tight. ‘Apparently.’

Lindy knew. She must know.

Anna said, ‘It’s too cold in there. I left my jacket at the hotel.’

Her dad took off his suit coat. ‘Here, have this, darling.’

‘No.’ Lindy shook her head. ‘It will look baggy and strange. It
is
particularly cold in there today. Take this, Anna.’ She pulled a grey cardigan from her bag.

‘Thank you.’ The cardigan smelt of a floral perfume.

On the way back to court, they passed Prue, who’d changed seats. She glanced up at Anna and smiled. Anna smiled back then looked away. She was not even meant to know what Prue looked like.

The thrumming sensation in her chest increased as she walked in the double swinging doors. She had to make each breath happen, as if her body was not sure how to do it anymore.

‘All rise.’

The judge entered from a door to one side of the bench and settled into his seat. Anna sat down in the dock.

A police officer held the door open for Prue, who moved through the public gallery, leaning heavily on her walker. She didn’t look around her but shuffled steadily forward, her breath laboured. She wore a pink dress and her hair had been set.

The judge said, ‘Madam, if you’d find it easier not to climb the stairs to the witness box, we can arrange for you to give evidence down there.’

Prue shook her head. ‘No, I’ll be right.’

She made her way slowly up the steps to the witness box and sat heavily. She looked up, straight at Anna and they locked eyes for a moment, for all the court to see. Anna kept her face blank.

Look away now, Prue.

The court officer appeared at Prue’s side and Prue gave an affirmation, her voice too loud, as if she hadn’t noticed there was a microphone in front of her. Perjury was probably a jailable offence on its own, thought Anna. Did Prue understand the gravity of what she was about to do?

Please don’t slip up.

Lindy stood. ‘What is your full name?’

‘Prudence Ann Seybold.’

‘And what is your relationship to Charlie Seybold?’

‘I’m her grandmother. Maternal grandmother.’

‘And your granddaughter is living with you at the moment, is that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘Before the girl came to live with you on the second of March this year, when had you last seen her?’

Prue cleared her throat wheezily. ‘Not for a while. Not for about a year-and-a-half. My daughter and I had a falling out.’ She adjusted one of the cuffs of her pink dress.

‘And when you saw your granddaughter before the falling out, which would be almost two years ago now, did she seem well cared for by your daughter?’

‘No.’

‘What did you notice about your granddaughter, Mrs Seybold?’

‘She was too thin. Really thin little thing.’ Prue stared at Lindy. ‘And . . .’ She moved her head as if her neck was tight. ‘And she just looked . . . peaky. Clingy. She had an infected thing here,’ Prue tapped her forearm, ‘that Gabby wouldn’t look after at all. I was worried about it. It was really nasty.’

‘Your granddaughter had an infection on her arm?’

‘Yeah. Nasty boils.’

Anna had seen a few pockmarked scars on Charlie’s right forearm.

‘What was the falling out with your daughter about?’

‘Money. She borrowed money from me for rent but didn’t use it for that and got kicked out of the flat she was in. And didn’t pay it back.’

Prue was sounding confident. Anna knew that Bridget, the solicitor, had spent quite a bit of time on the phone with her.

‘And how did your granddaughter seem to you when she came into your care on the second of March this year?’

‘She seemed much healthier than the last time I’d seen her. She’d put on weight. Better colour in her cheeks. Just healthier.’

‘And how would you describe her emotional state when she came to you in March?’

‘Upset. She kept asking me why the police took her and she wanted me to phone Anna.’

Prue’s voice dropped. ‘She didn’t remember ever meeting me and . . . I mean, she knew I was her nanna . . .’ She looked down. ‘But she didn’t want to be with me.’ She glanced at Anna. ‘She kept asking for me to phone her mother and Anna and tell them to come. She would not stop asking.’