The Killing Of Polly Carter. Robert Thorogood

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      ‘But hang on,’ Max said, licking his lips before he carried on. ‘That would have been me she saw, because I was at the upstairs landing window and looking down on Sophie when Polly died.’

      ‘You were?’ Camille asked.

      ‘That’s right,’ Max said. ‘I’d just seen Sophie in the downstairs hallway.’ Here, Max turned to address Sophie. ‘And I’m sorry I didn’t say hello back to you when you wished me good morning.’ Max knew that this was an inadequate thing to say, but he turned back to address Camille. ‘But Sophie can confirm that she saw me inside the house just before Polly died.’

      Richard was intrigued. Why was Max trying to establish an alibi for the time of death?

      ‘Is that right?’ Camille asked Sophie.

      ‘Yes,’ Sophie said, not entirely sure where Max was going with his story. ‘I definitely saw Max head upstairs just before I went out into the garden. And I said hello to him, but he didn’t say hello back.’

      ‘But the point is,’ Max said, picking up the story, ‘I was looking out of the upstairs landing window at the time of death. I saw Sophie in the middle of the garden. She was looking straight back at me.’

      Richard could see that Sophie was frowning.

      ‘Tell me, Sophie, was it Max you saw at the upstairs window? Or was it Phil?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘The sun was shining on the windows. And I can’t remember precisely which upstairs window I was looking at. But I know I only saw one person.’

      ‘Who must have been me,’ Max said insistently.

      ‘Rubbish,’ Phil said. ‘It was me Sophie could see.’

      Sophie looked in confusion at Richard, hoping for a steer.

      ‘Either way,’ Richard said, not wanting his witnesses to get bogged down, ‘tell me, Sophie, once you’d looked back at the house and seen someone at the upstairs window, what happened next?’

      ‘Well, that’s when I heard a scream,’ Sophie said. ‘An awful scream. And then, a few moments later, I heard Claire shout for help.’

      ‘And did you see any of this?’ Camille asked.

      ‘Well, no. It was all behind the bed of shrubs. But I heard it.’

      ‘And did you, Phil, see what was going on at the cliff top?’

      ‘I didn’t,’ Phil said. ‘Because it’s like Sophie’s saying. You can see the lawn from the house, but you can’t see the cliff top. There’s a bed of shrubs and bushes in the way.’

      ‘And I couldn’t see anything, either,’ Max said, reminding everyone that he’d also been at an upstairs window at the time.

      ‘But it doesn’t matter who else saw what,’ Claire said, and Richard could see from the look in her eyes that she’d just worked out that she was the only person who’d witnessed the death—and therefore the police were treating her testimony with suspicion. ‘Because the thing is, I saw what Polly did once we were both at the cliff.’

      ‘Yes,’ Camille said, kindly. ‘Then could you tell us in your own words what that was?’

      Claire blinked back tears before continuing her story.

      ‘Well, it was like she was possessed just before she jumped. I mean, she was angry with me when we first went into the garden, but by the time we got to the cliff top, she was going crazy. Saying how selfish I was. How I’d let her down. How I’d never understood the pain she was in. That sort of thing. And then she said she was going to kill herself—it was all my fault—and there was nothing I could do to stop her!’

      Claire choked back a sob as she finished speaking.

      ‘Then what happened?’ Camille asked.

      ‘Well, she … she ran down the steps a little way, and then, once she was around the corner, she screamed as she jumped.’

      ‘What’s that?’ Richard asked.

      ‘I’m sorry?’ Claire said, looking at Richard, confused.

      ‘You said that once Polly was around the corner, it was only then that she screamed and jumped.’

      ‘That’s right.’

      ‘So she didn’t jump from the very top of the cliff?’

      ‘No. She went down the first flight of steps, and it was only when she’d turned around the corner that I heard her scream as she jumped.’

      ‘So you didn’t actually see the moment it happened?’

      Claire seemed surprised by the question.

      ‘Well, no. I suppose not. If you put it like that. But then, I couldn’t follow her down the steps in my wheelchair, could I? So, no, I didn’t see the exact moment my sister jumped to her death. Thank God for small mercies.’

      Richard wrote this fact into his notebook and very carefully underlined it three times.

      Richard next turned to Sophie. ‘And you didn’t see what happened, either, did you?’

      ‘I’m sorry. No.’

      ‘Which is interesting. Because it means we’ve only got one witness to what happened. You, Claire. And even you didn’t see exactly what happened.’

      Claire was quietly affronted. ‘But I didn’t need to see it. My sister said she was going to end her life. She then ran down the steps and I heard her scream as she fell. I didn’t need to see it to know what happened.’

      Richard turned from Claire to Sophie.

      ‘So tell me, Sophie, how soon after you heard Polly’s scream did you arrive at the cliff?’

      ‘Oh, not long,’ Sophie said. ‘Thirty seconds? Something like that?’

      At this, Claire turned her wheelchair around so she was looking directly at Richard, and he saw a look in her eyes he couldn’t quite place. Was it defiance? Or even desperation? Why did she look so on edge so suddenly?

      ‘But since you’re so interested in what I saw,’ Claire said, ‘you should know that there was someone else on the cliff steps just before Polly went down them.’

      This got everyone’s attention.

      ‘There was?’ Camille asked.

      ‘That’s right.’

      ‘And you didn’t think to mention this before now?’ Richard asked.

      ‘You didn’t ask,’ Claire said.

      ‘I see,’ Richard said. ‘So who was this person you saw beforehand?’

      ‘Well, I think it was a man.’

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