Molly’s legs almost gave way and it was only the peril that Dee was in and the slap of shock, that kept her upright. ‘Dee, what do you mean?’ She kept her voice low and calm. ‘Why did you push Mum?’
Molly waited, focused on Dee whose eyes were swimming with tears, her face sweaty and smeared with snot, her unwashed hair matted and tangled, her skinny legs that poked from beneath her grimy nightie were covered in dust from the wall, her bare feet dirty and planted on the concrete just wide enough for her size fours. One wrong move and she’d fall.
‘I lied, to the police and everyone, because I didn’t stay in my room all night. I fell asleep and then later, when I woke up, I was hungry and I wondered if Mum might be, too. I wanted to check she was okay even thoughhetold me not to. When I got up there she was really drunk and weepy… She told me Shane knew she was going to divorce him and they’d had a row, but it was going to be okay and the two of us would be fine together. I was upset and told her she had to make it right and not be selfish and split up our family.
‘She got angry with me. Told me I didn’t understand and thathe’dbeen cheating on her. I didn’t believe her and said she was a piss-head and I wasn’t listening to her rubbish anymore. I went to the stairs. She grabbed me and told me I had to listen to the truth then I’d understand, but I pulled away. She went to grab me again and I lost it. I was so mad and confused, so I pushed her really really hard and… she fell.’
Dee’s eyes had glazed over, lost in the distance, her voice hysterical and rambling. ‘She bounced and rolled and hit her head and I just stood there and watched and ever since that’s all I can see in my head when I’m awake and then when I go to sleep I have dreams… I can’t do it anymore and don’t want to be here with you or him or anyone, I just want to be with Mum…’
It happened so fast. Dee’s right leg moved, as though she was about to run somewhere, but it slipped over the edge, her knee gave way and in the split of a second, her body crumpled and toppled backwards. Shane lunged forward just in time to grab her left ankle, the sickening thud of Dee’s body as she hit the wall below turning Molly’s stomach.
Frozen to the spot, Dee’s confession slowly sinking in, Molly gasped for air and looked on, paralysed. Shane, the top half of his body hanging over the balcony, both hands now gripped around Dee’s ankle, was straining to hold on.
Dee killed Mum. Oh God. It was Dee. She killed my mum.
‘Molly, help me, I can’t hold her much longer… Molly, help… she’s going to fall.’
Shane’s panicked voice made Molly jump. Her brain functioned again, click click click. Leaping forward, two huge strides, and she was there.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Dwarfed by the huge sofa, small and shrivelled under a blanket that was supposed to stop her from shaking, Molly stared at the Vettriano on the wall,Bluebird at Bonneville,and imagined she was on the flat stretch of beach in the sun, thousands of miles away from home. Beside her, Magda wept and wept and Molly wished someone would take her home. In the hallway Nancy was talking in hushed tones, her tears dried up after the hysteria of earlier.
Footsteps approaching caused her slumped, arched body to tense slightly, knowing that this was the moment she’d been rehearsing ever since she’d made the call to Nancy, who had listened to her screaming that they were dead, and then barely intelligible pleading for her to come home.
A voice, Nancy. Molly forced herself to look up. ‘Molly, love. I’ve explained to the detectives what you told me but they need you to go over it one more time.’ She came and sat to the left of Molly, Magda was to her right, still sniffing and dabbing with a paper tissue.
Yates, of course it was him, asked Nancy if he could sit and she must have nodded because next, she was aware of movement close by as he perched on the edge of the sofa opposite. She could see his long legs and horrible grey socks poking out beneath his trousers.
‘Molly, I am so sorry for your terrible loss and that you had to find your sister and stepfather that way, but could you please tell me and my colleague in your own words what happened today, from when you left your aunt in the park, to the discovery of the bodies on the patio. She explained you’d both gone to get some air and a change of scenery and we have you on the Ring camera arriving home. We estimate it was around nine minutes until you made the discovery and then the call to your aunt. Take your time and if you need a break, just say.’
Molly nodded, still not wanting to make eye contact but then realised that might be a mistake so looked up, wiped away a tear, took a breath and told them what happened.
‘I left my aunt at the park – she had to go and see my grandparents – and I walked home. I was halfway when I saw Magda, who stopped and told me that she’d had a row with Shane and he’d sacked her. She was upset and I was really annoyed because he had no right to do that. I told her I’d sort it out and I came home. I was going to have it out with him.’
Yates interrupted. ‘On the Ring footage, you look like you’re in a hurry and out of breath and in something of a rush to get inside.’
‘I was. I more or less marched up the hill I was so angry, and it’s quite steep so yes, I was a bit out of puff. I’d been planning what I was going to say to him when I got in because Magda is like an aunty to me, and she’s my mum’s friend, so no way was I going to stand for him sacking her like that.’ That part was more or less true so Molly chanced another straight-in-the-eye look.
‘And then what happened?’ Yates was attentive while Stone scribbled in his little book.
‘I popped my head into the lounge and could see straight through to the kitchen so knew he wasn’t there, then I called his name but he didn’t reply. I went upstairs to my room because I needed the loo and as I passed Dee’s room, I saw she wasn’t there. After, you know, the loo, I went up to my mum’s suite thinking she might be there. Dee had been avoiding it but I thought maybe she’d changed her mind, but after a quick look I came back down and then opened the door to the terrace and called up. She’s always got those headphones on so I had to go and check, thinking she might be asleep on one of the steamer chairs but again, nothing.’
‘Were you concerned at this point, that she wasn’t in all of the obvious places?’ Yates asked.
‘Yes, I was. She’d hardly left her room for weeks so for her not to be there was odd. When I got back onto the first floor I called both their names again and then went to Shane’s room to see if he was in there. We were expecting the solicitor later so I presumed he might be in the shower or getting changed, I don’t know, but I thought I’d ask him and anyway, I wanted a word with him about Magda. But Dee was my real priority at the time.’
‘And what did you find?’
Molly sighed. ‘I knocked, called his name then opened the door and popped my head in but his room was empty so I went back downstairs. The bi-fold doors were closed and if they’d been in the garden, especially on a day like today, they’d be open. We always leave them like that in this weather. So I discounted that and looked in the next most obvious place which was the gym. Nothing. By this time I was really confused but it was the doors being closed that made me doubt they were outside and I didn’t think Dee would have gone over to the pool, but something told me to check…’
Nancy intervened then. ‘Take a deep breath, Molly, it’s okay, in your own time.’
Beside her, Magda had finally stopped crying, maybe out of respect for the big moment as everyone waited. And then the shaking began, maybe it was shock kicking in again or knowing what she was about to describe but it had to be done.
‘I… I pulled open the bi-folds and stepped outside…’ Molly closed her eyes because no way was she looking at anyone for this bit. She’d never had a poker face so now wasn’t the time to practise one.
‘I looked down the garden again and then to the right and that’s when I saw them.’ She sucked in air, swallowed, and continued. ‘It looked such a mess and I wasn’t sure at first… it looked like someone had gone mad on our patio.’ Her voice caught, the sight so clear and horrific in her mind that the tremble of her lip and the swell of tears that slowly trickled down her cheeks, were genuine.
