Alle sighed. “Sure, we can go over what happened. There’s nothing much to recount though. I took a wrong turn in the dark and slid down a cliff face. Can’t recommend it. I’m probably lucky that all I did was dislocate my shoulder. If you want details of what happened after that, I’m sorry, I can’t help you. I assume my boyfriend found me, and…” No one had filled her in on the actual details of her arrival. Come to think of it, she wasn’t even sure where the hospital was located. “Actually, I’ve a question for you. You don’t happen to know what happened to my possessions, do you? Is that the mystery? Has some bugger half-inched my phone? My money’s on my brother if you’d like to pat someone down.”
“That isn’t why we’re here.”
“Right, okay.” Shame, she really wouldn’t have minded if they marched Marshall off for a nice stay at His Majesty’s pleasure.
“Ms Hutton. Allegra. We understand that you might not wish to talk about this, but we’d very much encourage you to do so.”
Colour her confused. “I’m sorry, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. Did something happen while I was unconscious? Is Spook okay?”
He probably wasn’t. He’d be worried sick. She’d been beside herself when he’d been in hospital. Likewise, it was really concerning that he wasn’t here. What if he’d got hurt too trying to rescue her?
“Who’s Spook?” the bed percher asked.
“Do you perhaps not remember what happened, Allegra?”
“He’s my boyfriend, and remember what? What is it I’m supposed to recall? I’ve told you what happened. It was dark, I obviously got turned about somehow, and then splat.” She’d really like to know where that slope had appeared from, because she swore it blinking well hadn’t been there when she’d walked the ravine in daylight.
“Allegra, this is delicate, and please understand that we don’t want to distress you unnecessarily.”
If anything was distressing her about this conversation it was the obfuscation. “Would you please stop dancing around whatever it is you want to say and just say it? I’m quite keen to leave here sometime today, so I’d rather not miss the doctor doing the rounds.” She knew how these things worked. Miss someone and you wound up in limbo.
The two officers exchanged cautious nods.
“Very well,” the non-uniformed officer said. “The doctors observed some discrepancies with your injuries and your general state on arrival with what was reported to have happened. And they and your family are con—”
Her family. She might have known Marshall would be behind this.
“—cerned enough about that to have called us. I wonder, Allegra, if perhaps there was another party involved. That maybe you didn’t slip?”
“Are you suggesting someone pushed me?”
“Maybe you feel it was an accident, and you don’t want them to get into trouble.”
Christ, Marshall must have been spinning them some seriously epic yarns. “I was one hundred per cent alone when I fell. No one pushed me. Why the hell would they?”
The uniformed officer made some notes on her pad, while the other seemed to chew over Alle’s statement like it was particularly gristly.
“Allegra, your clothing was in a state of considerable disarray when you arrived here. It wasn’t at all consistent with what one would expect as a result of a fall. Also, you have an array of contusions that are rather more consistent with assault—”
“Oh my God!”
“I’m sorry Ms Hutton—”
“No, I don’t mean, ‘Oh my God’, like that. I mean, I wasn’t raped. That’s what you think, right? You think someone attacked me and then pushed me down that cliff hoping I wouldn’t survive. Fuck! That’s insane. Also, totally not what happened. No one attacked me.”
“We understand this can be a difficult thing to process.”
“No. Seriously, listen to me. I fell. That’s it. There’s no other part to the story. This sequence of events you’ve constructed didn’t happen.”
“We’ve spoken to your brother, and he’s—”
“Oh, I’ll bet he is. Had lots to say, did he? Arsehole! Marsh likes nothing better than to spin narratives. If he can shit stir at the same time, then all the better. I don’t suppose he happened to mention the fact that I haven’t spoken to him in over a year because he’s so damn toxic? And he did his best to ruin my relationship and my career by publishing aspects of my private life for public consumption, or that he’s already been hauled through the courts once for defamation.”
“He expressed the opinion that your current boyfriend had estranged you from your family.”
Alle shook her head. Unbelievable. Dick brain never fucking gave up.
“I’ve just given you the brief version of what he did to me. Do I really need to go into more detail of why I don’t want to be around him? I get along just fine with my oldest and youngest brothers. The third…” She swept her tongue over her teeth. “Let’s just say he’s as big an arsehole as Marshall.”
