‘It’s okay,’ I tell her. ‘It doesn’t matter any more.’
And I mean it. Suddenly all the hurt and resentment I have felt towards Sally over the years is meaningless. We were both victims of my father in different ways. How did I not see this until now?
‘Is there anyone down there?’
A voice. Female. Coming from above.
‘Yes,’ I call. ‘Down the steps. Quick.’
‘The ambulance is here, Sally,’ I say, turning back to her. ‘Sally?’
She is still. So very still.
I grab her body and shake it.
‘Sally, wake up!’ I yell. ‘Please wake up. The ambulance is here.’
I hear footsteps coming down the wooden steps.
‘No,’ I cry. ‘You can’t do this. You have to wake up.’
‘Miss, you’ll have to stand back,’ says a female voice behind me. ‘You’ll have to let her go.’
I do as she says and watch as the paramedics surround her body. But the resuscitation kit they have brought with them lies redundant on the floor. They look at one another and then at me. And with that look comes confirmation and I start to scream and the sound of my grief fills the room, the garden, the whole wretched town.
46
I’m sitting in a hospital corridor waiting for the doctors to finish examining Hannah and David. When the police arrived David started shaking and didn’t stop, all the way to the hospital. He and Hannah were taken into a private room and a stream of doctors and social workers have been in and out of there throughout the night. The nurses have brought me tea and asked if I would like to get my forehead looked at but I have refused. This pain is my penance. I should have protected her but I failed and the guilt will live with me for ever.
Somewhere in this hospital my sister is lying in a sterile box. Her life needlessly snuffed out by a psychopath who duped us all. I hear a clicking of heels coming up the corridor and I turn, half expecting to see her, arms outstretched, chattering nineteen to the dozen, asking what the hell just happened. But it’s not her, it’s a nurse, and as she walks past I feel something depart, something warm and glowing. In its place is a black hole; a dark, sister-shaped void.
She is gone.
‘Ms Rafter.’
I look up and see two figures coming towards me: a woman in a long tweed overcoat and a uniformed police officer.
‘DI Lipton,’ says the woman, extending her hand. ‘And this is PC Walker.’
‘Yes, I know who he is,’ I reply bitterly, recognizing the young man. ‘I tried to tell you what was happening in that house and you did nothing. Well, actually you did do something. You arrested me.’
He twitches and DI Lipton looks at him and frowns.
‘If you had taken me seriously that night, PC Walker, then my sister would still be alive. Instead she is lying in some lousy morgue.’
It’s all too much for me, all of it, and the tears that have been threatening for the last few hours come rushing forth.
‘I’m so sorry, Ms Rafter,’ says Lipton.
She pulls out a chair and sits down next to me. Walker remains standing.
‘This must have been a terrifying ordeal for you.’
I wipe my eyes and look at Lipton.
‘Is he alive?’ I ask. ‘Paul Cheverell; the man who did this to us. Have you got him?’
She nods her head.
‘Good,’ I say, clenching my fists.
I am glad he is alive because I want him to suffer like my sister suffered in her final moments. I want him to never know peace again for as long as he lives.
‘He’s in police custody,’ says Lipton. ‘We’ve obtained some information from Fida Rahmani and we’ll need to speak to you and Hannah too once you’re ready.’
‘Fida Rahmani,’ I spit. ‘She was part of all this. She needs locking up with him.’
‘From what we’ve gathered, it seems Miss Rahmani was as much a victim of Cheverell as your niece and sister,’ says Lipton. ‘We believe that Miss Rahmani was trafficked into the UK, and somehow Cheverell took advantage of her situation.’
‘What? I don’t understand.’
‘We’re still trying to find out the details,’ says Lipton. ‘But your sister’s neighbour told us that a woman of Miss Rahmani’s description went to see your sister yesterday, perhaps to tell her what was going on. We think Cheverell must have found out somehow, and attacked her. We found a cricket bat with blood on it in the garden.’
‘Right now I don’t care about Fida Rahmani,’ I say bitterly. ‘She had ample opportunity to tell me what was going on in that house. But she didn’t and now my sister is dead.’
‘She told us that Cheverell threatened to kill her and the boy if she spoke out,’ says Lipton. ‘He kept them all separated. Hannah was held in the shed and the rule was that David was to be kept away from her in case he got too attached. She just did what he said. It’s common that women like her grow to be dependent on their captors.’
I can’t believe the evil of this man.