‘But why try and pass her off as a prostitute?’ he says. ‘That’s what I don’t understand.’
She shakes her head. ‘All part of his plan to get revenge on Mrs Jackson, I’m afraid. When I spoke to DCI Carter he said Evans’s initial idea was to seduce Charlotte and convince her to run away with him but when he realized that most fifteen-year-old girls wouldn’t look twice at a forty-three-year-old man, he decided to play the part of a lonely gay man and become her friend that way. Once she trusted him enough to go back to his flat he blackmailed her about the sex tape and then forced Keisha to pass her off as a prostitute at Greys. We don’t know what he was going to do after that although I’ve got a pretty good idea it wouldn’t have been very …’ she purses her lips, drawing a line under that line of thought.
‘My God,’ I breathe the words as the full impact of the situation hits me, ‘no wonder Charlotte did what she did. She’d broken up with Liam, fallen out with Ella and she couldn’t trust Keisha anymore and there was no one left for her to talk to so …’ The words catch in my throat as I look at my husband. ‘Brian, Charlotte tried to kill herself because she couldn’t confide in us.’
‘No.’ He tightens his grip on my hand. ‘She did it because she was trying to protect us. She knew what would happen if Evans’s recording got out. It would have been all over the papers – “Politician’s Daughter in Underage Sex Scandal”. Charlotte was so sensitive, there’s no way she would have wanted to put me in that position.’
‘But none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for me, if it wasn’t for my relationship with him. He never would have found us if I hadn’t, if I hadn’t—’
‘You stopped him, Sue.’
‘No.’ I shake my head. ‘You did.’
Brian had left Oli at the counter of Millets with an armful of supplies and a promise that it wouldn’t take him long to pop back to the hospital to get the wallet he’d left in Charlotte’s bedside drawer. Ten minutes he’d said but, instead of walking in, grabbing the wallet and walking out again, he’d burst into the hospital room to find his daughter fighting for her life and his wife about to lose hers. He’d launched himself at James, knocking him to the floor. Seconds later, alerted by the noise, several nurses came rushing in to find him sitting astride his chest, thumping him repeatedly in the face.
‘No, Sue.’ He presses his face into my hair. ‘You knew Charlotte hadn’t just had an accident and you refused to let it lie, even when I took you to the doctors, even when your mother died, even when no one believed you. Even when,’ he pulls away and looks at me, ‘I didn’t believe you. I put you all in danger. You, Charlotte and Oliver, you’re my family. And you protected us. Alone.’
I touch my left hand to the side of his face and wipe a tear away with my thumb.
‘Excuse me.’ Mrs Matthews delicately clears her throat and we turn to look at her.
‘So are we clear?’ she says, closing her notebook and laying the pen on the top of it.
‘Clear?’ I shake my head.
‘Yes. The toxicology report suggests that Evans died as a result of MRSA rather than the wounds inflicted by Mrs Jackson,’ she looks at Brian, ‘or the head trauma inflicted by Mr Jackson. As a result, and in the face of overwhelming evidence that you both acted in self-defence, the prosecution are dropping the manslaughter charges against you both.’
I reach for Brian’s hand and squeeze it tightly. ‘So does that mean …’
The lawyer smiles for the first time since we stepped foot in the police station. Her mouth opens and closes as she talks, looking from me to Brian and back again, but I only hear one word.
Free.
Book club questions for THE ACCIDENT by C.L. Taylor
1. As Susan searches for the truth behind Charlotte’s accident she realises she had no idea what was going on in Charlotte’s life. Was that her fault, or Charlotte’s, or is it normal in a mother/teenaged-daughter relationship?
2. The novel alternates between the main storyline and Sue’s diary entries from fifteen years earlier. How effectively do you think this works as a literary device in this novel?
3. Brian lies to Susan several times throughout the course of the novel. Was he justified in doing so, or should he have been completely honest with his wife?
4. There are several clues in Susan’s early diary entries that James is controlling. At what point did you notice the warning signs?
5. Discuss the theme of ‘secrets and lies’ in the book and impact they have on Sue’s attempt to find out why Charlotte stepped in front of the bus.
6. How does forty-three-year-old Sue change over the course of the book?
7. Sue won’t go to the police because she doesn’t think they’ll take her seriously (because of an incident that occurred during one of her PTSD ‘episodes’). At which point would you have gone to the police?
8. Susan sees a mirror of her relationship with James in Keisha’s relationship with Danny. Is she justified in being concerned?
9. Could young Sue’s friends and co-workers have done more to help save her from James?
10. What do you think would have happened if Charlotte had woken up before Liam admitted to Sue that they’d been sleeping together in ‘Mike’s’ house?
11. Susan doesn’t turn to her friends for help during her search for answers. Why do you think that was?
12. At the end of the novel, when James and Susan face each other in Charlotte’s hospital room, Susan asks if he ever really loved her. Do you think he did?
13. What did you think of the ending? Would you have liked it to end differently?
14. What do you think the future holds for Susan and her family? What effect do you think what happened will have on their relationships?
15. What other books would you compare this to? What books would recommend to other readers who have enjoyed this book?
A conversation with C.L. Taylor