Lost Innocence (33 page)

‘Oh my God!’ Alicia cried over him.

‘I didn’t rape her,’ Nat shouted. ‘She…’

Finishing the caution, Croft said, ‘Hang on, son, don’t say any more. I have to write down your responses and you might want to wait until you have legal representation.’

Nat’s eyes were so wide they might burst from his head. His mouth was trembling in a way that was shredding Alicia’s heart.

‘He didn’t do it,’ she insisted shakily. ‘If you knew him…’

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Carlyle. We need to search the house.’

‘But she’s a liar,’ Alicia shouted. ‘She’s…’

‘Mum, don’t say any more.’

‘But you can’t let her get away with this. Do you have a warrant?’ she demanded, turning back to Croft.

‘Under Section 17 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, we don’t need a warrant at this stage,’ he informed her. ‘We simply want to take the clothes Nathan was wearing on Saturday night…’

‘You don’t need to search for that. We can just give them to you.’

‘If you can show DC Grange your room, Nathan,’ Croft said. ‘All communal areas will be searched,’ he explained to Alicia, ‘which will include the bathroom.’

‘What exactly are you looking for?’ she cried. ‘If you just want his clothes…’

‘We’ll need to take his computer and mobile phone, and anything else we feel might be relevant.’

‘But I’m telling you she’s a liar,’ Annabelle almost screamed, as Nat turned backup the stairs.

‘Mrs Carlyle, could you come with me, please?’ Croft said, taking her gently by the arm. ‘I know this has been a shock for you. Is there anyone you can call?’

‘My husband’s a lawyer,’ she blurted.

‘Then perhaps you’d like to contact him.’

‘I can’t,’ she said, her voice cracking with despair. ‘He’s …’ She put a hand over her mouth to stop herself sobbing. ‘He died six months ago,’ she managed to say.

‘I’m sorry,’ Croft responded respectfully. ‘Is there someone else?’

‘What are you going to do to him? I’m telling you, he’s …’

‘We’re taking him in for questioning,’ Croft explained. ‘Miss Preston has accused him of a very serious offence, so we have to follow it up.’

‘Her mother’s put her up to this,’ Alicia told him urgently. ‘She’s been trying to get rid of me…’

‘I think it would be best if you took your son’s advice and didn’t say any more,’ Croft suggested kindly.

‘He’s a good boy,’ she said, starting to break down. ‘He wouldn’t do anything wrong, I swear it. He wants to be a barrister, like his father.’

‘I’m going to assist with the search now,’ Croft told her.
‘If I were you I’d take a few deep breaths and get on the phone to a solicitor.’

Realising the sense of the advice, she took herself off to the kitchen, but there were so many fears spinning through her mind that when she got there it took her a moment to remember what she was supposed to be doing.

Her bag was still on her shoulder, so taking out her mobile she began searching for Jolyon’s office number. Her hands were trembling with shock, but on the third attempt she managed to press to connect. ‘Can I speak to Mr Crane please?’ she asked when a telephonist answered.

‘I’ll put you through to his secretary.’ A moment later another voice came down the line, asking if she could help.

‘I need to speak to Jolyon,’ Alicia gasped. ‘My name is Alicia Carlyle. Please tell him it’s an emergency.’

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Carlyle, Jolyon’s in court at the moment, but I can get a message to him.’

Alicia was having to fight back the panic again. ‘Could you ask him to call me as soon as he can?’ she said. ‘Tell him it’s about Nat.’

‘Of course. I’ll go over there now and hand him a note myself.’

‘Thank you,’ Alicia whispered.

After ringing off she stood staring at her phone, thinking about Robert and Rachel, but not quite able to call either of them yet. She was waiting for it all to turn out to be a terrible mistake. They were going to find something that would prove Nat could never have committed such a horrible crime.

However, there was no apology for having got it wrong, nor a miraculous discovery. There was only the sound of heavy treading on the stairs, followed by a thorough search of the kitchen, sitting room and old playroom, with evidence bags being filled and sealed, and finally Nat coming to hug her before they escorted him out to the car.

‘It’ll be all right,’ he whispered thickly. ‘Don’t worry.’

Gazing up into his eyes, she felt her heart breaking into a thousand pieces. He looked so lost and afraid, so vulnerable, like the child he used to be. ‘I’m coming with you,’ she told him.

‘I don’t think they’ll let you. I’m not a minor.’

Having overheard the exchange Croft said, ‘We’re taking him to the station in Bath.’ He turned round as one of the uniformed officers came back from the unit car. ‘No room at Bath,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to take him to Bristol.’

‘That’s OK,’ Alicia said to Nat. ‘I’ve already called Jolyon, so there’s a chance he might be there by the time you arrive. Which station in Bristol?’ she asked the officer.

‘Southmead,’ he answered.

Jolyon would know where that was. She’d call to pass the information on, then she’d get in the car and drive there herself.

‘It’ll be all right,’ she told Nat, hugging him hard. ‘We both know she’s lying, so we’ll get this straightened out and you’ll be home again before you know it.’

Chapter Fourteen

‘Annabelle, this is Detective Sergeant Bevan who I told you about,’ Lisa Murray said, as Bevan joined them in a room that wasn’t very different from the waiting area. Except the furniture in this one was brown corduroy and there were two small cameras facing down from the corners, with a couple of microphones strategically placed on the walls.

‘Hello Annabelle,’ Bevan said, shaking her hand.

Annabelle kept her eyes lowered. ‘Hello,’ she said.

‘The medical’s been done, sir,’ Lisa told him. ‘It wasn’t so bad, was it?’ she said to Annabelle.

Annabelle shook her head.

‘Do you have any questions?’ Bevan asked her.

‘Where’s my mum?’

‘She’s in the waiting area,’ Lisa answered. ‘Sergeant Bevan’s just taken a statement from her.’

‘Are you sure she won’t be able to hear anything I say? You said she wouldn’t.’

‘Absolutely sure.’

Bevan’s interest perked up. What didn’t she want her mother to know? ‘I expect Lisa has explained that her role is to act as liaison between you and CID,’ he said. ‘She’s been specially trained in this field, so don’t worry, nothing you say can shock her.’

Annabelle’s eyes travelled to Lisa.

Lisa smiled. ‘Feel free to use whatever words you’re most comfortable with to describe what happened,’ she told her. ‘As DS Bevan said, I won’t get embarrassed, but before we begin I must stress how important it is for you to tell the truth. Rape is a very serious allegation, but lying is also a
serious offence for which you can be prosecuted. Did you know that?’

Annabelle half nodded and half shook her head. ‘I – I think so,’ she answered. She looked at Bevan and seemed to wither.

‘Do you understand that based on what you say here today,’ Bevan continued, ‘you could have to appear in court to undergo a vigorous cross-examination by the defence?’

Annabelle’s eyes widened with alarm, but she did know, so she gave a small nod.

‘Unless Nathan pleads guilty, of course,’ Lisa added.

‘He’ll say he didn’t do it,’ Annabelle told her, ‘but he did.’

Lisa squeezed her arm. ‘Make yourself comfortable on the sofa there,’ she said, directing her to the one where the cameras were focused. ‘I’m going to have a quick word with DS Bevan next door in the tech room before we get started.’

Once the door was closed behind them, and Bevan was certain they couldn’t be overheard, he looked at Annabelle’s face on one of the screens and said, ‘Well, what do you make of her so far? Is she on the level?’

Though Bevan might be a senior rank, out of hours he was Lisa’s live-in partner, so she didn’t feel she had to stand on ceremony. ‘Actually, Clive, I’m not getting much of a sense of her yet,’ she admitted. ‘She’s clearly nervous, and slightly defensive, which conforms to normal victim behaviour, and you’ve seen the bruises …’

‘But,’ he prompted.

‘I don’t know. Something obviously happened to her on Saturday night, or some time over the weekend, but I’ve had too many convincing liars pass through here to make any snap judgements at this stage.’

Bevan nodded. ‘Then I guess it’s time to hear what she has to say for herself,’ he said, and removing his jacket he settled down in front of the monitor while Lisa returned to the room where Annabelle was waiting.

Several minutes later, with the official reciting of rights and explanations of procedure recorded on DVD, Lisa started by asking who Annabelle had gone to the rave with, and what sort of things she’d been doing before she’d run into Nathan.

‘Mainly dancing and … getting stoned,’ Annabelle answered, letting her eyes drift guiltily to one side.

‘Who were you dancing with?’

‘Everyone. Georgie. Melody. Theo. Some bloke called Neil.’

‘Is Theo a boyfriend?’

‘Sort of. We kind of all hang out together.’

‘So you were there with him…’

‘With everyone, but I did go off and have a you know, snog with him quite early on. Well, I suppose it wasn’t that early, because I was already a bit smashed by then. Then this Neil started kind of coming on to me, so I went into the woods with him for a while as well.’

‘What did you do with him?’

Annabelle blushed furiously. ‘This and that,’ she mumbled. ‘Nothing major.’

‘Can you be a bit more specific?’ Lisa prompted.

Annabelle shrugged self-consciously. ‘A bit of snogging,’ she said, ‘and he…he put his fingers in me.’

Lisa’s eyes sharpened. ‘Did you have sex with him?’ she asked.

Annabelle swallowed and shook her head.

Lisa gave it a moment, then said, ‘OK, so how did you and Nat get together at the party? Did he come to find you, or was it the other way round?’

‘The other way round. Once I knew he was there I went to find him. He was with my friend Melody, but I knew he wasn’t interested in her, so I managed to get rid of her for him.’

‘Was he grateful?’

Annabelle nodded. ‘I mean, he didn’t say thanks I’m grateful, or anything, but I could tell.’

‘So what happened then?’

Annabelle’s eyes drifted again, as more colour crept up over her neck. ‘He walked off into the trees, and I followed him.’

‘Why did you follow? Did he ask you to?’

Annabelle shook her head. ‘Not really, but I knew he wanted to… you know.’

‘Wanted to what?’ Lisa prompted.

Annabelle’s eyes flicked anxiously to the door. ‘Are you sure my mum can’t hear this?’ she asked.

‘Absolutely,’ Lisa promised.

‘OK. Well, I knew he wanted to have sex.’

‘Did he say that?’

‘He didn’t have to. I could tell, and I was OK about it. I mean, it’s not as if we’d never done anything before.’

Lisa’s eyebrows rose. ‘So you’ve engaged in sexual intercourse with Nathan on previous occasions?’ she said.

‘No, but we did other stuff.’

‘Such as?’

‘You know, stuff. We showed one another our rude bits, and did some touching.’ She gave an embarrassed smile.

‘Could you be more explicit?’

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes Annabelle said, ‘I let him see my boobs, and he got out his thing.’

‘You mean his penis?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did he touch you?’

‘Ye-ah. And I touched him, but we never went all the way.’

‘Did you engage in any kind of oral sex?’

Annabelle’s defences were rising. ‘Yes, if you must know, but only once.’

‘I see. When did this happen?’

Annabelle shrugged. ‘About two or three years ago, I suppose. We used to go upstairs at his house, or mine, pretending we were going to play a game, like draughts or something, and then we’d, you know, do other stuff.’

‘So you were what, twelve at the time?’

‘And thirteen, and he was fourteen, fifteen.’

‘Did he ever try to force you to have sex with him then?’

‘Not force, exactly, but he definitely wanted to. I did too, but we were both too scared someone might come in.’

‘So you were a willing party to these… games?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can you tell me how old you were when you actually lost your virginity?’

‘Nearly fourteen.’

‘Was it to Nat?’

‘No. It was a boy at school called Dean Foster. He lives in Canada now, but he used to be one of our crowd.’

‘The same crowd you were at the rave with on Saturday night?’

‘That’s right. Some of them used to be at our school, before they left to go to uni, but we’ve all stayed in touch, and we see each other in the holidays.’

‘OK. So, going back to Nathan and your early experiences together. Did they continue over a long period of time?’

Annabelle pursed her lips as she thought. ‘I suppose it was about a year,’ she said. ‘I expect it would have gone on longer, he might even have been my first, if our mothers hadn’t fallen out. We never saw one another after that, until Nat moved to Holly Wood a couple of weeks ago.’

‘So you had no contact with him at all for, how long?’

‘About two years, I suppose. Our mothers really hate each other, and I know why. My mum had an affair with his dad.’ She smirked. ‘Isn’t that wicked?’

There were other words Lisa might have used to describe it, but she was much less interested in the adult carryingson than she was in finding out what had happened this past weekend. ‘Let’s go back to the party again,’ she said. ‘You followed Nathan into the trees, certain he wanted to have sex with you. What made you so certain?’

Annabelle shrugged. ‘I just was. You know, the way he looked at me. It was like he didn’t want to, but he did. And I was high, and so I thought why not? I mean, it wasn’t like we’d never done anything before, and I really, you know, fancy him…Or I did before he turned on me like that.’ She swallowed hard as tears swamped her eyes. ‘He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with what he did to me,’ she said hotly.