Whispers (47 page)

They were just in time to see Mel’s limp form being stretchered from the back of an ambulance, and Jess was out of the car and sprinting towards her before anyone could stop her.

‘Mel!’ She grasped the girl’s hand, terrified at how icy cold it was. ‘Can you hear me, sweetheart? It’s Mum, I’m here and don’t worry, you’re going to be fine – you
have
to be.’

There was a nurse at either end of the stretcher and a doctor running along beside it, and it was all Jess could do to keep up with them. And then they were inside and before Jess knew it they had whipped Mel away through swinging double doors and all she could do was wait with a picture of the girl’s terrifyingly pale face floating in front of her eyes. She had been ice-cold and shivering uncontrollably. What if she were to die too? It was just too frightening to contemplate.

She was led away to a small room where a nurse informed her that someone would be out to see her as soon as Mel had been examined by the doctors. Jess nodded numbly. There was nothing else she could do.

Inspector Flynn joined her after a while and stood with his hands folded behind his back staring from the window across the crowded car park as they waited for news. And then at last the door swung open again and a middle-aged doctor with thinning hair and a weary face came in.

‘You’ll be pleased to know that Melanie is going to be all right, Mrs Beddows,’ he informed her. ‘We’re going to keep her in overnight for
observation,
but apart from a number of bruises and shock, she seems to be physically OK.’ He didn’t yet tell her that Mel hadn’t spoken. It seemed more important right now to assure her that her daughter’s physical condition was not life-threatening. From what he had heard, the woman had had a terrible time of it over the last twenty-four hours.

‘C . . . can I see her?’ Jess croaked with relief.

‘I don’t see why not, but I should warn you, she hasn’t spoken yet. If you’d like to come with me I’ll take you to her now.’

When Jess glanced towards Inspector Flynn as if for permission he nodded and she was surprised to see that there were tears in his eyes as he fell into step beside her.

And what he was thinking was,
Thank God for small mercies
.

At least this poor sod had
someone
to go on for now.

Jess approached Mel’s bed with her heart in her mouth, wondering what she would see. The girl was lying quietly, and Jess was relieved to see that she had stopped shaking now, although her eyes were blank and lifeless.

She bent to kiss the girl’s cheeks, careful to avoid the drip that was feeding into the back of her hand. ‘What happened, sweetheart? Can you tell me?’

The doctor, who was standing at the other side of the bed, instantly stepped forward.

‘I don’t think she’s up to being questioned yet,’ he told Jess gently. ‘We’ve just had to tell the police the same thing. But perhaps tomorrow when she’s had a good rest? Melanie is deeply in shock, so I’m afraid I can only let you have a few moments with her for now. She needs to be kept warm and quiet.’

‘Oh!’ Jess choked as she looked back at Mel. The girl didn’t even seem to realise that she was there. All the same Jess spent the next few minutes talking soothingly to her.

‘Don’t worry about anything,’ she told her over and over again. ‘We’ll get through this together.’

Eventually, following a nod from the doctor, the Inspector took her arm. ‘I think we ought to be going now so that Mel can rest, Mrs Beddows,’ he told her. ‘And don’t worry. She’ll be very well taken care of.’

Jess reluctantly stood up, and after giving Mel a final kiss she followed Inspector Flynn from the room. Her mind was in turmoil. How the hell could all of this have happened? She just couldn’t think what could have brought them to this tragic situation.

Back at the house, she expected Jo to come running out to meet her with Alfie on her heels, but then it hit her like a slap in the face that this would never happen again now, and it was more than she could comprehend. She leaned heavily on the inspector’s arm as he led her back into the house, and the first person she saw was Laura
sitting
there with tears streaming down her face, next to the doctor who had promised earlier on that he would call in again to see how she was.

‘Oh, Jess.’ Laura raced towards her with her arms outstretched. ‘I’m so sorry, pet. I should have told you what was going on instead of avoiding you, and then all this might never have happened.’

Both Jess and Inspector Flynn were staring at her now and Laura flushed under their scrutiny.

‘If you know anything at all that might throw some light on these events, I suggest you tell us immediately,’ the inspector said, as Laura wrung her hands together nervously.

Her eyes tight on Jess’s face, she falteringly began. ‘Some time ago, Mel called in to see me one day on her way home from school and completely broke down. I cuddled her and asked her what was wrong, and she confided that . . .’ Laura’s eyes were as wide as saucers and for a moment Jess thought that she was going to clam up, but the woman visibly forced herself to go on. ‘She confided that Simon had been sexually abusing her since shortly after you moved into the house. It normally happened on the nights when you went to see your friend Karen, and that’s why they hadn’t been getting on.’

Jess’s lips trembled and she could barely speak. What Laura was saying was completely beyond belief. She had always known that Simon had a roving eye for the ladies, but the thought that he would use his own daughter in that way was unthinkable. She gripped the back of a chair for support.

‘It can’t be true!’ she finally managed to gasp.

Laura wiped her eyes. ‘I’m afraid it is. When I found out, my first instinct was to rush up here and tell you what was going on. But then, as Den pointed out, had I done that, it would have meant the breakup of your family, and you didn’t deserve that on top of everything else that’s happened lately. Neither did the girls. So that’s when I started to keep away. We encouraged Mel to spend more time with us, as you’ve probably noticed. She needed support, and with all you’ve been through she felt she couldn’t talk to you. Den got Simon alone and told him that he knew what was going on and warned him to stop. Between you and me, I think Den found it hard to keep his hands off him, Jess. We just wanted to protect the girl and we intended to wait until you were a little stronger and then we’d have told you what was going on, but as things have turned out, we never got the
chance.’
She burst into torrents of weeping. ‘If only I had, none of this might have happened!’

Even as Jess tried to deny it to herself, she felt as if the pieces of a jigsaw were finally fitting together. If what Laura was telling them was true, it explained a lot of things. The way Simon had always made Mel stay behind when she went to visit Karen. The state Mel would be in when she got home.

‘I’m so sorry, Jess,’ Laura sobbed as she saw her friend’s despair. ‘I’ll never forgive myself for not telling you, but what would
you
have done in my situation?’

‘Probably the same,’ Jess admitted in a small voice, and then she too started to cry at last. Great gulping sobs that shook her whole body as the doctor hastily stepped forward again. There was another sharp needle prick and then thankfully she knew no more as a welcoming darkness closed around her, and she slept right through till the morning in the easy chair.

The police interviewed Mel early the next day before driving Jess to the hospital to see her, and the instant her mother stepped into the room Mel began to weep noisily.

‘I’m so sorry, Mum,’ she wailed as she held her arms out to her. ‘I
wanted
to tell you, but I didn’t think you’d believe me – and you were so sad already after losing the baby.’

‘So what Laura said was true then?’ Jess said dully as she cradled the girl’s heaving body against her.

Mel nodded. ‘On the night it happened you’d only been gone for a few minutes when Dad came to my room and I knew that he was going to hurt me again and I couldn’t bear it. Somehow I managed to get past him and I just ran outside. I could hear him chasing after me, and before I knew it we were by the river at the stone bridge.’ She trembled as her mind flashed back. ‘He . . . he was shouting at me and threatening me and we started to fight. And then suddenly I heard a splash and when I looked around he was in the river. He was trying to swim but the current was too fast for him and I didn’t stop in case he managed to get out and . . . and did
it
again, so I just ran and hid in some bushes. The next thing I knew was when the police dog found me and they brought me in here. The policeman told me that Dad is dead. I’m so sorry, Mum.’

‘Don’t be,’ Jess soothed her as she hugged her. ‘None of this is your fault. It’s mine, if anybody’s. I should have realised what was going
on
right under my nose, but I never dreamed he would be capable of doing something like that. Especially to his own daughter.’

‘That’s not all,’ Mel went on, and Jess shuddered. What else could there be?

‘The . . . the drugs – you know, the ones that you found in my bag on holiday? It wasn’t Emile who asked me to bring them back, it was Dad. He arranged for me to meet a man in the hotel foyer on the night before we flew home, and he gave them to me. I had to pay him with money Dad gave me before we left, and he said that if I didn’t do as he said, he would plant some in my room for you to find so that you’d think I was using them.’ Jess reeled with shock. It seemed that there was no end to the nightmare.

‘So it wasn’t Emile Lefavre,’ she breathed as she recalled how awful she had been to him.

Mel shook her head, looking terribly fragile and ill. And was it any wonder, Jess thought.

‘Had your dad ever asked you to do anything like this before?’ she asked, and the answer when it came was what she had dreaded.

‘Yes. Sometimes he made me drop packages off in the town after school. And sometimes I had to wag off school early to deliver them for him.’

Oh Simon, how
could
you have been so wicked?
Jess’s heart was screaming, but deep down she knew that he had not loved her for a long time – even before they had moved to Stonebridge House, if she was to be brutally honest with herself. It was she who had hoped that a new home would be a fresh start for them all instead of accepting that their marriage was beyond repair. And if only she had faced facts back then, she and the girls could have moved on, and none of this need have happened.

‘The police lady told me that Jo is dead too,’ Mel whispered brokenly.

‘Yes, darling, I’m afraid she is. The police told me this morning that they thought her death was a tragic accident. I told her that she couldn’t come with me when I went out to look for you, but she must have waited until I got back and checked on her, and then gone out to look for you and Dad herself. The police think she slipped on the mud and tumbled into the river and . . .’ Her voice trailed away as pain enveloped her.
Beautiful, innocent Jo
. Her life was such a tragic waste. She’d had a whole bright future before her, and now all that was left of the family was Jess and Mel.

‘We’ll get through this somehow,’ she murmured into Mel’s hair,
and
then they clung together and sobbed as the policewoman standing discreetly in the corner bowed her head in the presence of so much grief.

Mel was discharged from the hospital two days later. Her bruises were healing but the mental scars would take much longer to mend, if ever. She had already seen a counsellor in the hospital, but that would only be the first of many sessions she would need to help her come to terms with what had happened.

Jess was delighted to have her home and fussed over her between endless interviews with the police. But at last the officers were satisfied and they left, leaving the house strangely quiet. Now Jess was faced with the unenviable task of arranging her husband’s and her daughter’s funeral, although neither of the bodies would be released for burial until after the inquest, which was set for the following week.

Jess didn’t know how she was going to get through it and cried every time she thought of her darling girl lying somewhere on a cold mortuary slab. She tried hard not to even think of Simon, who had betrayed her shamelessly, and she knew that she could never forgive him for committing the ultimate sin in abusing his own daughter. She had forgiven him so much in the past, but this was beyond forgiveness.

She finally tucked Mel into bed and went downstairs to face her first night alone. Up until now the house had been swarming with police, and loneliness closed around her as she looked about the familiar room.

Jo should have been sitting at the table doing her homework or laughing at some programme on the television, but now she would never do either of those things again.

Jess made herself a drink but poured it away as she wandered around aimlessly, and when there was a tap on the door, she flew to open it, glad of some company, whoever it might be. It was too painful to be alone; it gave her too much time to think.

‘Laura!’ she exclaimed, almost hauling her into the room. ‘Come in! I was just wondering what I was going to do with myself.’

‘How are you?’ Laura asked gravely.

‘Oh, you know. Much as you’d expect. I still can’t take it all in, to be honest.’ Fetching a bottle of wine and two glasses, she now joined Laura at the table and Laura was shocked to see how ill Jess looked.
But
then she supposed it was to be expected after the tragic events of the last few days.

‘I er . . . I’ve brought something to show you,’ she said, taking some sheets of paper from her bag. ‘It’s the research into the house I was telling you about, and I’ve discovered something quite amazing.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. As you know, I’ve been researching into yours and Simon’s family tree, and it seems that he was actually a descendant of the Fentons who lived here in Martha’s time.’

Jess’s eyes stretched wide with shock. ‘Are you
quite
sure?’ she gasped.