Cambridge Blue - Alison Bruce [129]
Right now all that mattered was Alice and the verbal grenades she was hurling at her. Jackie levelled her stare at her sister, then took her best shot. ‘But not for Joanne Reed.’
Alice stumbled, tried to rewind the conversation, but couldn’t quite make sense of Jackie’s comment. ‘What do you mean?’
Jackie spelt it out, her voice quiet but dogged. ‘If Alex knew I’d never killed David, then he never believed I killed Joanne Reed either. He would not have kept up that pretence just for Richard. You said yourself Dad never loved him, so even as an adult Richard could never step out of line. Richard had nothing to negotiate with, but you had everything.’
‘No,’ said Alice quietly.
‘Why not? Surely you’re not really saying it was Richard who killed Joanne Reed?’
Alice began to shake her head, then stopped.
Jackie seized the moment. ‘Now you’re stuck, aren’t you? It’s you or him, Alice. I went to the races at Newmarket, and that’s when Richard met Emma. You weren’t there because you’d just had another miscarriage. Then, a few days later, I saw Richard and Emma having sex up at Old Mile Farm. When she disappeared, I thought Richard was behind it. And I warned you about him, but I thought you just wouldn’t listen. You killed Emma, then told me to keep my distance so you could play me and Richard off against each other. You made him think I’d killed Joanne Reed, knowing that I would stay away and convince him that I’d done it.
‘Then what about Lorna Spence? You introduced her to Richard because you wanted them together. Lorna told me how you encouraged her to get pregnant, and you told me last summer that you’d lost hope of having a successful pregnancy. It must really have knotted you up, hearing them at it in the next bedroom. Would you have killed her once she’d had the child? She never wanted one though, did she? When I told you about Colin Willis, you realized that Lorna wanted both of us out of the way to get to Richard, and then it turned into a classic battle of two women chasing one man. Or did Richard kill her because he found out she was sleeping around?
‘And what was Victoria? Just an impulse kill by Richard, or an opportunity to tie up your loose ends?’ Jackie stopped abruptly and sat back in her seat. ‘It’s you or him now, so just tell the truth.’
Alice ran the tip of her tongue over her teeth and narrowed her eyes. It was a look that Jackie recognized from as far back as she could remember: it preceded one of her sister’s most calculated game plays, and appeared just as she contemplated making any key move. In this instance, there was only one move available.
‘OK,’ she sighed, ‘it was Richard, he killed them all.’
Jackie smiled. ‘Jealous, was he?’
‘Irrationally jealous. I tried to reason with him, but he’s not well.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘Neither do I,’ Goodhew said, then added, ‘Just wait,’ with no further explanation.
Five minutes passed and Jackie was beginning to wonder whether something had gone awry. Then the door opened, and a female officer stepped through, accompanied by Richard. ‘I want to speak to Jackie,’ he said, seemingly oblivious to everyone else there, even Alice.
Jackie nodded. ‘OK.’
‘You’re wrong about Alice.’
Jackie blinked. ‘How?’
‘She didn’t make me think you’d killed Joanne because she told me she’d done it herself. I killed David all those years ago to give us a fresh start, but it left me in an impossible situation. From then on, we were in it together. I did realize she had killed Lorna, it was only Victoria’s murder that I knew nothing about. I’ve agreed to make a confession, but I just wanted to tell you first.’
He was many things she despised, and so many things Jackie recognized in herself. And some that were both. He left the interview room and Goodhew ushered her out too. At the last second, she turned back to find Alice white-faced and staring after them.
Goodhew spoke. ‘We can’t just let you leave, you’ll be facing charges for—’
‘Colin Willis, I understand. I want it all out in the open now.’
Goodhew stopped Jackie in the hallway. ‘Will you