Faith - Lesley Pearse [227]
PC Price broke the silence in the room by mentioning the tape was almost at an end.
‘I think we all need a break,’ Sandra said.
Donaldson drew deeply on a cigarette as Price drove them back to Edinburgh. ‘If only,’ he sighed.
‘If only what, sir?’ Price asked.
‘That she’d been interviewed more rigorously on the day of the murder,’ Donaldson said thoughtfully. ‘This, laddie, is a fine example of the folly of taking everything at face value. She was such a good-looking woman, a respectable guest house owner, and, it appeared, the loving and distraught sister. She wasn’t even suspected.’
‘I read in the file that after Laura Brannigan was arrested, she kept sticking up for her and saying she couldn’t have done it. Why do you think that was, sir?’ Price asked.
‘To make herself look sweet and loving, I guess,’ Donaldson replied. ‘It worked too, I really fell for her tears and the bewilderment routine, and so did the jury.’
‘It was lucky for Brannigan that Macgregor turned up when he did,’ Price remarked. ‘She must have been through hell in the last two years.’
‘Aye, poor woman,’ Donaldson agreed. ‘I wish I could boast that I had my doubts about her guilt. But I was like everyone else; once I knew she’d been a bit wild in the past I couldn’t see beyond that.’
‘Do you think Belle Howell is sorry about what she’s done to her?’
Donaldson gave a humourless laugh. ‘She’s sorry for herself, sorry she didn’t clear off when her sister asked her to. Sorry too, perhaps, that her sister is dead. But I doubt she’ll ever shed any tears for Laura Brannigan.’
18
Heavy rain was splattering against the windows and although it was only three in the afternoon it was so dark that Laura had been forced to turn on a table lamp to see to read. She was feeling very snug and happy. Lucy, Meggie’s dog, was curled up on the settee beside her, she liked the sound of the rain on the window, and at long last she felt she had a future.
Two days earlier Patrick Goldsmith had rung to say Belle had finally confessed to Jackie’s murder, and that he was pressing hard for an immediate appeal date for Laura.
It was wonderful to know that she would soon be completely exonerated, and that the two-year nightmare was over but for the formalities, yet strangely she also felt deep sadness about Belle. Meggie had burst into laughter when she admitted this; in her view there was no punishment bad enough for the woman. But Laura had known Belle for thirty-four years and loved her like a younger sister, and she couldn’t switch off her feelings.
Her heart went out to Lena too. She’d lost her husband, Toby had gone off to Australia, Jackie had been murdered, and now she had to live with the knowledge that Belle was a killer. Laura had spent the whole of the first day feeling faintly sick and troubled and she certainly wasn’t in the mood to celebrate.
But the previous day she had woken up to find that had passed. At last she felt ready to detach herself from the past and move forward. As so often when she wanted to mark a change of heart, or a new beginning, she took herself off to the hairdresser’s.
Her hair colour was now back where she’d started. She had been through a full circle from mouse to red, on to black, dark brown, blonde and a dozen different variations and permutations along the way, and finally she was back to mouse again. Not as dreary as she remembered it as a child of course, that was only the base colour, with blonde highlights to create some definition. But what was astounding was that it had taken ten years off her real age, and she had a glow about her that she hadn’t seen for years.
Last night she’d gone out to Soho for a celebration dinner with her sisters. It was just the best evening ever, they had laughed so much that the restaurant owner had given them a free bottle of wine. He said he was grateful to them for creating such a happy atmosphere in his restaurant.
The conversation had come round once again to Stuart, with both Meggie and Ivy urging her to encourage him more. Laura