The atmosphere in the courtroom was tense.
The judge cleared his throat. ‘Mr Grant, are you ready to begin?’
Dan stood and seemed to hesitate for a moment, looking at the jurors before he said, ‘My Lord, I call Peter Box.’
The jurors stared towards the dock as Peter was placed in handcuffs before being led to the witness box. Once he was there and uncuffed, a security guard nearby and one blocking the door, he puffed out his chest. The whole focus of the court was on him.
When the New Testament was passed to him, he considered it for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure if he dared to hold it, before he swore the oath: he would tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Dan looked down at his notes, aware of the tension. When he looked up again, he was poised and ready. ‘Mr Box, did you kill Lizzie Barnsley?’
Peter nodded and swallowed. His voice trembled when he said, ‘I did, and I’m truly sorry.’
There were audible gasps from the public gallery. Someone shouted, ‘bastard’, before the judge held up his hand to warn everyone to stay quiet.
Once the noise died down, Peter straightened himself. ‘I can’t begin to describe how sorry I am, and I know that is no comfort to her family. I made Lizzie’s family wait to find out what happened to her and I should have said something at the beginning, but I was scared, and confused. I kept it from you as well, Mr Grant.’
‘Please tell the court the whole truth now. What did you do to Lizzie?’
He looked along the public gallery before pointing to Francesca, who was making notes. ‘Like the prosecutor said, I held her under the water until she drowned.’
There were more noises from the gallery, angry chatter and the shuffle of people in their seats.
The judge raised his hand. ‘I warn the people in the public gallery that this is not a theatre but a court of law. If you want to remain, stay quiet.’
Dan let it die down before he asked, ‘Why?’
Peter looked down and took a few more deep breaths. ‘I don’t know. I meant to protect her but it all went wrong. I just lost it.’
‘It?’
‘Control. It was as if everything caved in on me.’
Dan allowed the words to settle before he continued. ‘Mr Box, how can protecting Lizzie end up with you killing her?’
He looked up and his eyes were angry. ‘Because there was something even worse waiting for her.’
‘What was waiting for her?’
‘Not what, but who. Sean Martin, he was waiting.’
Dan paused to allow Sean’s name to fill the silence, no one was making a noise now. He tried to keep the tremble from his own voice as he held out his hands and said, ‘Please explain.’
‘I’d been watching him.’
‘Sean Martin?’
‘Yes, I’d been tracking him, because he was on his boat. It can only go slow, four miles an hour – he sticks to the speed limit on the canal – and I’d been waiting by the dock where he keeps his boat. I go there all the time, just to watch.’
Dan held up his hand. He didn’t want Peter going too far ahead. ‘You can explain your motives later. For now, it’s about what you were doing. How long had you been watching him that New Year’s Eve?’
‘About three hours. I had no plans for New Year’s Eve, so I decided to check up on him. I knew he was on his boat because I could see the smoke from the heater and there was a light on inside. Why would he be there if he wasn’t about to go somewhere? So I waited, and I was right. The boat pulled out at around eleven thirty, and I knew I’d be able to follow him because the boat cruises so slowly. I tracked him.’
‘On the towpath?’
‘No. I couldn’t get close or else he’d see me, but I was able to jog along the nearby streets.’
‘And which way was he heading?’
‘Into Highford. I had to get further ahead but I didn’t want to be where poor Rosie died. I go there all the time, just to remember her, and I sit and think how it could have all been different. It’s so dark at night and it feels like the past is talking to me. I sit in the shadows and wish for it to be peaceful again. For me to be at peace. It’s so lovely down there, the water so calm.’
The judge intervened. ‘This is about why you killed someone, not a sales talk for a canal trip. What’s the relevance?’
‘Because it’s ruined,’ Peter said, his voice rising. ‘Because of what happened before. Because of what happened to Rosie. It’s tranquil by the canal, but for me, in here,’ he said as he slapped a hand against his chest. ‘It never stops, never at peace, because of Rosie, because of Claire, and the women before and after them. And it was going to happen to Lizzie.’ His fingers jabbed at the edge of the witness box. ‘I ended up down there because I was following him, Sean Martin. I knew it was going to happen again and I had to stop it. That’s when I heard her. Lizzie. I heard her heels, so loud, and Sean’s boat was getting closer and closer.’
Peter looked up at the ceiling as he took a few more breaths and blinked away some tears.
‘Sean turned off the lights on his boat. He must have heard her too. That’s when I knew it was going to happen. He was going to kill her, but it wouldn’t be quick. I had to stop her, to save her.’
‘What did you do?’ Dan said. His voice was quiet but the silent tension in the courtroom carried his words forward.
‘I ran at her, to warn her, to pull her away from the towpath, because up here’ – he hit the side of his head with his fist – ‘up here I knew that she wouldn’t listen to me if I approached her and tried to talk to her, because it was dark and she’d be frightened. She was already upset, I could hear her crying, so I thought I’d surprise her and pull her away.’
‘Wouldn’t that frighten her even more?’
‘That didn’t matter. All that counted was getting her away from the path, because if I shouted and she ran, she’d run into him. His boat was waiting further along, with the light off. If I made her run, it would be like I was pushing her towards him and who’d believe that I wasn’t a part of it? And these thoughts are all going really quickly through my head, like ping, ping, so fast that I couldn’t make sense of them. I was panicking, worried about her, trying to stop what was going to happen, but I got it wrong because I ran at her. I was going to pull her away from the towpath, get her back to the road, make her run to the street. The police might speak to me about it if they caught me, but so what? I’d have saved her life at the same time.’
‘But she died, Mr Box.’
‘She did, because she was stronger than I expected. I frightened her and she fought me. Her shoes came off and she hit me with one, right in the head, and it was like someone had flicked a switch in here,’ and he thumped his temple again. ‘I had to stop her, I couldn’t let her get away, to him, to Sean Martin. I just lost it, and we fought until she ended up in the water.’
‘Explain what happened next.’
‘I can’t!’ He slammed both hands on the witness box. ‘I can’t explain it, because it was wrong, but all that had built up inside me about Sean Martin came bursting out. It wasn’t about helping her anymore but about not letting Sean Martin have her, because whatever I did to her wouldn’t be as bad as what Sean Martin would do to her.’
‘What did you do?’
Peter’s hands gripped the edge of the witness box. ‘I held her under the water, and she struggled. I held her tighter, felt her fight for air, but I wasn’t going to let go. I held her under the water until she stopped moving. And it sounds wrong and horrible, but I felt like I’d won, because I’d robbed him of her. I’d kept Lizzie Barnsley away from Sean Martin.’
Dan knew that the course the questioning was about to take would change everything. Once more, he thought of Pat. Wherever Pat was, Dan was doing it for him.
‘Mr Box,’ Dan said, ‘why was it important to keep Lizzie away from Sean Martin?’
‘Because he’d killed before. I watched him do it, and I couldn’t let it happen again.’