Chapter 52

The caller is a surprise. She’s been lying low since the sabotage and the increasing press interest in her past decisions.

“Helena,” I say.

“Thank you for answering, Tiggy. I need you to do something for me. It’s important. I’m going to make a statement and I need you and Lou-Lou there. Just a small private group, including DC Ben Baker who was close to Electra. And Hayden Sinclair my solicitor. Ben and Hayden will have professional duties to perform after I’m finished.”

I’m amazed. It sounds like she’s going to come clean about her forensic fiddles.

“It will be recorded,” she continues, “My old journalist friend Perry Windermere will bring a video-photographer from the Echo.”

And then Ben will arrest her for a lifetime of crime?

“When?”

“Right now. I need to do it now before I lose my nerve. I’ve been hiding too long. Can you pick Lou-Lou up from my place? I don’t want to take her in my car. I need … the headspace.”

I haven’t seen Lou-Lou since I received notice to drop my ‘research’. Not even a text message after the police released her.

“Of course.”

“The Crescent is full of paparazzi,” she says. “I’ll leave now and use a few tricks to lose them. Lou-Lou will meet you in the back lane. She’s expecting you. I’ve let the constable guarding the barricade know to let you through.”

“Where are we meeting?”

“Do you remember the Liberty Ford case and my bikini-test from decades ago? It’s a private bay with a jetty. Impulse Cove. For symbolic reasons, I’m going to do it there where my career began.”

She gives me the address and I don’t mention my visit to the site.

“Lou-Lou and I will be there, Helena.”

I wouldn’t miss it.

“Thank you,” she says. “Wrap up well. It will be very windy and cold. Feels appropriate.”

As I throw on extra layers, I wonder why she’s included me. Because I supported Lou-Lou before they told me to leave her alone? And now she wants me to be her backup buddy? My new side hustle.

I message Baxter that I won’t be here when he comes to walk Raider. He knows the code to the door. I top up the pooch’s bowls. I can’t read his mind but I’m sure he’ll be sorry to miss another run along the wild and windy beach. On my way out, I apologise and give him a hug.

Fifteen minutes later, I’ve been waved through the police barricade at the end of the lane behind Serpentine Crescent. Lou-Lou sees me pull into the back courtyard and she’s out the glass doors and into the car. Now we’re heading south towards Exmouth and Impulse Cove beyond, and I realise this is my first chance to talk to her alone.

“I’m glad you’re here, Tiggy,” she says. “Helena said I have to hear her little speech and I couldn’t do it on my own. It’s awful living with her. She ignores me. As if I’ve never been part of the family and she can stop pretending. And she’s been worse since questions about her forensic evidence hit the news.”

“Really?” Poor Lou-Lou. “Hasn’t she been supporting you? I thought she stepped in when the police arrested you for murdering Ambrose.”

“She ordered me to stop talking to you and let the police do their job.”

“Did she think you were guilty?”

“She told me they would find the person who did it. I just had to keep quiet and be patient.”

“She was right,” I say. “But what about the trace of DNA and the typo?” Lou-Lou doesn’t know how much I learned from my ‘research’. “Did you ask Helena what really happened to little Alex? And if you’re right about how you got your name?”

Surely Helena offered her something to tell me to drop it. Like the truth.

It’s several long seconds before Lou-Lou answers. “She won’t tell me anything. I think Paul Pigford told her I found things in her filing cabinet. He showed me where she keeps the key.”

“The things you put on the flash drive.”

“Yes. And that’s why she’s not talking to me and can’t wait for me to leave. But after everything that’s happened, I can’t live in Number 24 and I can’t afford to stay anywhere else.”

“What about going back to France?”

“Now I know Clemence isn’t my real mother, I don’t want to see her again.”

It’s harsh. Clemence mothered her to adulthood as if Lou-Lou was her own. Unless it wasn’t ever a happy home.

“What are your plans?” I ask.

“Wait. See what happens. Helena told me she has a surprise for me. Probably just to get me to come along today. If she tells the truth for a change, that would be more of a shock than a surprise.”

It’s a horrible blustery day. As we reach the headland above Impulse Cove, the white caps look huge. Will a microphone even pick up anything she says?

I’m expecting us to huddle in the parking area above the cove but when we pull into a space facing the headlands we can see four people on the jetty.

“Why are they down there?” Lou-Lou asks, matching my thoughts.

“This is where she solved her first case and became famous.”

I tell her about the press leak with Helena dressed in a bikini.

“She chose this location for a very good reason,” I say. “Probably to make a point about her career. That she solved a lot of crimes and put a lot of criminals in jail, starting right here with the murder of Liberty Ford. She wants to balance the bad news about her forensic fiddles with the good she’s achieved.”

Lou-Lou doesn’t reply but she’s going to go through with it.

We get out and put on our flapping coats and scarves. The wind blows off our hoods so I give Lou-Lou one of my beanies and pull on another one. Gloves last. Then we battle the onshore gale and the salt in our faces as we trudge down the track to reach the others on the jetty. Helena is talking to Perry, while the video-photographer and Hayden stand apart. That’s when I recognise her.

Anita Blaine.

I introduce her to Lou-Lou.

“We’re part of Helena’s rent-a-crowd,” I say.

“My colleague who usually does this is sick,” Anita says, waving her camera. “And Perry said he wanted me anyway. Someone he knows. Her statement better be worth it, dragging us out here in this tempest. I drive to and from work without needing a coat. I had to borrow this one from the office coat-hook. We’ll probably hear nothing except the spray on the microphone but she’s given a copy of her speech to Perry.”

Helena acknowledges us from her position in the middle of the jetty. At least we’re not near the very end. The occasional wave is drenching the planks.

Three more cars join the lonely row above the beach and five people make their way down to join us. Ben as expected. But the others are a surprise. Barracuda and Charlie. And behind them, Fletch in his steampunk coat with tails flapping and Zaylee beside him.

While my mind tries to work out the reasons behind Helena’s choice of attendees, introductions are made where needed and nods of greeting where they aren’t.

“Thank you all for coming at short notice,” Helena says. “I’m very grateful that you’ve dropped everything to be here. And when I’m finished, Tiggy and Ben, I’ll get you to witness my signature on the document.” She waves the statement in her hand. “Then Ben and Hayden, you’ll come forward and do your respective jobs.”

Jobs involving arrest and legal support, I presume. How far Helena has fallen and is about to fall.

We stand in a semi-circle, making space in the centre for Anita to face Helena for the filming. Lou-Lou is beside me and I slip my arm through hers.

Helena speaks straight to camera, the way she must have done many times when explaining the outcome of a forensic investigation.

“I’m standing here on the jetty at Impulse Cove to make a statement in the light of recent speculations about my forensic practices over the last thirty-five years. Thirty years ago, Liberty Ford was murdered in Scotland by her boyfriend Craig Turnbull on a pier similar to this.”

She describes the suicide pronouncement and the steps she undertook to prove it was murder.

“This first case taught me everything about the power of forensic science to solve crimes. Criminals lie. Forensic evidence doesn’t. But first you have to find the evidence. It’s always there. Always. You just have to leave no stone unturned before you find it. This is what I did in Liberty’s case and her family achieved justice and closure after her shocking murder. In the cases I presided over that are now being investigated in an attempt to prove the wrong person was convicted, the evidence will be the final judge.”

She holds up a flash drive.

“This contains a list of every case where I made a judgement that might be questioned. I have detailed the evidence and my decisions. And I stand by those decisions. Except for three cases where, for personal reasons, I made a … different call. No-one is perfect. These affected the lives of three young people who I have helped privately.”

Tim. And Barracuda because of Molly. Who else? Lou-Lou? What has she done?

She leans forward and gives the flash drive to Ben. When he’s put it in the pocket of his coat, she signals for me to come and join them at the rail where we battle the wind to initial each page of the document and then witness her signature on the final page.

Helena wrestles it into a zip-lock folder and Hayden takes it. Then she puts a hand in her pocket and presses something into the palm of Perry’s hand, closing his fingers over it. Next, she goes to Barracuda and presses something into her hand. She does the same with Fletch. Both of them look at their hands and frown. There’s an envelope for me that fits in my coat pocket. Last, she turns to Lou-Lou and says something in her ear. Lou-Lou’s hand goes up to her mouth.

A bitter wind ripples around the audience as we all hope it’s over. She’s made no admission of guilt, just a dramatic statement in a significant location, requiring no arrest by Ben. But while I wonder why we all needed to be here, Helena stands quite still. She isn’t done. She turns towards the horizon as if for a farewell view and starts to run. It’s a moment before we realise what’s happening. Ben takes off. Then Charlie and me together.

“Stop,” I scream, my voice flying away. “Helena, stop!”

We’re too late. She’s timed it perfectly. As she leaps off the end of the jetty and disappears into the wild frothing waves, she tosses a pebble from her pocket. It bounces onto the last plank and stops. At the end, the three of us cling to each other and gaze into the churning water. Helena has gone.

“She can’t swim,” I sob. As if that’s possible in this violent sea.

“Get back,” Ben says. “It’s dangerous here. There’s nothing we can do.”

Back at the huddled group, Fletch and Zaylee are frozen in place. Charlie wraps his arms around Barracuda. She’s crying.

One look at Anita’s face and I know she’s in shock.

“I got the whole thing,” she says. “I don’t know how, I was shaking so much. Still … am.”

Perry is looking wobbly as he puts his arm around her shoulder and I see he’s holding a pebble. Helena filled her pockets with them.

“Can you send the video to me, Anita?” Ben has taken charge. “It’s evidence of her …” His voice trails.

I’ve gone back to Lou-Lou who’s staring towards the open sea. I’m starting to feel it too, the shock seeping through me. Tears and salt are slapping against my face.

Hayden is frowning at the document Helena gave him. The one Ben and I witnessed.

“This isn’t a copy of the statement she just made,” he says. “It’s … her last will and testament.”