Final Cut by S. J. Watson

Author:S. J. Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

I park at the top of the village. The silence fans out like thick, black smoke.

“I’m here for you,” he says after a while. “If you want to talk about it.”

He means it. He wants to help me. It’s not about me being in his debt. It’s not about him wanting to rescue me again, like that first night. It’s not like it was on the streets, people who wanted to help but only to make themselves feel good. Dare to deny them the opportunity, dare to tell them you’re fine, you don’t need anything right now, and they’re not pleased for you. Suddenly, you can go to hell. They’ve done their bit and you’re an ungrateful bitch throwing it back in their face.

“Where had you been?” I say. “That time you found me on the road. The night we met?”

“What d’you mean?”

“You told me you’d been with Bryan.”

He hesitates, just for a second. “I had.”

“He says not. Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know.”

I realize I want to believe him. “I know you want to help,” I say softly. “But tell me the truth.”

“I hadn’t been with him,” he says cautiously. “Not exactly. I’d seen him. In the pub. I was on my own.” He glances up. “But it amounts to the same thing. I knew he couldn’t have been driving the car that didn’t stop.”

I say nothing.

“You believe me?”

“Yes.”

“What can I do? To help?”

“Did she tell you how Sadie’s mum died?”

He seems confused for a moment then realizes I mean the woman with the baby.

“No.”

He’s quiet for a minute, but I can tell he wants to say something else.

“Is Sadie the real reason you came here?”

I consider telling the truth. But how can I?

“Partly, perhaps. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I wish we’d stayed in touch.”

“So how old would she be now?”

“Dunno. Twenties?”

“Why did you pretend your film wasn’t about what happened to the girls? You could’ve told me, you know. I only want—”

“To help,” I say. “I know. Thing is, it wasn’t, originally. But my producer suggested it. He’d read about Daisy. And Zoe.”

“And it was too juicy a story not to come up and take a look?”

Juicy. The word stings. I’ve heard it before, back when I made Black Winter. It took a long time to win some of the girls over, to convince them I wasn’t just a voyeur trying to use their misery to make something of my own. “We just make a juicy story for you,” one of them said. Several, in fact.

I look at Gavin. “You make me sound like I don’t care.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

He’s quiet for a long time. I remember after the awards, going back to find the women I’d filmed. They weren’t pleased to see me, though neither were they particularly upset. To them, I’d moved on, that’s all, like everyone does, if they don’t die first. As I handed over the envelope of cash—three thousand pounds—I told them it was theirs. It always had been, really.

Gavin clears his throat awkwardly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.