The Murder House by Michael Wood

Author:Michael Wood [Wood, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural, Suspense
ISBN: 9780008374822
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-01-29T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Three

The small room was set up to be as comfortable as possible. There was a dark carpet, walls painted a soft, warm colour. Two small sofas and a coffee table. There were tasteless generic prints on the wall, a plastic potted palm in the corner and a box of outdated toys for the younger children to play with. A video camera was set up, pointed towards one of the sofas.

The door opened and Rachel Mercer was shown into the room by the large social worker who had collected her from the Children’s Hospital. Everything had been explained to her. So far, she was being incredibly brave.

Rachel was wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a pink sweater, which Sian had collected for her from the Mercer house. Her dark brown hair was neatly combed and hung lifelessly down her back. Her face was pale, and she looked on the verge of tears. She sat down on the edge of the sofa. She didn’t want to be here.

She had already met DC Rory Fleming. He’d shaken her hand and had taken her to the vending machine where he asked her to choose anything she wanted to eat. An extra bar of chocolate had fallen from the machine. This broke the ice. Rory cheered at the free chocolate and said it would taste better because they hadn’t paid for it. On choosing a drink, Rachel said her dad didn’t allow her to have fizzy pop too often. Rory said, on this occasion, it would be fine.

In the interview room, Rory laid everything out on the table as if they were having a picnic. Behind him was a large window that they couldn’t see out of, but Christian and the social worker, Bernice Simpson, could see in.

Rory started the video camera.

‘Rachel, tell me about the wedding,’ he asked. His voice was light. He wanted to put Rachel at her ease.

She smiled. ‘I was a bridesmaid,’ she beamed.

‘Really? Wow, that’s cool. What did you wear?’

‘It was an ivory dress with lace on the bodice,’ she said with pride.

‘I bet you looked lovely.’

‘I had my hair done all nice, too. And, Dad said I was allowed to have a bit of make-up on.’

‘I bet you looked all grown up. What did you have to do?’

‘Well, Auntie Leah had two other bridesmaids but they were older. We each had some flowers, and we walked behind Auntie Leah as she walked up the aisle.’

‘Were you nervous?’

‘A little bit. But Jane and Angela, they were the other two bridesmaids, they told me what to do.’

‘Did you enjoy it?’

‘Yes.’ She grinned.

‘Help yourself to a bar of chocolate.’

She looked down at the selection and picked up a Mars bar and a can of cola. She sat back on the sofa. She seemed to be relaxing.

‘Was the wedding fun?’

‘It was, but I got bored after a bit. It seemed to go on for ages.’

Rory smiled. ‘Church weddings do take a long time. What happened afterwards?’

‘Well, we stood outside and had our photo taken.

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