And So It Begins by Rachel Abbott

Author:Rachel Abbott [Abbott, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Dot Publishing Ltd
Published: 2018-10-11T06:00:00+00:00

‘Why didn’t you tell me about the other scars?’ Harriet asked Evie. The judge had granted a brief recess, and the timing had given her a chance to talk to her client. ‘Honestly, Evie, you have to tell me everything.’

She tried not to show her frustration, but she knew that the chances of Evie being found not guilty of murder hung in the balance, however well Boyd was performing.

‘I’d forgotten they were there,’ Evie said. ‘They’re just part of me now, and I never think about them.’

‘Was it Mark?’ It had been fairly clear from the doctor’s statement that this wasn’t the case, but she had to ask.

‘There’s no point trying to pin this on Mark. The doctor would re-examine me and I would be proved to be a liar. So no, it wasn’t Mark. It was before him.’

‘Your husband, Nigel?’

Harriet knew that some women were addicted to abusive relationships. Their own sense of self-esteem was so low that they were attracted to people who treated them as worthless. If she put Evie on the stand and this came out, it might increase the jury’s sympathy for her, but only if she was prepared to explain it.

‘It wasn’t Nigel – he never touched me.’

It seemed Evie’s husband, Nigel Clarke, was proving difficult to locate. Evie hadn’t talked about him much, saying he was irrelevant. All Harriet knew was that they had married when Evie was in her late teens, and Nigel had treated her well.

‘It’s a dreadful thing to say,’ Evie had told her, ‘but I left him because I was bored. We weren’t going anywhere, and I felt there was more to life. I’m not proud of it.’

Harriet could sympathise. She had never had time for a man in her life, and having seen the devastation some of them were capable of causing she hadn’t been interested in any relationship that lasted more than a week.

The prosecution had tried to track Nigel down, but Evie had told Harriet that she thought he had left the country, and claimed she had no contact with him.

‘The truth is, Evie, that if you have other old wounds, you are going to have to explain where they came from. The prosecution is already trying to suggest that your cuts were self-inflicted, and it’s essential that we can demonstrate without doubt that Mark was hurting you. It’s your only defence, and unexplained scars are not going to help with that. You have to tell me, Evie. I don’t want any more surprises.’

Evie stared at her and didn’t speak for a few seconds. Harriet was about to ask her again when to her surprise Evie stood up and took off her jacket. Turning her back on Harriet, she started to unbutton her shirt.

She spoke over her shoulder without turning round. ‘The doctor only examined the fresh wounds on my arms and chest. I didn’t realise he had seen the scars on my stomach.’

She dropped the shirt to her waist and Harriet stared, speechless, at the criss-cross pattern of white scars on her back.

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