Letting out the Worms: Guilty or not? If not then the alternative is terrifying (Kitty Thomas Book 1 by Sue Nicholls (primary phonics .txt) 📕

Thomas: They were a lovely couple. Polite and respectful.

Porterhouse: Tell me what happened on that evening.

Thomas: There was a gang of yobs being rude and racist. One of them was having a go at Mrs Hung Po - sorry, I don’t know her name, that’s how I thought of her. Hung Po’s the name of their restaurant - he was yelling that she should be able to speak better English and was taking jobs from English people. The usual racist crap, sorry, rubbish, and his behaviour became threatening.

I confronted him and told him he should leave her alone, and he became threatening to me instead. He started to come towards me, and I could see he was going to hit me, or even draw a weapon - you never know these days. Before he had time to do anything, I hit him and stamped on his foot, then I kneed him in the testicles.

Porterhouse: I imagine he stopped then.

Thomas: Yes. Dropped like a stone. Then his mates dragged him out, and they left.

Porterhouse: The police arrived?

Thomas: Yes. Mr… the proprietor called them while the fight was going on.

Porterhouse: Was the proprietor angry with you?

Thomas: I don’t think so. He gave me my chips on the house, afterwards.

Things looked better for Dad. Yes, his temper was quick, but his heart was OK.

Porterhouse: Why did you follow Fee to Mauritius, Paul?

Thomas: Mick told me he’d recognised Max going to the airport with Fee. They had a flat tyre and were fixing it on the hard shoulder of the exit road. I realised straight away that this guy she was dating was Max, and I became worried about her. At first, I thought I was being over-dramatic, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised how much I’d told Max about her. Something told me she was in danger. The way Max used a different name and lied about his job wasn’t right, so I hot footed it over there to see for myself.

Porterhouse: That was very foolhardy, and expensive, wasn’t it, Mr Thomas?’

Thomas: I didn’t think about that. It seemed too important.’

Porterhouse: How did you feel about your ex-wife, Mr Thomas?

Thomas: I loved her.

The case for the Defence made easier reading. It included testimonies from Maurice, Mick and Nanny Gloria.

Nanny doubted Twitch had been raped and pointed out she was a depressive. The interrogation moved on to Mummy’s finances.

Porterhouse: Mrs Adu, was Fee wealthy?

Gloria Adu: I don’t know. I think she had savings because there was never any problem buying what we needed. Her father had lots of money and helped her with a deposit when she first moved into that house. I got the feeling that when he died, she came into quite a bit, and she had a well-paid job, until all this dying started. Then she gave it up to help me take care of the kiddies.

Porterhouse: Did she make any provision for the children’s futures in the event of her death?

Gloria Adu: Yes. She showed me where her will was, and life insurance certificates. The children will be fine, financially, thank God. She left everything to her next of kin. That’s the kiddies, right?

Kitty sat up. Max was in debt and Mummy had money.

In his concluding statement, Fitzsimmons, the Prosecutor, pointed out Paul’s character flaws and Max’s good reputation and reminded the jury that Paul had ample motive and opportunity to murder Mummy.

For the defense, Porterhouse said that Paul was a loving father, who only ever became violent to protect those unable to protect themselves. He reminded the jury of examples of this: the lady in the Chinese restaurant and Paul’s own small daughter and dog. Paul, he told them, had loved his ex-wife, despite the way she treated him, so it was impossible that he could have murdered her. The Barrister then criticised the police investigation into the case as biased, and pointed out that Max had been unethical and had a financial motive for terminating the life of his new wife.

The judge summed up.

Judge Cannon: There appear to be two suspects in this case, and they are also the only witnesses to the events that unfolded on that fateful afternoon. The law demands you must be in no doubt if you are to pronounce the defendant guilty. If you believe that police procedures were carried out properly and that Mr Owen-Rutherford could not possibly have murdered his wife, then you should return a guilty plea, but if there is doubt in your mind, you must find Paul Thomas not guilty.

And Paul was pronounced not guilty, and Max, after a further trial, went to jail.

31 SAM

Dogs barked, and children squealed and splashed at the slippery edge of the lake. Sam and Kitty plodded along the gritty perimeter footpath, trying to spot the place where Twitch’s body had been discovered in 1996. It was horrible to imagine her gruesome remains bobbing into view within sight of cheerful families playing French Cricket.

Sam took in the manmade footpaths, the lifebelts on posts and the picnic benches. ‘It wouldn’t have been like this back then,’ he remarked. ‘They only developed it in the nineties. About the time Mum disappeared, I suppose.’

Kitty read through a leaflet on the history of the attraction. 'I wouldn’t be surprised if finding your mum’s body had delayed the opening.’

‘I don’t suppose they make a point of mentioning that in the tourist information.’ Sam attempted a smile, but the proximity to the place of his mother’s death was proving tough.

Kitty looked at him. ‘We can go if you like. I doubt we’ll find the place. And if we do,