The Best of Friends by Alex Day (accelerated reader books .txt) 📕

I go to the bedroom to take off my jewellery and my Dior jacket. I needed to look the part for court and I went for understated elegance. I think I pulled it off.

I take a piece of paper out of my pocket. I unfold it slowly and deliberately and scan my eyes over it. A slow smile spreads across my face. My ‘alternative’ victim statement. The one that is for my eyes only, that no one else will ever see or know existed.

Epilogue

Well, Susannah, my erstwhile friend. What can I say? Walking away from the court when my case collapsed, I experienced the triumph that you probably felt when you got off more or less scot-free, all those years ago. It’s a good feeling, isn’t it?

You thought you were clever, that you could rob me of my husband. You pretended to be my best friend, but all the while you were plotting to take Dan from me. Unfortunately for you, though, I saw you coming. I’ve seen your ilk many times before. From the moment I first caught sight of you on the village green in your ridiculous scarlet coat, I knew the scarlet woman who lay beneath – and I knew that it was of the utmost importance that I keep close tabs on you. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer; it’s the principle I always live by.

That ‘accident’ Luke had on the adventure playground? It was no such thing. I orchestrated it deliberately, knowing that yelling out would cause him or Jamie – hopefully both – to lose concentration and balance, leading to a fall. It was a surefire way to worm my way into your life, for us to bond over a terrible tragedy that, by dint of some great good fortune, had been avoided. I needed to be close to you so that I would know what you were up to.

I have to say, though, that over time I did start to think that maybe my first impressions had been wrong. That you were, indeed, someone to be trusted. That you meant it when you said you’d look after Dan whilst I was in Corsica. Hindsight, as they say, is a wonderful thing and now I can’t believe I was so stupid. Oh, you looked after him all right. Your treachery, in my opinion, was worse than his. Friends should stand up for each other, stick together. Have you never heard of sisterhood?

Of course I knew it was you who’d fucked my husband in my own bed. I suspected it even before I realised that the necklace was yours. When I remembered why it was familiar, that I’d seen the matching earrings in that photo that Miriam took of you and Dan outside the tennis club, I both could hardly believe it and knew it had always been inevitable. I saw that you had always been determined to get your hands on him. Was it arrogance, stupidity, or a bit of both that made you put the necklace straight back on again the day I returned it to you in the post? Did you do it deliberately to flaunt yourself? I wouldn’t put it past you to have left it in my bedroom on purpose, some pathetic attempt to make sure I found out, to break Dan and I up. If that was the case, how little you know me – and him.

Even now, after all that’s happened, I can hardly believe you’re in prison, serving fourteen years for trying to kill my husband, Dan, the man you professed to love. Things got a bit sticky when I was arrested instead of you. I’ve got to admit, that was a tricky moment. It was so obvious to anyone with half a brain that you – the spurned lover, the discarded other woman – were the culprit. But for a moment there, I have to be honest, Susannah, I wondered if I’d completely blown it.

I’ll grant you that what I did was risky. I had to take a chance – a big chance – that the hemlock I used to garnish the curry you made wouldn’t kill him – or me. Planting the leaves in that ridiculous red coat of yours when you dropped off the curry and collected Sam for the sleepover was easily done. I knew that you had stashed leaves away in your pockets before and therefore wouldn’t be surprised to find little bits and pieces of greenery still in there. The police, on the other hand, would be most interested in this evidence. Especially when forensic tests identified it as the very same substance that had been used to taint the dish that you prepared, supposedly so lovingly.

In the end, I managed the poisoning bit with admirable precision and accuracy. You should have been the only one ever to be in the frame. But Naomi blethered on about those bloody mushrooms, which were a genuine mistake, genuine, I tell you, and before I knew it I was in the dock. Everyone knew I had the knowledge from my foraging expertise and one thing led to another and … well, things nearly went very wrong for me.

Thank goodness for Miriam, faithful to the last, and always, always on the lookout for gossip. When she met that researcher in the pub she quickly put two and two together and made four, realising who he was seeking: you. Finding out that he was trying to track you down to take part in a TV documentary about female poisoners was a gift to my defence and therefore to me.

It was complete coincidence that I chose poison as the way to set you up. Absolute serendipity. I didn’t know then that you had form in the poisoning area. But I did know that you would be able to find the hemlock patch again and that you knew how dangerous it was.