Page 225 of Murder in the Family

Yup, as far as it goes. But how many white T-shirts and pairs of jeans does your average teenager have? I’m not sure it’s what you could call conclusive. She could easily have changed before the police got there.

LAILA FURNESS

What about the hoodie?

JJ NORTON

She’s not wearing that in these earlier shots. But to be fair, that could be because she’s indoors and didn’t need it.

HUGO FRASER

Hang on a minute – this new version of events of yours, Alan: explain how ‘Luke’ends up wearing a jacket?

A couple of people look at him blankly, but Bill’s quicker.

BILL SERAFINI

I see where you’re going. If he’s supposed to have been watching TV when he saw Maura out the window, why does he take the time to put on a jacket before going out to confront her? You just wouldn’t, would you? Even if it was raining, which we know it wasn’t – not by then.

ALAN CANNING

(shrugs)

It’s no big deal. Maybe he wasn’t watching TV. Maybe he was about to go out and work on the motorbike.

Cut again to RECONSTRUCTION. Camera ‘rewinds’ to the point where ‘Maura’ appears on the terrace and starts again. This time ‘Luke’ is standing in the drawing-room in his black denim jacket when he sees her. The rest of the sequence plays as before.

CUT TO: Team.

LAILA FURNESS

Though he didn’t have the workshop keys on him when he died, did he? We talked about that already.

ALAN CANNING

(unperturbed)

Perhaps Maura turned up at the very moment he was looking for them.

HUGO FRASER

I’m not convinced. I think theknownfacts fit another scenario much better: i.e., that someone else turned up that night, unexpectedly or otherwise, and Luke decided to talk to them outside the house. Hence the jacket.

If you ask me, Maura didn’t have anything to do with it.

(a pause)

Though I do accept that what Mitch told us raises some significant questions, most notably the fact that it’s possible she got home early enough either to commit the murder herself, as Alan’s suggesting,orto know rather more about it than she’s ever admitted.

The trouble is, that’s a question only she can answer.

There’s a sudden noise and the camera pans round to see the doors to the adjoining room swinging open. Everyone turns to see Maura standing there, a hand on each door.

MAURA HOWARD

You want to know what happened?

Fine.