Page 159 of Don't Believe A Word
CONNOR: ‘“It’s for the best, Mia.” That’s what she said. And then those deadly words, “See how you like it.”’
CRISTY: ‘As we mentioned just now, if you need help dealing with what you’ve just heard, please go to our website and click on one of the links we’ve put there to guide you.’
CONNOR: ‘So, you now know why Sadie didn’t opt for a trial. She’d never have been able to win if she entered aplea of not guilty. So, diminished responsibility won it for her, if you can call fifteen years a win.’
CRISTY: ‘There’s a very good chance she’ll still be under forty by the time she comes out. Will she then be able to pick up her massive inheritance, and rejoin her family, and get on with her life?’
CONNOR: ‘The answer to that is no, she won’t. Whatever’s left after the other beneficiaries have been paid out will go to the Crown. Although I imagine it’ll be the subject of countless lawsuits before that happens, and maybe, in the end, once the lawyers have claimed their share, something will go to her.’
CRISTY: ‘So, the bottom line is she will not be able to profit from her crime, or certainly not in the way she presumably hoped to. Or did she? I never got the impression she was driven by money, but there again, with so much at stake I don’t think we can rule it out. More likely there was a whole slew of complex and conflicting emotions playing into her motives that probably even she couldn’t identify if asked. Anyway, I don’t think we need to worry about her financial security. I’m sure she’ll find herself a book and TV deal somewhere down the line, and as we know, her father and uncle aren’t exactly broke. Quite the reverse in fact.’
CONNOR: ‘This is true, but it isn’t their wealth that makes them stand out for us, and it certainly has nothing to do with why we’ve kept their interview to the end. It’s how hurt they have been by all this that’s probably moved us the most. And how determined they are, in spite of everything, to stand by Sadie. Here’s what they had to say the day after she was sentenced.’
This time Cristy listened as the insert was played, staring at the gently rippling pool in front of her, glazed by sunlight, sprinkled with blossom. She wondered what Gabe and Lukas might be doing now. Were they still in Guernsey, or had they flown back to Florida for a while?
CRISTY: ‘Thanks for agreeing to talk to us. I realize this is a very difficult time for you, and not at all what you were expecting when we came to you back in February with the news that Sadie – Sasha – was alive and looking for you.’
LUKAS: ‘I won’t deny that the events of the past few months have delivered us a number of terrible blows. We were so happy to have found our dear Sasha, and to start making plans for a future with her. We are still making those plans, and we shall continue to for as long as she is compelled to stay where she is. She knows, and we would like your listeners to know also, that we have no intention of abandoning her. She is Gabe and Janina’s daughter, my niece, and as such she will always have our love and loyalty – and our full understanding of why she was driven, in a moment of utter despair and confusion, to act as she did.
‘I know the recording you have paints her in a damning light, but that is because most people won’t understand what was happening to her at the time. What had been happening for years under the influence of her aunts. They were a malevolent force in many ways, iron fists in velvet gloves, master manipulators of truth and lies. So much so that after discovering the journals Sasha found herself unable to think straight …
‘You know yourselves that Mia was suicidal, and the most likely reason for that was guilt. She knew what she’d done was a terrible, wicked thing and no matter how much she gave Janina’s daughter she could never make up for what she and her sister had taken from her. It was tormenting her, crushing her from within, and to hear Sasha speak about it it’s clear it was doing the same to her. She was stifled by her aunts’ deceptions and constant refusal to tell her who she really was, and by the threats they repeatedly made to cut her out of their wills if she didn’t stop trying to find out about her past.
‘I ask you: how can anyone be relied on to behave rationally when they’re under so much pressure and forso long? When all they want is to know the truth and it is always denied? Sasha has a good and kind heart, she is like both her parents in that respect; it was only in Mia’s final moments that nurture overcame nature and made our dear Sasha behave like one of her aunts.’
GABE: ‘We are intending to relocate to Guernsey to be close to Sasha until such time as she can join us in the States.’
CONNOR: ‘Will it be possible for her to get into America as a convicted felon?’
GABE: ‘If it isn’t, we will all stay here.’
CONNOR: ‘So there you have Sadie’s father’s final words to us on the subject of his daughter, her uncle’s, too. Whether or not you believe she deserves such loyalty is up to you. Personally I think it reflects very well on them, and I’m sure, in the long term, it will go some way towards reducing her sentence if it’s known that she has a loving family who’ll be there to help with her rehabilitation.’
A lengthy silence followed, until Connor said, ‘Cristy? Are you still there?’
CRISTY: ‘Sorry, yes. So, that brings our bonus episode ofWho’s That Girlto an end. Thank you for listening. Please join us for a new series in the coming months.’
CONNOR: ‘Are you serious? That’s how you’re going to end it?’
CRISTY: ‘What’s wrong with it?’
CONNOR: ‘A bit abrupt, don’t you think?’
CRISTY: ‘Please feel free to rephrase and say whatever you feel is right.’
CONNOR: (after another pause) ‘OK, I get what’s happening. You’re on the Marrakech Express?’
CRISTY: (laughing) ‘Something like that.’
CONNOR: ‘Slow on the uptake, or what? So, have a good one guys, and see you in a couple of weeks. Meantime, I’ll record a decent end to the series, complete with credits and sponsor beatification. Iz will be proud of me. I’ll also fill everyone in on my news, although I don’t suppose anyone’s interested now. Whatever, don’t you worry about us over here in the cold and wind and rain, we’re coping.’
He waited for a response, certain it was going to be droll.
CONNOR: ‘Are you still there?
‘You’re not even going to say goodbye?
‘Nice.’