Page 141 of Dying Truth

The pieces suddenly fell into place in her head like an explosion playing backwards. Lorraine hadn’t been sleeping with Graham as she’d originally thought.

‘Youwere the father of Lorraine’s baby?’ she said, turning to Laurence Winters.

Before his response, Kim saw the distaste on the face of his wife. Kim was right: Hannah had known. All along she had known about the two of them.

All four of them now stood around the swimming pool where Lorraine had met her death.

‘But you pushed her?’ she said, turning to Graham. ‘You pushed her into an empty pool?’

He said nothing but continued to stare at Laurence. As did she.

‘Laurence, you knew she was pregnant with your child and you convinced him to push her. She was meeting the father of the baby that night. She was going to start telling people who you were.’

Laurence remained stubbornly silent. But Graham did not.

Still he did not look her way as he spoke, only at Laurence Winters. ‘It was my initiation into the Spades, wasn’t it, you bastard? You wanted me to play a joke. That’s what you said it was. You said there was a girl who was getting on your nerves, stalking you, bothering you. Teach her a lesson, make her feel stupid so she’d leave you alone.’

Kim looked at the emotion in the counsellor’s face, the anguish. Despite what he’d done there was something he didn’t know. Something Keats had picked up when looking at Lorraine’s post-mortem notes and now clear in her mind when she remembered a conversation with Saffie’s ex-boyfriend.

Kim knew she couldn’t suddenly take a rush at him to save the girl. He was too far away. The blade would have sliced across Saffie’s throat by the time she got there. A plan started to form in her mind. She knew that she held a surprise for all of them. If only she could get close enough to deliver it.

‘You told me to hide behind the diving board,’ he continued. ‘You said that’s where you always met. You told me to keep the lights off and then just push her into the water. I’d had a drink; I was nervous; I wanted to succeed. I was new and wanted to be a Spade. I should have realised there was no water in the pool. I should have seen that,’ he raged.

She took a step forward.

‘And you did it?’ Kim asked.

‘I didn’t know the pool was empty, and I didn’t know she was pregnant.’

Kim took another step forward as the blade hovered close to Saffie’s throat.

‘Every night I’ve dreamed of that baby. Of that innocent child I killed because of you. It’s haunted my dreams, picturing that life I took.

‘But you just lived your life happily, never once thinking of Lorraine or your child, just happy to be shot of them. You’ve lived guilt free while I’ve shouldered it all. My life ruined because you wanted to fuck the new—’

‘Graham,’ Hannah cried.

Kim took another step forward.

‘Oh fuck off, Hannah. You knew all about it. You were the golden couple. King of Spades and Queen of Hearts. You were meant for each other. Both intelligent, gorgeous, blessed, wealthy. A real power couple with a rosy, bright future ahead of you. Except Laurence wanted a bit of rough, didn’t he?’

‘But why Shaun?’ Kim asked taking another step towards her target. But she already knew. Shaun’s dad was the kid whose DNA had been tested twice.

‘Because that bastard covered for him. They somehow swapped samples so that Laurence would never be found out. It’s what Spades do.’

‘Why didn’t you come forward, Graham?’ Kim asked, taking another step.

‘He threatened me. Said he’d swear I was jealous and had killed Lorraine in a rage, and Cordell and the others would back him up. Told me I was a Spade and that my life would be hell for me and my family if I told the truth. Said he could arrange for my dad to lose his job and worse. He was an assembly line worker at Rover. I was a scholarship kid. He told me that Spades were everywhere.’

Kim stared into Saffie’s face. Their eyes met. Kim gave her a small nod.

Saffie looked confused.

‘So, you killed his child too?’ Kim asked.

‘These people don’t deserve children, and these two certainly didn’t deserve poor Sadie,’ he raged.

The point of the knife caught Saffie’s neck. A bubble of blood appeared.