Page 101

‘Aaron Bowman killed his own sister?’ Doctor Lang said, stunned.

‘As good as,’ Poe confirmed.

‘But . . . but why? What possible reason could there be? Let’s not kid ourselves, murdering gay men to cure homosexuality is as abhorrent a thing as I’ve ever heard, but, if you view the world through Cornelius Green’s bile-tinted glasses, to him at least, it did make a sick kind of sense. In his world the gay man is going to hell anyway, why not sacrifice him to save the soul of a believer? But asking a fifteen-year-old boy to stone his fourteen-year-old sister to death makes no sense whatsoever. Not from an extreme religious dogma point of view, and not from a common bloody sense point of view. Tell me why Bethany had to die, Washington?’

Poe’s expression was a faraway one, like he was listening to music only he could hear. He tapped a beat on the desk. After a moment, his jaw hardened. Life came back to his eyes.

‘I’ll try to explain this as best I can,’ he said. ‘The way I think it happened.’

‘The way you think it happened?’

‘Call it an informed guess. Noah and Grace Bowman were by any standards unconventional parents. Yes, they hated their youngest daughter, but it went far deeper than that. And while Bethany clearly bore the brunt of their craziness, Aaron and Eve suffered too. Eve told me none of them were allowed friends and Bethany’s journal confirmed this. Eve and Aaron were allowed to mingle with the other kids when they were at church, or the Children of Job compound, but other than that Noah and Grace kept them isolated.’

‘That’s probably why the bond between Aaron and Bethany was so strong. Younger siblings often cling to each other in abusive childhoods.’

‘Funny you should mention that,’ Poe said.

‘Why?’

‘Have you read Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews?’

Doctor Lang frowned. ‘Wasn’t there a film adaption?’

‘There was,’ Poe confirmed.

‘I think I saw it when I was younger.’

‘You understand the basic premise: a woman trying to win back her father’s approval after she’d married her half-brother, locks up her children in the attic of the family’s ancestral home? After a year or so of confinement, the two elder children develop a physical attraction to each other.’

He let his words hang. It didn’t take long for Doctor Lang to understand what he was saying.

‘Bethany and Aaron were in a sexual relationship?’ she asked.

Poe shook his head. ‘According to Israel Cobb it never got that far. He also said it was a one-way thing. That Aaron became attracted to Bethany when he was going through puberty but she rebuffed him. I think she thought he was being silly.’

‘Which isn’t as uncommon as you might think,’ Doctor Lang said. ‘Once you put teenage hormones and insular childhoods in the melting pot of puberty, anything can happen. A brother developing a crush on his sister is surprisingly common. It rarely leads to anything, but it does happen. Was there a catalyst?’

‘Aaron was caught with Bethany’s underwear under his pillow. More than once, I think. That was what had got him in so much trouble on the night Bethany described in her journal.’

Poe stopped to trace a circle in some spilled tea.

‘Grace spoke to Cornelius about it and Cornelius said he would cure Aaron the same way he cured homosexuality. Israel only became aware of what Cornelius had been planning when Aaron turned up with an overnight bag. By then Bethany was already sedated and secured somewhere in the compound.’

Doctor Lang shook her head in dismay. ‘They sacrificed their youngest daughter to cure something a first-year psychologist wouldn’t break a sweat on?’

‘The more we delved into this case, the more we came to realise just how expendable Bethany was to Noah and Grace. It wasn’t that they didn’t care about her; it was more that they actively hated her. Cornelius knew about their feelings towards their daughter and, when he explained what they needed to do to cure Aaron, they jumped at the chance. Probably wished they’d thought of it sooner.’

‘They were monsters,’ she said.

‘They were.’

‘And you watched this video?’

‘I did,’ Poe said.