Read Online Convictions by Julie Morrigan - Free Book Online

disturbed.’
    ‘That’s rubbish,’ exclaimed Penny. ‘He’s as guilty as sin.’
    Ruth nodded. ‘I know. There’s no doubt in my mind that the right man was locked up. However, he’s persuaded a psychiatrist that he’s telling the truth about fabricating his confession and with his professional support, and in the absence of any hard evidence, we simply can’t fight his claim effectively. We’ve got nothing.’
    ‘Will he get out?’ asked Tina.
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ said Ruth. ‘He’s due in court tomorrow morning and the chances are he’ll be free to go after the hearing.’
    Penny sagged back in her chair. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Please, God, no.’
    ‘Mum …’
    ‘He can’t be let out. We’ve got a life sentence and he can just change his mind and walk free? How is that fair?’
    Ruth shook her head. ‘It isn’t fair, Penny. None of this is fair.’
    ‘I want to be there.’
    ‘I really don’t think that’s a good idea.’
    ‘I don’t care. I want to look that man in the eye, that man who took my little girl from me, and I want to ask him.’
    ‘Ask him what?’
    ‘What he did with her.’ Penny’s voice broke and she sobbed quietly. ‘Every week we go and put flowers on a half-empty grave. But if Annie isn’t remembered on that gravestone, she might as well not have ever existed. Without that, she’s nowhere, nowhere we can honour her life, anyway.’
    Tina looked stricken. ‘They can’t do this,’ she said. ‘They can’t let that man go free after what he’s done.’
    ‘I suggest you let your family know what’s happening,’ Ruth said. ‘And then take the phone off the hook. Screen any calls you get on your mobile. Only take calls from known numbers. Better still, get out of town, or at least out of the house. Go and stay in a hotel, I can organise that for you if you like. The tabloids are going to want to know how you react to this and it’s probably best that you let me handle that. We can work on a short response and put it out through official channels.’
    ‘Stop!’ cried Penny. ‘You’re going too fast, just stop! I need time to think.’
    Ruth paused. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘I’m rushing you.’ She took a deep breath, then continued. ‘I’ve been trying to work out how to handle this for a few days, now. You’ve just been landed with the situation. Of course you need some time.’ She stood up. ‘But we don’t have long to get a strategy together. I’m sorry about that, but we have to deal with the facts of the case.’
    ‘Can you give us even just a couple of hours?’ asked Tina.
    ‘Yes, of course.’ Ruth looked at her watch. ‘It’s nine o’clock now. I’ll come back around two this afternoon. We can put our heads together then and decide what we’re going to do. Okay?’
    Tina nodded. ‘Okay.’
    ‘Penny?’
    ‘Yes, okay.’ She glared at Ruth. ‘Not that we really have any choice in the matter.’
     
    ***
     
    Tina saw Ruth out then got busy clearing cups off the table. ‘I’ll make a fresh pot of tea, Mum, then we can talk,’ she said.
    ‘It’s all your fault,’ Penny snapped at her.
    Tina froze, her hand halfway to picking up Ruth’s half-empty coffee mug. ‘Mum?’ She wasn’t sure she could cope with this again.
    ‘If you hadn’t been so selfish and stupid …’
    ‘I know, Mum, and I’m sorry. If there was anything I could do …’ Tina tried to stay calm. She was sick at heart, scared that Cotter was going to get out and weary of the rows with her mother. They’d been going on for years. Penny hated her, Tina was sure of that, but she didn’t know what to do about it. She would have done anything to make her mother love her again.
    ‘If there was anything you could do? You’re useless. There’s nothing you could do and you know it. You took my little girl away from me. My perfect little girl.’ Penny hugged herself and rocked from side to side in her seat. ‘My little blonde angel, taken from me.’ She