She nodded. ‘But I guess it stands for most people.’ She was thinking of David now and how different he was seeming to her after these two weeks apart. She still loved him, there was no doubt in her mind about that, but how he felt about her, how he saw their future now … Whatever, she couldn’t let things run on the way they were. If his feelings for her had changed she needed to deal with it. For God’s sake, if Meier could find the courage to face what was ahead of him, she could find it to make a call to David.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Connor said, ‘I reckon Meier’s a decent guy who panicked and made a seriously bad decision. It’s even possible he was still traumatized by his parents’ death. No doubt, he’ll be called all sorts of things when this comes out, but the truth is that none of us ever knows for certain how we’d react in a situation until we’re actually in it. And boy can we get it wrong.’
‘Isn’t that the truth?’
‘Plus, in his own way, he’s been paying for it ever since – not the way Nicole has, obviously, but you can’t tell me that he hasn’t suffered too.’
‘And now he’ll suffer even more.’ Cristy sighed. ‘Not that he doesn’t deserve it – he should have got her out of that sentence a long time ago. I just wish I could believe that locking him up would do some good, but it’s hard to see how it will. Unless you call satisfying the law a good thing, and I suppose we do.’
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Over the next seven days, with the main news constantly hijacked by high drama in the US, Cristy found herself torn between sadness for the twins that they were once again much lower on a scale of importance than they deserved, and relief for Meier that he wasn’t, yet, as big a hate figure as he might have been if the full focus of attention were on him.
This wasn’t to say the case was gaining no interest. Since last week’s drop, they’d had a small avalanche of feedback, and thanks to Matthew and his star reporter, Judith Evans,The News Agendawas delivering regular updates on all its bulletins – all available toHindsightfor future use. Unsurprisingly, the Terrier was bombarding Cristy with demands for her exclusive of the investigation; however, Cristy had little trouble batting her off with the reminder that the series wasn’t yet over.
It was on Tuesday morning, a whole week after Meier’s self-surrender, when they were told Nicole had refused their visitor request.
‘I’m sorry,’ Honey said, when Cristy called her. ‘We had to advise her to turn you down. She’s already paying the price of talking to you – I blame myself, of course; I shouldn’t have let it happen, and it’s small comfort that we all went into it with the best intentions. Anyway, we can’t allow her any more involvement with the press at this stage. In fact, until weknow what decisions have been made about her conviction and her future custody, we’d be grateful if you didn’t even try to contact her. We’re pushing for her initial conviction to be deemed unsafe.’
Understanding, although undeniably frustrated, Cristy said, ‘How is she?’
‘I haven’t seen her in person, but speaking to her on the phone … she sounds … not always as if she’s listening … Her mother says she’s not speaking to her much either.’
‘So Maeve’s in touch with her?’
‘Regularly, but if you’re about to ask if Maeve will talk to you, I’m afraid we’ve advised her against it too. Everything’s just too delicate at the moment. However, I will tell you this: I believe Maeve when she says she didn’t know what had happened to the twins until you yourselves revealed it last week.’
Cristy knew that, as Maeve’s lawyer, Honey had to say that, as did Maeve in order to avoid prosecution herself. ‘And Nicole’s phone? Did you ask her about it?’
‘She found it where Nicole told her to look – under a floorboard in the basement of the house. It was, as you suspected, a pay-as-you-go.’
‘So the place clearly didn’t undergo much of search?’
‘Apparently not, but remember they weren’t looking for a phone because she’d told the police she didn’t have one. They have it now, although whether anything is still stored on it after so long, we’ve yet to find out. As for the service provider … Nicole can’t remember who it was; she chopped and changed quite a lot apparently, and I don’t think you can get that kind of detail from the phone itself, at least not one from that era.’
‘And even if you could,’ Cristy added, ‘the chances of any records still existing have to be close to zero.’
‘I think the point is,’ Honey responded, ‘that she’s confirmed Meier’s account of the calls that morning, and asneither of them are trying to hide anything any more, the phone and its activity isn’t rating very highly on a list of priorities.’
‘No, of course not. Do you know if Nicole and Meier are in touch with one another?’
‘I don’t, but I doubt it. There aren’t really any avenues open to them for contact with the way things stand.’
Wondering how they both felt about that, Cristy thanked Honey and rang off.
She was keen to get on with the finishing touches to tonight’s episode now; however, she made the grand mistake of quickly checking her messages and immediately wished she hadn’t. Why had she agreed to see David at the weekend when she needed to stay focused on what was happening here?
His message said:
I’ll fly over on Saturday. Shall I come straight to your place?
Since the only sensible answer to that was yes, she tapped it in and told herself she’d be ready to see him by then and hopefully in the right frame of mind to deal with whatever he had to tell her. As if she was ever going to be ready for him to finish it between them once and for all.
Connor said, ‘OK, shall we record this next piece about Meier?’
Calling up the email they’d received from Meier’s lawyer the day before, Cristy nodded and waited for the thumbs up to begin.
CRISTY: ‘So we now know what offences Jean-Claude Meier has been charged with, and I guess you could say they’ve thrown the book at him. Did he deserve it? Yeah, I guess so, but, as we know, nothing’s ever asstraightforward as we’d like it to be – or entirely rational when it comes to decisions made under duress.’
