Chapter 8
Steve knew the old lady was in her early seventies now but her movements were still sprightly. Her pure white hair was pulled back immaculately, her cheeks had a natural rose to them and despite the reason for their visit her eyes seemed to have a sparkle to them. She poured three cups of tea, handing them to Steve, Amanda and Mark, then served herself and took a seat in the modest garden behind her house.
"I didn't realise the police worked so closely with doctors" she observed and Amanda felt a little guilty at her unnecessary presence. Steve was inwardly relieved that Jesse and Susan had to work otherwise they'd have been like a mob descending on the old woman. "When I read it in the papers, I couldn't, I just couldn't believe it. Still can't I guess."
"That's understandable" Steve offered as words of reassurance "It must have been a shock for you."
The old lady nodded slowly "Annie always told me he was no good you know, but I…I never listened I guess. If you had cause to dig up his garden he must've been in a lot of trouble with the law."
Steve shook his head weakly "As I said, we came across him in the course of other investigations." She nodded politely but it was obvious Steve's statement had little meaning to her "You were saying about Annie?"
"She and Donald took good care of me after our parents passed away but I was young, wanted to be out enjoying myself. I always felt Annie resented my freedom after she got married. Oh listen to me, all that's happened and I'm talking on like this!"
"It's good, it's all helpful really Miss Reid" Steve assured her.
"Miss Ross" she corrected him "Haven't been miss Reid since I left this town for Nevada in 1946." After a pause Steve asked her again,
"Miss Ross, can you tell us a little about your relationship with Charles Farrah, why you left town, changed your name?"
She looked at Mark as if for support "They were different times weren't they?" he nodded, then to Amanda "It wasn't so easy for us girls back then. Me and Charlie, we were like that" she crossed her fingers "from the time I could walk I was running around with that boy. His mother used to say we were two peas in a pod". Amanda had warmed instantly to Harriet as had Mark, but Steve was having a hard time listening to her using Farrah's name so affectionately now that she knew what he'd done.
"He was a handsome devil" she continued, unaware of the comparison she'd used "and he could be a little devil at times" she laughed. Her smile fell to a frown as she asked Steve "He really did it?"
Steve nodded, "he claims it was an accident, as I said before".
She sighed "Annie told me he was no good but I never believed her. Charlie and I were just happy the two of us you know. Donald, Annie's husband had moved up to Canada, they were having troubles so she stayed behind here with me." The realisation hit her "My god does Donald know?". Steve nodded "Poor Donald, he was a good man." She sipped at her tea and gazed down the garden. "Times were different" she began again "a child out of wedlock was something big, and not something to be proud of" tears welled in her eyes and she dabbed at them with her handkerchief. Amanda wriggled uncomfortably in her chair as Steve and Mark sat motionless.
"Ah, look at me, after all this time" Harriet scolded herself "Charlie was thrilled when I told him, said we should go off and get married, we'd be a family, just the three of us. Then he went and got himself thrown in jail! Annie didn't want to stay in the old neighbourhood, she was frightened what the people around there would think. She bought us a little place on Garrett Drive from a doctor she worked with at the hospital. The time while I was pregnant we discussed all sorts of options but one seemed more logical than the rest. She said it was obvious Charlie was only heading one way, she and Donald had a good marriage but not having a baby was tearing them apart. So she offered to take him when he was born, take him to Canada where he'd be part of a proper family you know?"
Amanda nodded slowly and Steve gently asked the old lady to continue.
"I still hoped Charlie would come and take care of us but he never did. Annie said she'd seen him at our old place but he was hanging around with somebody new, guess it could be the lady he married, the one mentioned in the paper. I was in no state to go across town looking for him and in the end I figured Annie was right. What would he want with me and" she stopped.
"And what?" Mark asked.
"I was gonna say what would a young man want with me and a baby when he could be off having fun. But that wasn't Charlie, it really wasn't. The night I told him about the baby he was over the moon. He'd been an only child, Charlie, said he wanted a big family of his own, lots of kids." She dabbed the tears from her cheeks "Patrick was born January 26th 1946, Annie delivered him herself and Charlie was nowhere in sight. I had one night with my baby, oh and a more beautiful boy you've never seen." Amanda gripped the arms of the chair tightly as Mark looked over at Steve allowing himself to smile softly. "My bags were packed and the arrangements had been made. I'd take the bus to a Nevada, a little place called Connor's Bridge where we had an aunt. Annie would take Patrick on the train to meet Donald in Vancouver, he'd be small enough that they could register the birth together without suspicion. You maybe can't understand this but I wasn't sad that day. I knew my little boy was going to grow up loved, with a mother and father. That was more than Charlie and I could give him."
Amanda composed herself and lent closer to Harriet "You went to Nevada that day?"
She nodded "Cried all the way there, but I wasn't really sad if that makes sense, people on the bus thought I was crazy. I lived with my aunt for just over a year then got my own place. A little while later I opened a general store in the town, sold up 18 years ago and moved back here."
"Why did you come back?" Mark asked.
"I had nobody in Connor's Bridge, I never got married, had no more children. Annie had promised she'd call me from Vancouver but she never did….now I know why. At the time, all these years I thought she'd" Harriet wiped away more tears "I thought she'd used me just to take Patrick away. I thought maybe she'd told Donald he was theirs or was just too embarrassed to have me around. Either way I figured I wasn't wanted up there so I came back here." She pointed to the house behind here "from my window upstairs I can see the river Charlie and I used to swim in as kids."
"Did you ever contact Charlie Farrah, when you returned I mean?" Steve asked.
"No, I looked his name up in the phone book like a silly teenager, saw him listed as a Mr and Mrs. I was happy for him, but, well kind of sad for myself I suppose. I never married, as I said before, and the truth is I never really looked at a man after Charlie. He and Patrick were everything I wanted. Now it looks as though Annie was right, Charlie was good for nothing and it's a blessing I didn't marry him when he asked."
Steve sat desperately considering how to bring up the question of the body they'd found in the outhouse. The old woman's ensuing statement threw him into confusion, along with Amanda and Mark.
"Does Patrick know about me?" She asked hopefully.
"I'm sorry?" Steve began, not understanding the old woman's question.
"You said Charlie and Annie fought the afternoon she was leaving for Canada. If it happened like he said then Annie must have had Patrick with her. The papers said Charlie had children of his own, Charlie raised Patrick with his new fancy woman, correct?"
Mark closed his eyes and Amanda turned her head from the table as Harriet looked at them in confusion. "Tell me!" she demanded though her voice was still soft "please tell me what's going on" she begged looking pleadingly at Mark.
Steve lent forward and took one of her hands in his own. "Miss Ross, I'm very sorry. A young man was renovating a property on Garrett Drive recently and beneath the floorboards of the outhouse"
"No" she sobbed quietly pulling her hands from Steve's and covering her face "please God no, it can't be true"
Through her sobs of disbelief Steve attempted to continue with his explanation "we traced the property to your sister and investigations led us to Charles Farrah. At the moment he's still denying all knowledge of the child found at the property but we have proof, DNA confirmation that he was the father. He has nothing to gain by denying he knew about the baby"
"No", she continued to cry "my baby, my baby, oh Patrick no."
"we're doing everything we can to determine what happened to Patrick"
"You don't understand" Harriet wailed "Charlie didn't kill Patrick" there was an instant hush "I did."
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"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mark asked as he held Harriet Ross' arm to steady her. The corridor of the hospital was dark now and a police officer sat on a chair by the door next to them. The old lady nodded and Steve signalled for the young officer to take a break. Harriet gasped as she saw Charlie Farrah propped up in bed in the corner of the room. Jesse stood beside the old man.
"Charlie?" Harriet asked tentatively, and the old man reached out a feeble hand towards her.
"I'm sorry" he croaked from behind his oxygen mask. Mark helped Harriet take a seat beside the bed, Steve joined Jesse at the other side and Amanda stood behind Mark in the doorway.
"No Charlie, I'm sorry" she began "It was my fault, Patrick I mean, our baby" she sniffed. "When they told me they found him I couldn't believe it. I'm sorry."
Jesse looked confused but waited for the elderly couple to continue.
"I never meant to hurt Annie" Charlie coughed "I never would of, I'd never hurt you by doing something like that, it was an accident, you believe me don't you?"
Harriet nodded "And you believe me, that leaving Patrick there was meant to be for the best?"
Charlie wheezed and pulled the mask away from his face "I don't understand" he croaked "Annie told me there was no baby."
"She was supposed to take him to Canada, her and Donald were to raise him. I had to leave for the bus and she wasn't back from the hospital" she paused "she told me if she was late I should just go, but I should leave Patrick in the outhouse. The estate agent was coming around and Annie didn't want somebody to find him home by himself. It was such a safe place under there" she added in defensive tones, looking to Mark for reassurance. "Dr Robins, the man Annie bought the house from, his children had constructed it as part of a den I guess, used to hide things down there. Not long after we moved in one of his boys came by the house to collect some toy he'd left down there, that's how we knew about it. They'd built it out of an old tin and bits of wood, it was strong and not damp like you'd think. I wrapped him up real well." She paused. "I wrapped him in that shawl you bought for my birthday, I thought then he'd always have something to know us by."
Amanda smiled across at Steve from the doorway.
Charlie continued to shake his head "No baby, she said there was no baby. I came to the house and the doctor was there, she told me I was too late the baby was gone. That's why I hit the jerk, she told me he'd killed our baby. I said I would have married you gladly but she told me no. Said you wanted nothing to do with me and our baby was gone."
"When?" Harriet asked, confused and in disbelief.
"The night you went home to tell Annie you were pregnant, I saw the car outside and the guy leaving the house with a doctors bag. I thought something had happened to you so I came across. She told me you'd seen sense and…she said you'd gotten rid of our baby Harriet."
"And you hit Dr Robins" she said as the pieces fell into place in her mind.
Charlie nodded "When I got out of prison I came looking for you but I didn't have any luck. That's when I went to the hospital and…..oh god" he cried. "It was an accident I swear, but she kept telling me, 'let go', saying she was late and it was in my own interest that I leave her be. I thought she was late for the train but she knew about Patrick, she knew she had to get to him and I stopped her." He lay wheezing for a moment as Harriet held his hand, dabbing away her own tears of guilt and regret.
Charlie spoke again "She said you were gone, off to start a new life and that you'd realised you were better off without me. I wouldn't believe her, so I took the address from her purse and went to the house. I wanted to tell you that I still loved you, that I'd still marry you if you'd believe I'd changed." He looked at Steve "when you told me you'd found a body at Garrett Drive I figured I was in enough trouble, why tell you I'd ever been there. I honestly didn't know anything about our baby, now you see why I could never harm a child" Steve nodded and Harriet answered.
"Because you'd known the pain when you thought I'd harmed our baby?" Charlie nodded "then why come after me?" Harriet asked in disbelief.
"Because my love there's nothing you could do to change the way I feel about you. Even if you'd done what Annie and the doctor told me, we could have had another baby."
"You'd have forgiven me?"
"I loved you" the old man whispered.
"You never heard the baby?" Steve finally asked the old man "when you went over to Garrett Drive."
Charlie coughed and shook his head "I was only looking for Harriet, I peered through the windows, the small one in the outhouse too but I didn't see anything so I never went inside. I suppose I should have, the noise might have disturbed him and I….."
"Don't Charlie…" Harriet pleaded, "there are too many 'what if's'. I shouldn't have left him there and you should have told the police about Annie's accident. But nothing changes the past, we have to live with what we did and pray for god's forgiveness."
The room fell silent, and Jesse moved forwards to place the mask back over Charlie's face. Amanda and Mark headed towards the door as Steve helped Harriet to her feet. Charlie coughed and spoke again "we're you happy my love?" he asked tenderly.
Harriet answered without hesitation "Every time I thought about our baby, and you." Amanda brushed away a tear as they left Charlie alone to consider the consequences of his actions.
