CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LIGHT A FIRE

Bonnie was just waking up again, when a familiar head poked into the house. Tess smiled when she saw the other woman, "Morning. I wanted to check in. On Alec – and how the investigation was going. After what you said Ellie told you."

Bonnie welcomed the woman in and ushered her into the living room. "Of course. He's sleeping, we should let him wake up on his own. Ellie's on her way now to check in on the mess she's made of our living room." She gestured around the room with a shared laugh with Tess. "Can I get you anything to eat or drink?"

"Why don't you let me make a spot of tea?" Tess offered. "You must be tired watching after that big ol' lump."

Bonnie laughed and followed her into the kitchen, "I've gotten in plenty of naps of my own. I'm just glad he made it out alive to be honest. It was my worst fear that he would die on that table."

"He doesn't look it, but he's tough," Tess tried awkwardly tried to comfort the girl. "He mentioned that he asked you to marry him. And you accepted. Con—congratulations."

Bonnie nodded and was quiet for a moment. As she watched Tess put the kettle on, she suddenly said, "You know, after my dad died, my mum played at being independent. But eventually started parading new men by me, saying that I needed a new father and they'd step in. None of them ever stuck around, and I never really bonded with any of them. I had my father – alive or not." She left out the part that he had literally been with her for three years after his passing, until she moved away.

"I'm sorry – about your father," Tess replied dubiously, taken aback by the subject.

"A parent can never be replaced," Bonnie said kindly. "I just want you to know that. I could never replace you. I would never try to. I am marrying Alec, and that means being part of every aspect of his life. I would like a relationship with Daisy. But not to be her mother. Just to be Bonnie. A friend."

Tess nodded slowly, "Thank you for saying that. I would like the two of you to get to know each other. Since you are marrying her dad."

Bonnie smiled. "I would like it if you and I could be friends as well. Alec still holds love for you, even if it is different than it used to be. And you are Daisy's mother."

Tess smiled back. "That sounds lovely."

Bonnie heard the gate squeaking and excused herself, "That must be Ellie." She walked out to meet Ellie outside the house with a smirk, "All right, before you and Tess dive into the investigation – what was with the looks you were giving my Uncle yesterday?"

Ellie flushed, embarrassed, "It's nothing. I just – didn't expect to see him again."

"There's surprise and then there's the blushing mess you were around him," Bonnie said. "Did you and he have a thing or something?"

"No, no, no, he was already married when we knew each other," Ellie rushed to explained. She paused under Bonnie's unwavering stare and then broke down, admitting, "Okay, well, I had a bit of a thing for him. A massive thing really, I was in love with him. But I never told him. I thought about it, chickened out. Lately, especially after seeing him again after so long, I've wondered how different things would be now if I had just went for it."

Bonnie admitted it made her giddy to hear so. "Well, well, well..."

Ellie blushed and scoffed, "You should really be a detective. That stare would work wonders in the interrogation room."

Bonnie laughed, "You know, it's never too late."

Ellie gaped humorously, "How can you say that? Uma is your Aunt, is she not?"

"Hopefully not for long," Bonnie shared her sentiment. "She and Jay separated."

Ellie gaped in disbelief, "They what?"

Bonnie nodded, "Yeah. Uma's the one whose been telling Marge all about me, including where I live. Jay couldn't handle her delusions about mom anymore. He's looking to move somewhere around here. Close by to me. You could go for it now. Never too late."

Ellie flushed under Bonnie's encouragement, a welling of butterflies in her stomach, and said, "Let's just get on with today, right?"

"You go about your life thinking you're complete, then you meet someone and realize you're only half of something. People laugh about it. 'Have you met my other half?' Then when you meet that person... you know it's true. You're only really whole when you're with each other. Never ends well, does it?"

"What doesn't?"

"Love. It makes you strong and... then it pulls you down. However it happens... one half always loses the other."

Alec had had that conversation with Claire when he sat with her at the clinic... after her procedure. He didn't understand why he was thinking of it as he woke up. Maybe because her sentiments about two halves of a whole made him think of himself and Bonnie. He blindly reached towards the other side of the bed to feel it empty. He opened his eyes to see Ellie seated at the table by his door, Tess standing next to her, talking with her.

"What's going on?" he grumbled as he got out of bed, grabbing a sweater and slipping it on as he wandered into the living room.

"Morning. Cup of tea?" Tess offered, already going into the kitchen.

Bonnie had stood up from the couch and gone to his side, grabbing his arm and leading him to a chair across from Ellie. "Morning, honey."

"Morning, love," he gruffly greeted her.

Ellie greeted him with, "Claire's gone from the house. Then I found a pile of ash in the sink, presumably from where she burnt the photograph of herself wearing this pendant."

"You're saying Pippa's pendant actually belonged to Claire?" Alec asked as Tess returned, handing him a mug of tea and peering at the wall of information Ellie had crafted.

"Well, Claire was wearing it in the photograph I saw," Ellie said.

"So, she must have given it to Pippa at some point," Alec observed, taking a sip of his tea. "And now she's burnt the photo. She's panicking. That's good. I like it when they panic."

"Claire kills the girls and Lee covers for her?" Ellie posited. "What would be her motive? Unless she was grooming Pippa for Lee."

Tess suddenly broke in, excitedly pointing at something on the wall, "I knew I'd seen this name before – Gary Thorp. He runs that incinerator business Thorp Agri Services. He was on the invite list to the wedding Ricky and Cate went to. RSVP'd yes, didn't turn up."

"Does he know Ricky and Cate? We haven't talked to him?" Alec asked.

"There was no connection until now. I'll get on to it," Tess said. When she saw the look on his face, she added, "It doesn't mean we'll reopen the case."

"What are you two gonna do now?" Bonnie asked, looking at Alec and Ellie.

"Miller is gonna give Claire one last chance to confess," Alec decided.

"Am I?" Ellie asked sarcastically.

He nodded, "Aye, you are. We're gonna set a fire under her."

And so, Ellie found herself sitting outside, waiting for Claire to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

Ellie said, "Hi, it's me. Where are you?"

"Like you care."

Ellie sighed, "I saw the photograph, Claire. Why were you wearing a pendant belonging to Pippa Gillespie?"

Claire let out her own big sigh, "It wasn't Pippa's. It was mine. My gran gave it to me."

"Why did Pippa Gillespie have it? Why did you burn the photograph?" Ellie questioned her.

She was quiet on the other line for a moment, before muttering, "Do you know, I am... I am sick and tired of my life being defined by this, Ellie. I keep being dragged into something I had nothing to do with."

"Why do you still keep secrets from us?" Ellie asked her.

"The truth doesn't help," she denied.

"It gives peace to the families involved," Ellie argued.

"You think so? Your friends, the parents of that boy your husband killed... are they at peace now?" she posited. After Ellie's silence, she said, "No, I didn't think so."

Ellie switched it up, "Okay, Lisa Newbury – we need to know if she's dead or alive, if there's a body to be found."

"I had a life, Ellie, and it was destroyed in the ripples. They just keep coming at me. When is it ever gonna stop?"

Lee should have been surprised to see Alec marching up to him on the farmer's land.

"Where's Claire?"

"Don't you know?" Lee answered.

"She's left the cottage."

Lee scowled, "What did she do that for?"

Alec however, was grinning, "Anyway, I came to say thank you."

Lee frowned, "For what?"

"South Mercia Constabulary have authorized the Sandbrook investigation to be re-opened. New leads, new evidence. Couldn't have it without you, that information you gave me. Not gonna take long to wrap it up now," Alec embellished.

Lee stared at him, confusion setting in at Alec's attitude, "Are you all right? There's something different about you."

Alec grinned wider, "I'm more than all right, Lee. I'm reborn."

Lee was even more confused, "What?"

"I thought this case would kill me. I thought I would die not knowing, having failed. Then I had my operation. After it, when I woke up... and I was alive, and I didn't expect to be alive... know one of the first thing I felt?" Alec asked.

"What?" Lee couldn't help but play along.

"Angry," Alec revealed, his Scottish brogue deepening. "Really, properly angry. For the Gillespies, for Pippa, for Lisa. I hadn't felt that angry in years. That is a beautiful feeling. I was... I was worn down, I was tired, I was beaten. Now I've got a new lease of life. Whereas you, of course, look at you – you're exhausted. Sick of running. Sick of not being able to escape what happened. I get that."

Lee scowled, "You don't get anything about me."

"What I don't get... is whether you're lying to protect yourself or someone else. Presumably Claire. I'd always thought she was lying to protect you. Maybe it's the other way round," Alec thought out loud. "You can't trust her."

"You're wrong," Lee denied.

"Am I?" Alec goaded him. "She ever tell you she was pregnant?"

Lee's face slowly dropped, "When?"

"Judging by the dates – before the night Lisa and Pippa went missing – so all the time you were in custody," Alec revealed.

Lee denied it, "You're lying."

"Ask her." As Alec said this, he knew the hot water it would dump Claire in. But he wanted a confrontation. He needed to flush them out. Make them scramble and turn on each other. He remembered how upset and frightened she had been after getting the abortion, as he sat with her afterwards.

"So, what happened to it?" Lee was asking as Alec remembered that day.

If he ever finds out about this...

"Why don't you ask her?"

Mark stared out of the window, out in the vast empty land behind their house. Desolate. Desperate. The end was coming near, and he had no idea if he had or hadn't ruined everything with his last testimony. And he meant everything. The trial. Joe seeing justice for what he's done. His marriage with Beth. He wondered if there was still any good in the world.

"Hurry up. Last day of evidence," Beth said behind him as she grabbed her purse and headed for the door.

"Should I move out?" he asked abruptly.

"Oh..." she was surprised at the question as she turned back at him. "Do you want to? Where would you go?"

He muttered lethargically, "I don't know."

Beth stared at him, trying to understand where they were, trying to get him to understand, "I didn't say, 'Leave,' I said, 'I need you to change.'"

"Yeah, what if I can't?" he poised.

"Stop thinking of life as something that happens to you. What we do now, that's who we are," she insisted.

"You said you didn't need me," he pointed out.

She was so exasperated with the circles they were going in. "I said I can be alone if I have to. You need to decide if we matter enough for you to change."

Alec didn't come with Bonnie to court today. He had things to do for the Sandbrook case. So, she gave a kiss and told him to call her if he needed anything or felt even a little weak. She didn't want him overdoing it so soon after his operation. But as she sat in that courtroom with Beth today, she almost wished she had skipped it as well.

"Ms. Bishop, I believe you have an application to make," the Judge commenced.

But everyone was shocked to hear Sharon say, "The defense wishes to recall Bonnie Irving to the stand – to clarify a few bits."

Bonnie sat up straighter, getting confused looks from Beth and Mark and Ellie. She was confused herself, what more was there for her to say? Even the Judge looked skeptical, "I will not grant you permission to treat Miss Irving as hostile. I think you've done enough of that."

Sharon nodded benevolently, "Understood. Just a few questions."

The Judge allowed it, and soon Bonnie found herself affirming herself on the stand.

Sharon made herself to look friendly, "I understand we disagree with each other on very key points of this trail. But I'll make this quick and civil for all parties."

Bonnie kept quiet until she was asked a question.

Sharon took her silence as permission to carry on. "How long have you been suffering from delusions and hallucinations, Miss Irving?"

Jocelyn quickly stood, "Is this what Miss Bishop means by civil?"

The Judge gave Sharon a look, "Quite, Miss Bishop."

Sharon accepted some documents from Abby, "I have newspapers from Virginia – stories of how Marjorie MacQueen aided police in finding murderers and a kidnapped young girl using her psychic powers. Would that be you Miss Irving, or presumably your mother?"

Bonnie clenched her jaw. She couldn't believe this was becoming part of it. "That would be my mother. A scam artist." She felt Beth watching her, remembering everything she'd told the mother about her mother when that phone engineer reared his head into Danny's investigation.

Sharon look at her, "But I read her book! Rather touching." Like exhibiting evidence, she held up the book for all to see. "She talks about how you both share the gift to communicate with the dead, how she used it to solve crimes in your town, and how you heartlessly abandoned her when you ran away from home."

"Like I said," Bonnie replied calmly, "it's a scam. What does this have to do with Danny?"

"I agree with Miss Irving, Miss Bishop," the Judge cut in.

"Just a few more questions, my lady," Sharon plead contentiously.

Slowly, the Judge considered it and nodded. "Make it quick."

Sharon nodded and turned back to Bonnie, "Why did you run away from home, Miss Irving?"

Bonnie sighed through her nose, "I didn't run away. My mother and I never got along. It only got worse after my dad died and she carried on with her cons of claiming to be what she says. We had a falling out over her pushing me to join in on it when I was seventeen. So, when I turned eighteen, I went ahead with changing my name and moved to Whales to live with my dad's brother and go to university. I cut off contact with my mother. I guess she thinks that was heartless. Personally, I believe the false hope she gave people pretending to speak to their passed on loved ones was heartless."

"Perhaps," Sharon stated. "But what of her claims that you share this gift?"

"Like I said, she's a scam artist," Bonnie said.

Sharon rose an eyebrow at her, "So, you don't believe that you can communicate with those that have already moved on to another plane?"

Bonnie held in a smirk at her wording. She didn't really want to perjure herself over this ridiculousness. "No."

Sharon straightened, convinced that Bonnie was lying. "Did you ever go to the Latimer family and claim that you could communicate with Danny Latimer?"

Wording really was everything. "No."

Sharon opened her mouth to ask something, but the Judge cut her off, "I believe you've exceeded your allotted questions with this witness." She turned to Bonnie, almost apologetic, "You can step down, Miss Irving."

"Thank you, My Lady." As Bonnie stepped off the witness box and started walking around the courtroom to her seat, she walked a little slower passed Sharon – who was steaming – and locked eyes with her. You have not won. You will not win.

"The defense wishes to recall former Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller as a witness for the defense. My Lady, I apply to treat DS Miller as a hostile witness," Sharon announced.

Ellie had Tom with her in the seats today, and he clenched her hand when her name was called. She was confused to hear she was going up again – on the last day no less. But obeyed the call of the court, and swore herself in, standing with the thought not to let herself get sucked in like she had before.

"How close are you to your sister?"

"Lucy?" Ellie hadn't been expecting to be questioned about her sister. "Pretty close. We have our disagreements, you know, family."

"At the end of the investigation into Danny Latimer's death, were you aware she'd racked up substantial gambling debts?" Sharon asked.

"I became aware, yeah," Ellie answered.

"How did you become aware?" Sharon asked.

Ellie shrugged, catching sight of her sister in the raffs, "Lucy told me she was in trouble."

"Did she ask for help with the debts?"

"She did, I refused," Ellie explained.

Sharon held a small smirk on her face that made Ellie nervous. "On the day that your husband, the defendant, was arrested, you wrote a check from the joint-account you hold with your husband for £1,000, made payable to your sister. Is that correct? What made you change your mind about helping her?"

"I don't know." Now she was nervous. This wasn't supposed to come up. It wasn't supposed to be a part of it.

"You don't know why you suddenly gave your sister £1,000?" Sharon sounded highly skeptical.

"She was desperate," Ellie tried.

Sharon made a show of scoffing for the court, "It was YOU that was desperate, wasn't it? Later that day, according to your police notebook, you told DI Hardy that your sister had given a statement describing a man conveniently matching the description of the defendant dumping clothes into a bin the night of Danny's death. Did you bribe your sister to fabricate evidence against your husband?"

"No, I didn't," Ellie insisted, feeling heated and desperate right then.

"You bribed a witness to implicate your husband so that you could fix a failing investigation and continue your affair with DI Hardy. Isn't that true?" Sharon accused.

"Not a single word of this is true! I lent her money to help-" Ellie yelled desperately.

"Not 'lent', 'bribed'!" Sharon cut her off. "On the condition that she help you frame your husband."

"Nobody framed Joe. He killed Danny, he confessed."

"After you beat him up, or before?"

Ellie beseeched the jury, "Don't listen to her! Everybody knows he killed Danny and I wish I'd been able to stop him!"

The Judge gave her a look, "Don't lecture the jury, PC Miller. Your job is to answer the question."

"No further questions, m'lady."

Ellie let out a sigh at that.

"That concludes the case for the defense."

I hate Sharon so much.

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RegalGirl94