Thank you guys so, so, so, so much for the sweet reviews! Yes, part of the mystery has lifted, but there are so many more questions left to answer, aren't there?
Chapter 20
Fortunately for Clara, she had almost finished her school work when the phone rang and she answered it to hear her father's voice. She had expected him to call and it came as no surprise to her that he apologised repeatedly and went on to justify himself for something that had happened over thirty years ago. Clara wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the matter, but she wasn't angry… although nor was she in a particularly forgiving mood.
"You don't sound surprised," her father noted after a while.
"Well, I was surprised," she argued gruffly. "Yesterday. When John told me I had a sister which is something I really should've heard from you."
"I'm sorry," he said for the twentieth time during the phone call and Clara was growing a little tired of hearing it. By now, she had made peace with the idea that her father had lied to her all her life. Back when her mother had died, they had been so close, but everything had changed the moment her stepmother walked into her life. Now, Clara was content with a phone call on her birthday and at Christmas and she really didn't need the emotional baggage that came with her family. "Your mother and I were young and utterly in over our heads and-"
When the doorbell rang, Clara was glad for the distraction. "I'm sorry, Dad, I'm going to have to call you back, there's someone at the door."
She hung up once he had said goodbye and walked towards the front door, where she could already make out a familiar silhouette through the glass. Clara opened the door with a smile.
"You're making a habit out of distracting me from my marking," Clara remarked, flashing him a mischievous smile. "Admit it, you want my students to remain uneducated."
John was surprised to see her in such a good mood and he hated to spoil the rare moment, so he smiled at her in return. "Um, you caught me, I guess," he replied hesitantly.
When he had stepped into her house, John couldn't shake the feeling that Clara was happy to see him and he was trying his best not to read too much into it. The most likely explanation was that she saw him as a convenient distraction from her work.
"Tea?" she asked and John spun around, his thoughts about her coming to an abrupt end.
"Um, sure," he said. "Thank you."
When Clara walked into the kitchen, John followed her and the further he stepped into her house, the heavier the folder in his hand felt to him. That was what he had come here for. The folder. Everything he had found out about her sister during the day.
"I, uh, I spoke to your father today," John stated carefully.
Clara turned back around, holding a steaming mug in each hand which she set down on the kitchen table. Almost instantly, her smile and high spirits seemed to vanish. "So did I," she replied. "In fact, you just saved me from a long and awkward conversation."
She gestured towards a chair and John sat down next to Clara, eyeing her closely. No, the good mood was definitely gone and now, she looked rather annoyed. "You didn't want to talk to him?" he asked.
Clara shrugged. "What's the point? He said what he wanted to say, told me how they thought they wouldn't be able to cope, told me how they gave her up for adoption, then apologised more times than I can count," she explained with a sigh. Then, Clara raised her eyes and looked straight at him. There was something in her expression that seemed so serene and yet so furious at the same time. "Do you ever feel like you don't care about someone's apology, no matter how sincere it might be?"
John didn't know how to respond to that.
"My father never told me I had a sister and apologies can't undo that," she stated plainly. "I still never knew and she's still dead, no matter how often he says sorry."
Not knowing what else to do, John granted her a weak smile. It occurred to him that over the course of the last few days, he and Clara had developed a sort of friendship and he was glad of that. Even though he hadn't figured out why she had moved here and what was so strange about her, all of the questions John had initially had seemed to matter a little less each time he saw her. She was just Clara: just a young woman caught in the middle of a nightmare and by solving this case, John would make the nightmare go away. "After I spoke to your father, I did a bit of research," he explained and placed the file on the table.
Clara frowned at him for a moment, then reached for the folder and pulled it a little closer before reading the name that had been hastily written on the front. "Bonnie Moore?" she asked, looking back up at him.
"That's your sister's name," John said.
There was a rustling of paper as she opened the folder and he knew she was looking at Bonnie's birth certificate. As she turned the page, he found himself mentally listing the contents of the folder, having studied it so intently back at the station, and knew that she would now be examining the adoption papers.
"Bonnie Moore," Clara read out carefully. "Birth parents: David James Oswald and Elena Alison Ravenwood. Born on the twenty-third of November 1958 in Blackpool. Adoptive parents: James and Rita Moore."
"A priest by the name of Douglas Henley oversaw the adoption process," John told her. "He's still alive and we spoke on the phone earlier. Bonnie's adoptive mother was his sister. He said they were good people."
"Were?" Clara enquired and John merely nodded towards the file in her hands. Clara quickly began skimming through the pages until she eventually stopped. "Her father was killed in Belfast."
"Her adoptive parents were Catholics from Belfast," John said softly. "They-"
Clara closed the file abruptly, looking him straight into the eyes. "I know the story, no need to remind me," she said gruffly. "What about her mother?"
He inhaled deeply. "Died of cancer," he explained. "Bonnie moved to London eventually, then back to Belfast. I haven't figured out what she did for a living yet, but I'm still waiting to hear back from a few people. It's a long process."
Clara nodded understandingly. "Thank you for letting me know."
"I promised, didn't I?" John said and smiled at her until he remembered something else, something he had wanted to ask her ever since he had found it. Carefully, he pulled the evidence bag out of the inside pocket of his jacket and laid it out on the table.
In response, Clara leaned forward and examined the note through the plastic. "That's my name and address," she said, sounding surprised. She frowned at him. "Where did you get that?"
"Um, this is something I could get into trouble for," he said coyly, uttering a nervous laugh. "I took this from Bonnie's pocket the day after we found her. I know I should have turned it in, but I knew that they would start seeing you as a suspect if I did. I knew there had to be another explanation and I think I've found it."
Clara raised her eyebrows at him.
"I think Bonnie figured out that she was adopted and she came looking for you," John told her. "That's why she was in Scotland. Only… something must have happened to her on the way. Whether it was an accident or not – we don't know yet."
When Clara spoke again, John didn't hear the words he was expecting. "You held back important evidence to protect me?" she asked in disbelief. "Why?"
John chuckled, scoffing softly. "Because I knew that you had nothing to do with it. And after you had to identify the body and had your house broken into, I just didn't want to put you through the unnecessary scrutiny," he said truthfully. "Besides, I never planned to hold it back forever, just as long as I didn't have a good explanation as to why Bonnie had it. Now I do, I'll show Kate."
There was a strange look on Clara's face as the meaning of his words began to sink in and suddenly, John regretted saying anything about it at all. Now, Clara Oswald would assume he was a creep or worse, a terrible detective and maybe he was, just like his father had predicted. But eventually, her mouth curled up into a smile.
"That's very considerate of you," she replied sincerely.