A/N Rita's character is not quite the same as the one in Casualty. Warning: Mentions of murder, under aged sex and assault.
JUDGED CHAPTER NINE – RITA
Rita Freeman was good at lying to get herself out of trouble. She'd often invented non-running buses, problems with her demanding mother or siblings, or other catastrophes as an excuse for being late for school. The teacher, who liked pretty blonde Rita, believed her time and time again, despite the cynicism of her classmates.
Rita's academic record was disappointing to her parents, but she'd managed to convince them that it was nerves that spoiled her concentration in the exams and not the lack of revision. They told her she could stay on another year and retake her "O" levels but, feeling a trifle guilty, she wanted to start paying her way. She managed to get a job in a clerical company where once again, her wide-eyed innocent look saved her from being fired on several occasions. The trouble was that somebody had to be responsible for the missing files and inaccurate calculations and her colleagues became tired of being summoned to the line manager's office to explain themselves. Rita might have been popular with Management but she had very few real friends at work. This suited her; she disliked socialising as she'd learned that she couldn't hold her drinks and had made a fool of herself once or twice. But for those who tried to encourage her to go out, she always had an excuse. Her old dog wasn't very well and she was worried about him. Her mother – Rita still lived with her parents – didn't like her going out at night. In time the invitations ceased, which was convenient for Rita, who was running out of alibis.
It hadn't been so easy to fabricate an excuse not to attend a cousin's wedding, and so reluctantly, she'd gone along, knowing a headache or stomach cramps could always 'just happen' when the people she had to mix with began to irritate her. She met Mark, a teacher, there and liked him very much. So much that when he asked her to go to the cinema with him the next week, she didn't need or even want to make an excuse not to go. Soon she was convinced that she and Mark were in love with one another.
Rita liked children but didn't want any too soon, and so the exaggerations began again. Her firm needed her. When redundancy hit the company, she lost that safety-net and had to fabricate other reasons. Maybe if she'd just been honest and admitted that she wanted a few child-free years, Mark would have understood. But he felt rejected and he strayed. Unfortunately the object of his desire was an underaged pupil. Rita found out in the most unpleasant way – she'd been invited to one of the women's houses for a coffee morning, and had overheard two of them gossiping about her and Mark.
"Tracey says she could have given up her job years ago but she didn't want kids. Well, he's certainly got a kid now!"
"Lisa, that's horrible!"
"It's true though. Miss Hampton caught them together in the cloakroom the other week. She told Claire – you know, the games teacher – and Claire's a mate of Tracey's. They both had an evening in drinking shots, and Claire just spilled the beans to Tracey. Jenny, this kid's called. Sixteen years old. Disgusting, I call it. Still, I'm not sorry for little Miss Frosty-pants."
Rita sent an anonymous message to the school. The Headmistress was reluctant to take the message further, despising the kind of people who pass on such warnings without giving their names, but knew she had to investigate. More evidence, more coincidences. Mark was arrested and served a term in prison. During that time, Rita found her usual excuses not to visit him, and separated from him legally after two years.
After his release, Rita became a little uneasy that he'd try and move back into their home, but she'd started a relationship with a quiet young man called Paul, who told her he'd protect her. Rita decided it was worth embellishing the truth a little. Although Mark had often verbally insulted Rita and raised his voice to her, he'd never hurt her physically. Rita managed to convince Paul that Mark had beaten her, and he and Rita had formed a united front against Mark, who had become dependent on alcohol and soon found himself at his lowest. He'd managed to climb out of the gutter he'd fallen into, including a relationship with Marie, a social worker, who was gentle, patient and actually saw some good in Mark. Soon, thanks to her help, Mark had a job and he and Marie were renting a flat.
One day while Rita was out shopping, she spotted Mark and Marie. She dodged into the next aisle, but knew Mark had seen her. From then on she'd become paranoid. Mark was still living in the same town, she told Paul, he shopped at her local supermarket. He might pay her a visit to see if he had any claims to his own home. Rita's fears escalated and eventually drove Paul away. Mark's fault. Now she had no Paul to protect her and that swine was still out there somewhere. How soon before he started bothering her? One night the inevitable happened; she ran into Mark when he was on his own. He was gruff with her, but not threatening, but to Rita it was enough to send her home to the drinks cupboard, on which she'd been relying more than ever since Paul left. Another incident – she'd treated herself to a night at the cinema, forgetting how much Mark liked action films too. There he was, in the audience. Rita felt queasy. Would he always dog her footsteps like this?
A few weeks later she was to remember that cinema trip. The newspapers were full of the latest story – a young schoolgirl, not far from where Mark and Marie lived, had been raped and murdered. Mark had been stupid enough to have had a fling with the victim despite his past record. The murder had taken place at the time when Rita knew full well that she and Mark were safely in the cinema. He'd argued with his teenage girlfriend earlier, and she'd scratched his face in a rage, but he'd left her alive and safe enough and had stormed off to the cinema to clear his head. He'd mentioned his ex-wife seeing him in the cinema.
By a clever tissue of lies about time and place, Rita had seen that her ex husband had been jailed for life for the girl's murder. Which was a great pity, for if the real killer had been jailed instead, he wouldn't have caught Rita unawares on her way home from a night in the local – Rita had long since given up her battle with alcohol. The killer had intended to assault Rita, but had heard sounds in the background. To his disturbed mind that simply meant 'finish the job as quickly as possible', and his hands had closed around Rita's throat…
"You've got it wrong" Rita whispered, "I didn't kill Mark. I got him arrested for life on a f-false charge."
David's gaze seared into her.
"Pretty little liar, eh? You knew full well what Mark had told the papers on his release after his first arrest. That he'd learned his lesson. That if he were ever banged up again, he'd not be able to take it, and he'd top himself. Well, guess what he managed to do in his cell, Rita?"
Rita, shaking and sobbing, couldn't, for once, deny her guilt.
"You've no heart, have you?" the young floppy-haired man said to David wearily, but the smaller, older man, the one with the dark hair, just snapped:
"Oh, grow up!"
"Ah, Iain. I think we'd all like to be reminded of how you deal with people who need to grow up. Come on, we're all waiting."
