Lynda La Plante - Twisted

‘So Harry’s death was a sort of accident?’

‘No, he got what he deserved as well, and as for that nosey bitch who was so ungrateful, well I haven’t finished with her – selling Lena’s photographs to the gutter press for money. If you hurt Lena I hurt you back tenfold.’

‘What about Amy, did you pay her back tenfold?’

Slowly she lowered her head, and her shoulders shook. Reid leaned forward towards the monitor, waiting for the revealing answer, but nothing came as Lena remained silent, with a smirk on her face. It was immensely frustrating as they had gained so much this session, and he hoped it was not going to end.

‘Did you really believe that Marcus would have hurt Amy?’

She shook her head and the tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘He loved her more than me, but I loved her more than my life.’

It was again difficult to fathom who she was now as her tone of voice changed once more and she kept her hands over her face.

‘So you don’t think Marcus would have done the things the others told you about?’

‘No.’ She shook her head again as the tears kept trickling down, and neither Cornwall nor Reid could detect if she was now herself, or summoning up one of her army of protectors.

‘Do you know anyone who harmed Amy?’

‘Serena, she was very nasty to Amy.’

‘How do you know that?’

Lena looked up at Cornwall with a wicked glint in her eye, then let out a loud disparaging sigh. ‘Because I’m the fucking Boss so I have to know everything that goes on to maintain order. I can’t have any of those other bastards inside her telling me what to do. To stay on top you need to know your enemies and that Serena was sending nasty stuff, because I saw Amy’s Facebook calling her a slut, lesbian and other things.’

Cornwall realized the Boss had been playing games, luring him in with fake tears and then seeking to dominate the conversation. ‘But how did you know it was Serena?’

‘Because only someone close to Amy like Serena would know and make nasty comments about Lena and Marcus being separated.’

‘How did you make her pay for being horrible?’

‘Home-made truffles that Lena gave Amy to give to Serena as a sleepover thank-you.’

‘Amy gave them to Mrs Newman, not Serena.’

Lena laughed out loud. ‘Really? How funny…’

‘But Serena did eat one and was very sick,’ Cornwall said, deliberately pandering to the Boss’s ego.

‘There wasn’t enough poison to really hurt Serena, but enough to teach her a lesson and make her vomit and run to the toilet. A lot of squitty poos.’

Cornwall sighed. She was retreating into a childish voice again, and he glanced towards the hidden camera in frustration, wondering if the Boss was playing games once more.

‘What about Amy? Was she given anything that made her vomit?’

‘I only gave her a little now and again, just enough to make her sick. If she was ill she’d want to come back home and stay with me.’

Cornwall picked up on the similarity to Serena’s predicament. ‘Did you give Amy chocolate truffles as well?’

Lena just stared at him and Cornwall was concerned she would retreat further before he could get the answers he sought.

‘Did she eat the truffles, was there too much poison in them, did it all go horribly wrong?’ he asked rapidly, desperate for an answer. He took hold of her hand. ‘Tell me what’s happened to Amy?’

‘I don’t know.’ She was hardly audible as she clung to him tightly.

‘You know the people that told you what they thought Marcus had done to Amy, well they need to know if you have ever done anything to harm her.’

‘She ran away, she disappeared.’

‘Do you know where she’s gone?’

‘No.’

‘Did you have anything to do with Amy running away?’

‘No.’

‘You can tell me, I will understand.’

She withdrew her hand and covered her face and let out a wretched howl. Reid stood up, certain that she was about to admit to playing some part in Amy’s disappearance, or even worse, killing her.

She screamed, flailing her arms. ‘I DON’T KNOW… I DON’T KNOW… I DON’T KNOW.’

Cornwall tried to calm her and the nurses moved closer to restrain her. He knew he had to try to get an answer, even though it was obvious Lena was very distressed and becoming hysterical.

‘Did you kill Amy?’

‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’ she howled and began sobbing uncontrollably. He stood up and helped the nurses settle her back to lie on the couch, but she suddenly kicked out and then curled her body into a foetal position. He gestured for one of the nurses to prepare a syringe with a sedative as he leaned over her. She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. She lifted her left arm towards him, and then her eyes widened as she whispered,

‘You remind me of my daddy.’

Cornwall injected the sedative then checked her pulse; he asked if she could hear him, but she simply stared at the wall. There was no response, she was retreating, and it was evident as she slowly closed her eyes, totally silent, falling into a druginduced stupor.

Reid watched as the nurses opened the door and wheeled in a gurney, gently placing her onto it, and after a while wheeled her out of the room. Cornwall remained seated. Lena’s last words had affected Reid deeply and he got up to switch off the monitor.

As he did so the professor appeared through the viewing-room doorway, then came in and poured himself a cup of coffee.

‘I fear that any further sessions about poisonous mushrooms, Amy, or anything to do with the investigation could be counter-productive,’ he sighed, sipping from the cup in exhaustion. ‘My honest opinion is I doubt she had anything to do with her daughter’s disappearance and she will never be deemed fit to stand trial.’

‘Do you think she was poisoning Amy?’

‘Well you heard what she said about giving Amy enough to make her sick. I suspect she used exactly the same MO as on Serena with truffles or similar. If it had been going on for a while then there appears to be no intention to kill Amy, and it’s highly unlikely with her knowledge of poisonous mushrooms she’d get the dosage wrong.’

Reid realized that it was indeed highly unlikely that Lena had killed Amy. To his mind it was also highly unlikely that Marcus had done so either, and it seemed more and more evident that Amy had simply run away from the maelstrom of madness surrounding her school and family life.

‘So what happens now?’ he asked Cornwall.

‘Mrs Fulford will be treated by the resident psychiatrists from now on; they will not question her about her past as the aim will now be to teach her to control her demons. I don’t think she will ever rid herself of Dissociative Identity Disorder, and she is borderline schizophrenic; her history of self-harming and suicide attempts will mean she will require round-the-clock monitoring, and it will need to be here in a secure surrounding.’

‘She said at the end that you reminded her of her father.’

Cornwall pursed his lips and turned away. ‘I heard it, and you have witnessed what abuse can do, and no matter what Lena has become, no matter what she has done, her father destroyed her, and I believe it will be impossible for her to survive without her army of protectors.’

Reid was left with little alternative but to drive back to the station and write up an extensive report for DCI Jackson. There was no kind of satisfaction in it; in the end the outcome was virtually as Jackson had wanted. As far as anyone knew, Marcus Fulford had murdered his daughter and disposed of her body. The case would remain on file, with the hope that one day Amy Fulford’s remains would be discovered.

Try as he might, over the days and weeks that followed, Reid could not rid himself of what he had witnessed between Professor Cornwall and Lena Fulford. It was almost a relief when he was put on indefinite sick leave after being diagnosed with emotional stress by the police psychiatrist. Although Jackson had taken him to one side and said he’d keep quiet about Reid missing the poison recipes at the back of the journal, he still felt an overwhelming guilt that he was in some ways to blame for the deaths of Simon Boatly, Harry Dunn and Marcus Fulford.