Catherine Steadman - Something in the Water - A Novel

“Alexa Fuller,” she says.

“Erin. It’s great to finally meet you, Alexa. Thank you so much for coming.”

“Yes, great to finally put a face to a voice,” she says, her smile widening. We take our seats.

I want to get straight to it but Alexa is staring at Nigel. His presence is going to be an impediment.

“Nigel. I’ve got the camera on now. It’s recording already, so would you mind stepping out of the interview? I’ll make the tapes available. Just the other side of the door is fine.”

I wouldn’t have dreamed of asking Amal to do the same during my interview with Holli, but Alexa is by far the safest of my interviewees. Nigel shrugs. I’m sure he’s aware of Alexa’s history and her crime. He knows I’ll be perfectly safe in here alone with her. I’m not so sure how safe I’d be with Holli and Eddie Bishop, though. I wonder if the authorities would ever even allow those two to be unsupervised.

Eddie has requested another telephone interview. I received an email from Pentonville on Sunday. I’m not sure what exactly he wants to discuss. I hope he isn’t getting cold feet about filming next month. I hope it’s not more game-playing.

I wait until Nigel leaves and the bolt slides on the door before I speak again.

“Thank you, Alexa. I really appreciate you taking part in this process. I know we’ve talked it all through over the phone, but just to recap: What I’m going to do is record everything we say here today. If something comes out wrong or you’re not happy with how you’ve expressed something, then just let me know and I’ll ask you again or I’ll rephrase the question. You don’t have to worry about performing for the camera or anything like that. Just ignore it and talk to me. Just like a normal conversation.”

She smiles. I’ve said something funny.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a ‘normal conversation,’ Erin. So you’ll have to bear with me, I’m afraid. I’ll do my best.” She chuckles. Her voice is warm and deep. It’s funny to hear it now in person after hearing it on the phone for so long. We’ve had three pretty comprehensive phone conversations since we started the process. I’ve managed to keep off the central interview topics, as I want her to be able to tell me her story in full for the first time on camera. I want to keep it fresh. It’s strange to see her now, here, real, in front of me. Of course, I’ve seen pictures of her in her file, articles in papers, the story Mark read over my shoulder only a month ago, but this is different. She’s so calm, so self-possessed. I’ve seen her arrest photos from fourteen years ago, when she was twenty-eight. She’s more beautiful now somehow; she was attractive then but she has clearly grown into her beauty. Her soft dark blond hair is tied back loosely in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck, her naturally sun-kissed skin has a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and forehead.

She’s only half joking about the lack of normal conversation. I can see it in her eyes. I smile. I understand why she might have agreed to this project. Cultural homesickness. I can’t imagine there are too many people like Alexa in Holloway. From where she’s from. We’re not the same generation, she and I, but we’re definitely the same tribe.

“Shall we give this a go then? Any questions before we start?” I ask.

“No, I’m happy to jump right in.” She straightens her already straight sweatshirt and shakes her bangs from her eyes.

“Great! Just to let you know, I’m going to keep my questions short; they’ll be more like prompts for you, really, to focus you on a topic or redirect you. I can edit myself out and we can use voiceover later to overlay. Okay. Let’s give it a go. Could you tell me your name, age, and sentence?”

I feel my phone buzz silently through my pocket. Mark. Maybe good news. Maybe a job offer? God, I hope so. That would solve everything in one quick stroke. The buzzing stops abruptly. Either went to voicemail or he’s remembered where I am today. What I’m supposed to be doing right now.

I snap back into focus. I watch as Alexa takes a soft breath, I let go of thoughts of Mark, and the prison interview room seems to disappear around her.

“My name is Alexa Fuller. I’m forty-two years old and I’ve been here, in Holloway, for fourteen years now. I was convicted for assisting in the suicide of my mother, Dawn Fuller. She was terminally ill. Pancreatic cancer. I was sentenced for the maximum sentence allowable.” She pauses. “Um…the maximum conviction ever given for assisted suicide. There had been a lot of press that year around lenient sentencing, lots in the media about assisted-suicide convictions being thrown out of court. There was an inquest where it was decided that the Crown Prosecution Service should take a harder line in the future. I just happened to be first through the door after the rules changed. They decided cases would be treated similarly to manslaughter, even if they clearly aren’t manslaughter.”

She stops for a second. Looking past me.

“She’d wanted to go to Dignitas in Switzerland originally, Mum, but we told her it would all be fine, she would beat it. She was only fifty-five and receiving the most intensive chemo program available. They all thought it would knock it on the head finally. But she had a heart attack.

“When they stopped the treatments she was too sick to fly; I wouldn’t have wanted to take her to Switzerland anyway. Dad and I visited the place whilst she was still in ICU recovering. It was so cold there. Empty, you know, like one of those hotel rooms you get at motorway service stations.” She pulls her sleeves down over her hands before continuing. “I couldn’t imagine her there. Dying.”

For a fraction of a second, I think of my mother. A flash of Mum in a bed, in a room, somewhere, alone. That night after the crash. After they found her, broken, rain-soaked. I don’t know what room it was or where it was, whether she was alone. I hope it wasn’t a room like that.

Alexa’s eyes flick up to my face. “Neither of us wanted to imagine her there. So we brought her home. And she got worse. And then one day she asked me to leave her the morphine. I knew what that meant….” Her voice wobbles.

“I put it on the nightstand but she couldn’t pick up the bottle. She kept dropping it on the bedsheets. I called Dad downstairs and we talked it all through together, the three of us. I went upstairs and got the camcorder, Dad set up the tripod, and Mum told the camera, and later the courtroom, that she was in sound mind and wished to end her life. She showed how she couldn’t lift the bottle on her own, let alone inject herself, and then she explained that she was asking me to help her. After the video we had dinner. I set the table in the living room with candles. We had champagne. Then I left her and Dad to talk. He came out into the hall after. He didn’t say anything. I remember that. He just walked past me, up to bed. I tucked her up in the duvet on the sofa and we talked for a while but she was tired. She would have talked all night with me but she was too tired.”

Alexa’s breath catches. She looks away. I wait, silent.

“She was tired. So I did what she asked, and then I kissed her goodnight and she fell asleep. Not long after that, she stopped breathing.” She pauses before looking back at me. “We never lied, you know. Not once. We told the truth from the beginning. It was just bad timing. With the crackdown. But that’s life, isn’t it? Sometimes you’re the dog; sometimes you’re the lamppost.”

She smiles her muted smile.

I smile back at her. I don’t know how she’s done it, stayed sane after being stuck so long in this place for doing what anyone would have done. For helping someone she loved. Would I do that for Mark? Would he for me? I look at Alexa. Fourteen years is a lot of thinking time.