‘Have you spoken to Erin?’ Alix asks Josie in the kitchen the following morning.
Josie nods. ‘Just messaged her. She’s fine.’
‘And, dare I ask, Walter? Have you spoken to him at all?’
‘No. No I have not. And I don’t intend to.’
‘So – how are you going to move forward?’
Alix hears a small catch in her voice as she words her last question. Josie has been here for only a day or so, but Nathan hates her, the kids are weirded out about her face and the cat is not happy about having a dog in the house who keeps growling at her.
‘I really don’t know, Alix. I feel like I have a lot to process.’
‘Maybe your mum could—’
‘No!’ Josie breaks in before Alix has got even halfway through the sentence. ‘I am not involving my mum. No. I am just going to work this out for myself.’
‘Yes, but, Josie, you have to work this out with Walter. Don’t you see? You’re going to need to see him.’
Alix sees a dark shadow pass across Josie’s face, accompanied by a slight shake of her head. ‘Not yet. I’m not ready to talk to him yet.’
‘Do you want me to talk to him?’
‘No. God. Definitely not. I just want to … I just need to … Alix, I need to be here. Just for a while. Is that OK?’
Alix feels her insides curdle. ‘I … Well, yes. Of course. For a while. But I have my sister coming to stay next week. I’m afraid we’ll need the guest room back then.’
‘Oh.’ Josie blinks. ‘Right. When is she coming?’
‘Saturday.’
‘Oh. I see. OK. Well, I’ll be out of your hair by then. I promise.’
Alix swallows down a bilious realisation of what she has just allowed to happen – Josie thinks she is welcome to be here all week – and smiles. ‘Thank you. And I’m sorry.’
‘You have nothing to be sorry for, Alix. Honestly. You’re amazing.’
Alix waits a beat before she asks her next question. ‘Listen, Josie. I know people who can help you – women who can help you. My friend Mari le Jeune who I told you about. I interviewed her for my podcast. She’s the co-founder of a domestic abuse charity, the biggest in the country. She’d be able to help. I can put you in touch with her if you want. If you’re feeling unsafe?’
She draws in her breath as she waits for Josie’s reaction, but Josie merely nods, and says, ‘OK. Thank you. But I feel safe. I promise.’
‘Oh,’ says Alix. ‘Good.’
‘What are you doing today, Alix?’ Josie asks.
‘Oh. Nothing much really. Nathan’s working today so I was going take the kids out for lunch.’
‘I … Never mind, then.’
‘No. Go on.’
‘I was just thinking, since I’m here, maybe we could spend some time on the podcast. I really feel like I want to talk about the girls.’
Alix nods, containing her response. ‘Sure,’ she says, ‘yes. Let me just tell the kids where I’ll be and we can get going.’
A woman sits in a café next to a large steamed-up plate-glass window.
Behind her and out of focus, a man is cleaning a big chrome coffee machine with a white tea towel.
The woman smiles uncertainly at the interviewer and clears her throat.
Below, the text reads:
Mandy Redwood, School Administrator, Parkside Primary School, 1998–present day
‘Alix Summer’s kids were both at Parkside. Lovely kids. Some families just light up a school like ours, you know, and the Summers are one of those families. And so it was surprising when Alix came to me that day, back in 2019, asking after the Fairs. You couldn’t imagine two more different families, two more different mothers. Obviously, at the time I had no idea that Alix was making a podcast about the Fairs. So I told her what I remembered. But it was only after everything happened, later on, that I went through the records, and that’s when I remembered other things too. Like the day that Roxy broke a child’s finger in the reading corner when they were in reception. Trod on it. Just stood there, crushing it under the sole of her shoe. The kid screaming.’
Mandy shudders and smiles drily.
‘Of course we had to bring the parents in after that and they were just …’
Mandy looks down at the tabletop while she searches for the right word.
‘Emotionless. Completely emotionless. It was the strangest thing. I put it down to shock at the time, but now … now I know what was really going on in that house. Well, it all makes more sense.’
She shudders again.
Then she shakes her head slightly and sighs.
The screen fades to black and changes to footage of an empty recording studio.
The camera pans around the room.
Below, the text reads:
Recording from Alix Summer’s podcast, 14 July 2019
Alix: ‘What did Walter do, when you told him about the child with the broken finger?’
Josie: ‘Well, I didn’t tell him. He went off to work early back then, out of the house by seven o’clock most mornings, not back until five or six; the school day was a total mystery to him. I think he set foot on school premises about five times over the years the girls were there. So, I just didn’t say anything.’
‘And Roxy didn’t tell him?’
‘No. Roxy didn’t tell him. It was just … well, his temper. You know. We were all a bit scared of him.’
‘Was he violent? With the girls?’
‘Not then. No. But he was rough. He’d push them about. Especially Roxy. But not violent. That came later.’
Josie sighs loudly.
‘I have not been a good parent. I have not been a good parent.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I just mean …’
She sighs again.
‘I let bad things happen. I didn’t stop them. I just let it all happen.’
***
Alix’s phone buzzes for the third time in a row. She puts her finger in the air and presses pause on the recording, removes her headphones and says, ‘Sorry, Josie. I should get this. It’s Eliza. Hi, baby.’
‘Mum. Can you come back inside now? Leon’s being really annoying and I’m hungry.’
Alix glances at the time. It’s nearly two o’clock. ‘Yes. I’m really sorry. Yes, I’m coming in now.’
She throws Josie an apologetic look. ‘I’m so sorry. But I’ve really left them alone for long enough now.’
Josie nods. ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘Of course. Sorry. I’m being selfish. It’s just I’ve kept this stuff all locked up for so long now and I’m scared that if I don’t get it all out in one go, it might go back in again.’
Alix smiles. ‘We won’t let that happen, Josie. OK? Let’s take a break for today and then we have all day tomorrow. I assume you won’t be going in to work tomorrow.’
Josie nods.
‘All day tomorrow, then. OK?’
‘Yes,’ says Josie. ‘OK.’