The Killing Of Polly Carter

‘Yes,’ Sophie said. ‘Agency rules say I should be available to assist my client at all times, but Polly insisted that she go out with Claire this morning on her own.’

Richard and Camille exchanged a glance.

‘In fact,’ Claire said, equally puzzled, ‘Polly was insistent she didn’t want Sophie to come with us.’

‘And do you know why she wanted it to be just you and her on this walk?’ Richard asked Claire.

‘I have no idea,’ Claire said, ‘but almost as soon as we got out into the garden, Polly started shouting at me. I’ve no idea where it came from. She just seemed to explode. Telling me how unhappy she was, and how her unhappiness was all my fault. I was shocked. I had no idea what she was talking about.’

‘You didn’t?’

‘No. You see, we weren’t that close. In fact, I haven’t even seen Polly since last year.’

‘I see.’

Camille turned to Sophie. ‘So, if you were around at the time, did you witness this argument, Sophie?’ she asked.

Sophie nodded. ‘I did. I was about to go upstairs when I heard raised voices coming from the garden. It was Polly shouting at Claire.’

‘Did you hear what was being said?’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t. They were too far away. And when I went into the garden to see if I could help—or intervene—that’s when Polly started pushing Claire towards the cliffs.’

‘That’s right,’ Claire agreed. ‘I saw Sophie come out of the house, and that’s when Polly said something like “you’re coming with me”—and she grabbed my chair and started pushing me really fast towards the cliff. And I can tell you, I was frightened. I was shouting at her to stop, but she wouldn’t listen to me.’

‘And I followed a bit,’ Sophie said. ‘You see, I still couldn’t work out if I should intervene or not. And when I lost sight of Claire and Polly, I stopped altogether.’

‘Why did you lose sight of them both?’ Richard asked.

Sophie seemed surprised by the question.

‘Well, there’s a large bed of shrubs across that end of the garden. The steps down the cliff are just beyond it.’

‘I see,’ Richard said, looking at the room, and once again he noticed how Max was looking down at his hands and picking at the skin around his nails.

Phil cleared his throat to announce that he had a contribution to make.

‘I can second all that Sophie and Claire are saying,’ he said, entirely comfortable as he took the floor. ‘You see, I was upstairs in my bedroom at the time. Working on my latest screenplay. And I heard a ruckus coming from the garden, so I went to the window and saw Polly shouting at Claire in the garden. And then, when Polly pushed Claire off to the bottom of the garden and disappeared behind the bushes there, I saw Sophie follow a little way and then stop in the middle of the lawn.’

‘That’s right,’ Sophie said, remembering. ‘I didn’t know if anyone else was around to help, so I looked back at the house and I saw someone standing at one of the upstairs windows.’

‘Well that’s easy to explain,’ Phil said with a tolerant smile. ‘That was me.’

‘What’s that, Phil?’ Max asked, speaking for the first time.

‘It’s not hard to understand,’ Phil said in a condescending manner. Richard could tell that there was little love lost between Phil and Max.

‘I was looking out of my bedroom window,’ Phil continued, ‘so if Sophie saw someone at an upstairs window, it must have been me.’

‘But hang on,’ Max said, licking his lips before he carried on. ‘That would have been me she saw, because I was at the upstairs landing window and looking down on Sophie when Polly died.’

‘You were?’ Camille asked.

‘That’s right,’ Max said. ‘I’d just seen Sophie in the downstairs hallway.’ Here, Max turned to address Sophie. ‘And I’m sorry I didn’t say hello back to you when you wished me good morning.’ Max knew that this was an inadequate thing to say, but he turned back to address Camille. ‘But Sophie can confirm that she saw me inside the house just before Polly died.’

Richard was intrigued. Why was Max trying to establish an alibi for the time of death?

‘Is that right?’ Camille asked Sophie.

‘Yes,’ Sophie said, not entirely sure where Max was going with his story. ‘I definitely saw Max head upstairs just before I went out into the garden. And I said hello to him, but he didn’t say hello back.’

‘But the point is,’ Max said, picking up the story, ‘I was looking out of the upstairs landing window at the time of death. I saw Sophie in the middle of the garden. She was looking straight back at me.’

Richard could see that Sophie was frowning.

‘Tell me, Sophie, was it Max you saw at the upstairs window? Or was it Phil?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘The sun was shining on the windows. And I can’t remember precisely which upstairs window I was looking at. But I know I only saw one person.’

‘Who must have been me,’ Max said insistently.

‘Rubbish,’ Phil said. ‘It was me Sophie could see.’

Sophie looked in confusion at Richard, hoping for a steer.

‘Either way,’ Richard said, not wanting his witnesses to get bogged down, ‘tell me, Sophie, once you’d looked back at the house and seen someone at the upstairs window, what happened next?’

‘Well, that’s when I heard a scream,’ Sophie said. ‘An awful scream. And then, a few moments later, I heard Claire shout for help.’

‘And did you see any of this?’ Camille asked.

‘Well, no. It was all behind the bed of shrubs. But I heard it.’

‘And did you, Phil, see what was going on at the cliff top?’

‘I didn’t,’ Phil said. ‘Because it’s like Sophie’s saying. You can see the lawn from the house, but you can’t see the cliff top. There’s a bed of shrubs and bushes in the way.’

‘And I couldn’t see anything, either,’ Max said, reminding everyone that he’d also been at an upstairs window at the time.

‘But it doesn’t matter who else saw what,’ Claire said, and Richard could see from the look in her eyes that she’d just worked out that she was the only person who’d witnessed the death—and therefore the police were treating her testimony with suspicion. ‘Because the thing is, I saw what Polly did once we were both at the cliff.’

‘Yes,’ Camille said, kindly. ‘Then could you tell us in your own words what that was?’

Claire blinked back tears before continuing her story.

‘Well, it was like she was possessed just before she jumped. I mean, she was angry with me when we first went into the garden, but by the time we got to the cliff top, she was going crazy. Saying how selfish I was. How I’d let her down. How I’d never understood the pain she was in. That sort of thing. And then she said she was going to kill herself—it was all my fault—and there was nothing I could do to stop her!’

Claire choked back a sob as she finished speaking.