Free Frozen Charlotte by Priscilla Masters Page A

Alice insisted plaintively. ‘I went up into the loft to see about the conversion that Aaron wants to do.’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘I wondered about moving the hot water tank. Then I noticed . . .’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I saw what I thought was a bit of old blanket stuffing up a hole. I thought there might be mice – rats even – so I pulled it out and it came out as well.’
    ‘That isn’t quite the story you gave the police,’ Acantha said.
    Justin, very wisely, was saying nothing.
    ‘I’ve had time to think about it.’ Alice was more rational, defiant even. ‘Remember it properly.’ Acantha couldn’t rid herself of the feeling that her friend was defending something.
    ‘You must have realized there was no point in taking it to a hospital.’
    ‘I didn’t know where else to take her.’
    ‘How did you know she was called Poppy? Was her name stitched on the blanket?’
    ‘I don’t remember. There’s no point you pushing me. I don’t remember everything.’
    ‘OK,’ Acantha said resignedly. ‘But when you got to the hospital you simply sat there?’
    ‘I didn’t know the system.’ Alice was sounding aggressive now.
    Her friend could have pointed out that she had had a broken night’s sleep as well as acting as both her lawyer and her guarantor so the least she owed her was a truthful explanation, but she had the feeling that if pressed Alice would hide behind the ‘I don’t remember’ explanation. It could be a very convenient way of avoiding the truth.
    Acantha watched her drink her coffee, butter her toast, spread the marmalade. On the one hand she realized her friend was stressed and she must allow her some leeway. On the other hand she had been a solicitor long enough to know that when criminals couldn’t conjure up an explanation they frequently hid behind the excuse of a poor memory or amnesia.
    Alice burst out suddenly, ‘Why do you keep asking? Why do you keep pressing me for answers, answers I don’t have. I don’t have the answers,’ she repeated. ‘You know that I was trying to work out the loft conversion and I came across . . .’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ Acantha prompted impatiently. ‘I know that but I don’t understand when you found the body why didn’t you just ring the police? And you –’ she looked directly at her friend – ‘haven’t even come near giving me a good reason.’
    Alice looked confused and a little vulnerable. ‘There’s a lot I don’t remember and a lot I don’t know. I . . .’ It was as though the spark of an idea came to her. ‘I suppose,’ she said brightly, ‘I was temporarily insane.’
    It all seemed a little too convenient. Acantha bit her lip, gave her husband a swift look across the table and knew his thoughts were very close to hers.
    So she decided to press Alice. ‘Look, Alice,’ she said, ‘you may as well try and think up some answers other than that you don’t know, because at some point you’re going to have to answer all these questions to the police satisfactorily and if you can’t do that it may well be that they charge you.’
    Alice looked alarmed. ‘What with? What on earth could they possibly charge me with? I haven’t done anything.’
    ‘I don’t know but I do know what the police are like. I’ve worked with them for enough years,’ Acantha said dryly. ‘They like answers, Alice, to their questions. Answers that make sense. And if they don’t get the right answers they get suspicious. It’ll be the worse for you, I can promise you, so you’d better start thinking and remembering.’
    Her friend looked at her with dismay. ‘But I can’t remember.’
    ‘Can’t you?’
    ‘No.’ The two friends looked at each other and Acantha suddenly thought that though she would have called Alice Sedgewick one of her best friends she was realizing now that she didn’t really know her at all. She looked at her friend through new eyes. Her lawyer’s instinct was whispering to her that there was much more to this episode