Poppy Day (39 page)

She laughed in a short, unnatural burst.

Roland stared at her, convinced she really had lost her reason, despite her protestations.

‘I have to say, Kathryn, that as a friend, and not as a chief inspector, I am worried about you, very worried about you.’

Her laugh interrupted him. She sighed, rocking slightly as she retrieved a damp square of kitchen roll from the sleeve of her cardigan and blotted her eyes and nose.

‘I am so sorry, Roland. I shouldn’t be laughing, I know. I’m a tad emotional. It’s been a difficult forty-eight hours.’

Neither of them commented on the gross understatement.

‘The reason I laugh is that I have been wanting someone to worry about me and help me for the last twenty years. But now, for the first time since the day I got married, I don’t need anyone to worry about me because I am finally safe.’

She placed her palms flat against the table, as if taking strength from its solidity, to emphasise the point that she could stand alone now.

Roland stood and paced the small police-station interview room; his hands were on his hips, his arms sticking out at right angles. He was starting to lose his patience, his frustration level rising in direct proportion to the lack of progress. He had the feeling that their conversation could meander like this for hours and that was time he didn’t have to waste.

‘Okay, Kathryn, I am going to level with you. I find myself in a very difficult position. I don’t mean professionally, but psychologically. I am having great difficulty in understanding what is going on with you. I have known you and Mark for… how long? Nearly ten years?’

Kathryn pictured the arrival at Mountbriers Academy of his daughter Sophie at the age of eight, with her little leather satchel, frightened eyes, freckles and swinging plaits. She was now a confident sixteen-year-old who had not only caught the eye of her own son, but every other boy in the year. Kathryn nodded. Nearly ten years.

‘And in all that time you and Mark have always been seen as a very close couple, a devoted couple. He speaks – spoke – very highly of you, Kathryn, always. So can you understand why this seems…?’

Roland stared up at the ceiling momentarily, steadied himself, and tried a different tack.

‘God, Kathryn, I am struggling to word this politely, so I’m going to stop trying and cut to the chase. Mark is… was… a much-respected and loved member of this community. He was the headmaster, for God’s sake! Only recently nationally recognised, well regarded by all. And you expect me… everyone, in fact… to believe that for the last twenty years you have been living a life of misery behind those high flint walls and sash windows? When all we have seen is a strong, happy couple who appeared devoted to each other? Do you see why people might have some difficulty with this?’

She smiled her hesitant smile and chose her words carefully.

‘I can see that some people will only ever see what they want to see, Roland. I do know that. But it’s also important to recognise that some people are great deceivers. Mark was a great deceiver and, to a certain extent, so was I. He was a monster who pretended to be otherwise and I was a victim and pretended I was not. Guilty as charged.’

‘Kathryn, do try not to use that phrase, please.’

She didn’t know if he was joking.

‘Okay, Roland. The point that I’m making is that it doesn’t really matter to me what people think or what people think they know. I know the truth and one day my kids will know the truth, and that is the
only
thing that matters to me. The fact is, I
am
guilty, Roland, and I do expect to pay the penalty. You should know that for me there is no punishment that would match the life that I have lived as Mark’s wife. None. I am not afraid, not any more.’

Roland sat down on the opposite side of the rectangular table. He stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles, clasped his hands behind his head and sighed. His mind flitted to the numerous times that he had sat at the table in the Brookers’ warm family kitchen, Kathryn wearing her floral apron and serving tea from a dotty pot. Mark would hold court and dish out the banter after Sunday service, debating the latest on the cricket while Classic FM hummed quietly behind the delicate clink of china on china.

None of it made any sense. Roland was fully engaged and prepared to listen. It was essential that he listened because he needed to hear. More importantly, he needed to understand.

He ran his hand over his face and finished by raking his scalp and patting his side parting.

‘I have been in this job for a long time and I know that things can happen, Kathryn. Sometimes on the spur of the moment; bad things, accidents—’

‘I think I know where you’re going with this, Roland,’ Kathryn interrupted, ‘but I should stop you right there. This was no accident. Not that I planned and plotted or anything like that, but it wasn’t an accident. I intentionally stabbed Mark and as I held the knife in my hand, I wanted to kill him. Thinking about it, I’ve probably wanted to do it for a long time, deep down. So whilst it was “spur of the moment”, as you say, it really wasn’t an accident.’

Raymond shook his head; she wasn’t exactly helping herself.

‘I tell you what would help me greatly… why don’t you give me some examples?’

‘Examples?’

‘Yes, anything that will help me to fully comprehend what you have been through. Give me something typical.’

‘Something typical?’

‘Yes. A snapshot, if you like. Paint me a picture to help me get it; tell me exactly how it was. Explain to me what he did to you that was so bad. Enlighten me in simple terms as to what he put you through. You talk of fear and torture, but I need you to make it real. Tell me what he did that made you so afraid. Tell me what he did that pushed you to take his life.’

Roland had abandoned the friendly angle and was now in full copper mode.

‘You want a snapshot?’

‘If you like, yes.’

‘Let me think. A snapshot, things that were typical…’

She paused.

‘It’s difficult to know where to start, how much to give you.’

‘Give me anything, Kathryn, other than the phrase “my husband was a monster”, which is a bit too generic and dramatic to be of real use. Give me something tangible, something that will help me to understand, any detail that will help me explain it to others.’

‘Righto. There is one thing that I would like to say, Roland, before I start, and that is that I will neither exaggerate nor understate the facts. I have told you and will continue to tell you only the whole truth and nothing but the truth – is that the phrase?’

Roland nodded. ‘Yes, that’s close enough, Kathryn. Ready when you are.’

Kathryn breathed in sharply and used her left thumb to spin her wedding band around her finger. It hadn’t occurred to her to remove it, but she now decided to do so as soon as she was alone. She pushed the gold sliver upwards and briefly pondered the groove it had notched into her finger, wondering how long it would take for the tiny track to disappear. That would mark a big step towards her emancipation.

‘Well, Mark was very fussy, obsessive, really. I wasn’t allowed to wear jeans or trousers, only skirts. Every minute of my day was more or less accounted for; there was very little time for free choice. I could decide what route to take to the supermarket or what veg to prepare for supper, but that was pretty much it. How and where I stored the groceries, when I served dinner, these things were all prescribed. I had to complete a round of chores every day, often pointless and repetitive chores that were designed to exhaust me and break my spirit…’

Roland pinched his eye sockets with his thumb and forefinger. He could just picture those words being repeated in court:
‘I
 
killed my husband because he was a little bit fussy, preferring me in skirts. And I had to do household chores.’
Jesus, if she got away with it, most of the women in the country would have justification. He hoped she had something better than that.

‘At the end of every day, we would climb the stairs together. With only a plaster wall between me and my children, I would kneel at the foot of our bed and Mark would allocate me points according to how badly he thought I had executed the chores that day. Extra points would be added if I had done anything to irritate or anger him.’

She had his attention.

‘These points would be on a scale of one to ten and depending on how badly I had scored – ten being bad – would determine what came next.’

Kathryn’s tears snaked their way into the waiting square of kitchen roll. Her breath stuttered in her throat, her distress as much for the shame in telling as for the memory of the events.

‘Points?’

Roland shook his head. Kathryn couldn’t gauge whether this was in pity or disbelief.

‘Yes. And then he would hurt me.’

This she whispered. Roland strained to hear.

‘How long had he been doing this to you, Kathryn?’

She coughed, collected herself and continued quite brightly, as if she could fool herself that all was well.

‘Well, looking back, I can see that I was bullied from the moment we met. It was little things at first: criticising the clothes I wore, the way I styled my hair, and disliking all of my friends. He put a halt to my career as an English teacher, which was a shame. He broke or threw away anything that I had owned prior to meeting him, monitored my calls, that sort of thing. I was slowly alienated from my family. All his actions were designed to destabilise me and make me more dependent on him, cutting off all my allies and destroying my self-esteem so that when he started the real abuse I was already a victim and quite alone. I had become unable to confidently make a decision, such was my confusion. I had no voice. At least that’s how it felt.’

‘And what you term as “real abuse” – how long had that been going on?’

‘Oh, let me see… since I was pregnant with Dominic.’

‘Who is now sixteen?’

‘Yes, that’s right, although it doesn’t seem possible! Sixteen… it goes so quickly, doesn’t it? You must find that with Sophie. Sometimes I feel as if I was chasing a chubby toddler around the house, then turned my back for a second to find he’s suddenly become this invincible life force, “a teenager”. Sorry, Roland, I’m going off-piste a little, aren’t I?’

She watched his expression, understood his predicament. Kathryn knew that it didn’t sound plausible; it sounded completely bonkers that she had been talking about Mark Brooker, the headmaster! She knew that Roland and every other parent would only ever be able to picture Mark offering a firm handshake and a clever quip. They would all agree that the whole affair was most shocking. What would Mark’s PA, Judith, make of it all? Kathryn smiled to herself as she considered the woman’s reaction, she could just imagine her statement:
‘Mark didn’t look like a nasty man, in fact he was quite gorgeous…’

Kathryn hoped that in time and once all the facts had been revealed, people would ask themselves one important question: if her life had been as perfect as Roland and everyone had thought, why would she have done it? Why would she fabricate the whole nightmare and then ask for punishment if it weren’t true? Unless she was crazy, of course. And Kathryn was determined to prove that she was anything but.

Roland took a deep breath and prepared to repeat his questions.

Photograph of Amanda Prowse by Paul Smith

 

Amanda Prowse was a management consultant for ten years before deciding to pursue her real ambition: to create stories that keep people from turning the bedside lamp off at night. Her husband, Simeon, is a soldier, and when their family isn’t being uprooted by the army, Amanda and Simeon live blissfully in the West Country with their two teenage sons.

What would you sacrifice to bring home the one you love?

Ever since Poppy Day married her childhood sweetheart, Mart, she’s been deliriously happy. Now Mart is fighting a war abroad, and Poppy is counting the days until he returns.

It takes one knock at the door to rip Poppy’s world apart. Mart has been taken hostage in Afghanistan and Poppy is determined to get him home. But what can one woman do, alone in a foreign land, to save the man she loves?

I AM THE WIFE of a serving soldier and the Royal British Legion is a charity very close to my heart, which is why I am donating every penny of author royalties from
Poppy Day
to this amazing organisation. They have been there for over 90 years,
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troops returning from conflict and also the families of those who have sadly lost their lives. Many that have fought will need support for the rest of their lives. The Royal British Legion’s work is varied and vital. Whether helping to fund new Personnel Recovery Centres, adapting a home to make it suitable for a
disabled
young soldier, providing pension advice or bereavement counselling, the RBL are there to help. By buying
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