Saving Silence (20 page)

Mum and I had a room of our own to wait in. I’d wanted to find Nadina and Sam, but Angie said it was best if I didn’t. ‘It’s more about how it looks than anything
else,’ she said. ‘I know you three are going to tell it how it is, but we don’t want anyone accusing you of conferring and changing your stories.’

Pretty stupid thing to say considering we’d had loads of opportunities to ‘confer’ at sixth form, but fair enough. I leaned back in my chair and looked at the clock. Court
would be in session now. I wondered when – if – they would need me.

‘This youth court is basically a
trial
trial, yeah?’ I said to Mum. She was sitting next to me with a cup of vending-machine coffee. ‘It’s a hearing today, and
provided they can’t prove their innocence it’ll be referred to the Crown Court for the proper trial and any sentence.’

She nodded. ‘The case can’t be resolved here because it’s serious crime and there are multiple charges involved. Armed robbery is a big thing, obviously, but murder’s in
a different league. This is a big case.’

‘I get that, but as it’s going to go to the Crown Court anyway, why do they faff about having a hearing here beforehand? Isn’t it a massive waste of time?’

‘Procedure,’ Mum said. ‘The McAllisters are youths, so therefore the youth court must go over the charges before it’s referred. And it’s
if
rather than
when
. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?’

‘Ha ha,’ I said. She did have a point though. That was what made me nervous. All being well, the McAllisters had it coming once this hearing got referred. I was convinced it was them
– Ollie wouldn’t lie about something like this. But there was always a chance that something unexpected might happen. The case hinged around a few key facts. If they got blown out . .
.

Stop thinking that way, I told myself. They did it. It’s obvious.

Time dragged. Unable to stay sitting, I paced about. Mum had another coffee. Then, about an hour and a half later, I was summoned.

TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER

My knees felt weak as I stepped into the witness box. I wished I hadn’t let Dad talk me into wearing a suit ‘to make a good impression’. The heavy jacket was
making me hot. I felt overdressed and fake, as if I looked like I had something to hide.

I already knew that the McAllisters weren’t going to be able to see me – because I was a minor special measures had been put in place, meaning that the booth was screened off –
but I still felt like I might throw up. While the screens offered protection, they also gave me the surreal feeling that I was there and not there at the same time. I’ve done the hard thing
coming forward already, I kept telling myself. Now I’m just following through what I started.

It didn’t get any easier when the questions began. Even though I wasn’t asked anything difficult, I still stumbled over basic facts. Once my memory entirely froze. For a place that
was meant to be all about the truth, this hearing was doing a good job of making me doubt it.

The questioning seemed to go on forever. When I was finally dismissed I felt ready to collapse. The main thing was, I’d done it. I’d said everything, if not as confidently as
I’d wanted. There was no way Josh and Dale could get out of this one.

Dad checked his watch. ‘Must be near conclusion now. It’s gone on longer than I expected.’

I swallowed. ‘Is that good or bad?’

‘We’ll know soon enough. Chin up, son.’

The hearing had been in session several hours now. After doing my bit I’d been shown to a large waiting room, and Imogen and her mum had joined us. To start with we’d discussed the
case, everyone talking over everyone else but all saying the same thing: there was only one way this was going. After a while the parents slipped into the kind of small talk people make to kill
time. If I wasn’t so fretful it would have been funny. Under normal circumstances Dad, with his flash suit and slicked hair and loud opinions, would probably have nothing to do with
Imogen’s calm and professional mother, who I secretly thought was very like Imogen herself.

‘They need to rewrite their fricking “What happens in court” booklet,’ Imogen muttered to me. ‘This waiting bit wasn’t mentioned. Quite important,
yeah?’

‘They don’t mention the “feeling like you’re going to throw up any minute” part either.’

‘Maybe they’re giving Ollie a hard time. A lot of the most important evidence is his.’

‘What about Nadina and her dad? Aren’t they here today?’

‘Yep. Guess they’re elsewhere.’

The tall wooden doors opened. Everyone gave a start; I realized we’d fallen silent. Angie and two other liaison officers came in. They wore funny expressions that didn’t seem to be
any one emotion.

‘Would you prefer we spoke to you separately, or are you OK with this?’ Angie asked.

Dad waved his hand impatiently. ‘Put us out of our misery, Ang. What’s the decision?’

Angie cleared her throat. ‘I’m afraid the case has collapsed. The McAllisters have been cleared of all charges.’

TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER

Everyone stared at Angie. Time stood still. Then I exclaimed, ‘What?’

‘You’re upset. I understand,’ Angie said. ‘I know it’s not what you were expecting—’

‘That’s an understatement!’ Phil, Sam’s dad, interrupted. ‘There’s a video, for goodness sake. Those losers have been identified – there’s no
question of what they’ve done. Has everyone gone completely insane?’

‘Hear me out, Mr Costello,’ Angie said quickly. She was a willowy woman with a soft voice. She was clearly struggling to assert herself among so many angry people. ‘As I said,
the case collapsed. It’s nothing to do with your evidence—’

‘I should hope not!’ That was Phil again.

‘The case against Josh and Dale McAllister hinged around Osvaldo Moreno identifying them. There’s nothing beyond his statement to suggest the guys who committed these crimes are them
– no DNA, no fingerprints, no other conclusive witness statements, and they’ve got rock-solid alibis, at least as far as the court is concerned. Their mother swears the boys were at
home with her on the nights of both break-ins, and a family friend backs her up.’

‘Yeah, right!’ I exclaimed. As if lowlifes like Josh and Dale stayed in watching
Strictly Come Dancing
with their mum on a Saturday night! I wondered if the family friend was
Paz, the guy who’d got Ollie into this mess. He hadn’t been part of the robberies, so he’d dodged police attention entirely. ‘She’s lying. That’s
obvious!’

‘Unfortunately unless it’s proved otherwise, or there’s more powerful evidence, the court has to believe Mrs McAllister,’ Mum said.

‘Well, that’s stupid! Can’t they use a bit of common sense?’

‘That’s the way the law works.’ Mum gave me a tight smile.

‘So is it a case of Ollie’s word against Mrs McAllister’s, and they believed her over him?’

Angie shook her head. ‘It didn’t come to that.’ She drew a breath. ‘The primary reason that the hearing couldn’t refer the case was that Osvaldo Moreno changed his
statement. He withdrew everything in it that implicated Josh and Dale.’

For the second time there was silence as we stared at her. Then we all started up again.

‘Is he allowed to do that?’

‘How does he explain where he was that night?’

‘Who’s he saying did this now?’

‘One at a time!’ Angie cried. ‘Let me speak, guys, please. Yes, anyone is allowed to withdraw or change their statement. Osvaldo’s now saying that he’s never met
Josh and Dale, which matches what they say about him. He claims he bumped into the guys who committed the robberies on the Brooke Estate. He’s given names, and the police will be
investigating.’

‘Fake names, no doubt.’ Phil said. ‘Don’t the past records of these scumbag brothers come into it? From what I hear, they do this kind of thing for kicks all the
time.’

‘I’m afraid without positive identification it doesn’t matter what the twins have or haven’t done before, Phil.’ Mum seemed about the only person in the room
keeping her cool. Angie looked a bit relieved to have her help. All her colleagues were doing were standing in the background looking apologetic. ‘The court may have suspicions, but they can
only go on what’s presented to them. Ollie isn’t the first kid to withdraw a statement, and he won’t be the last.’

I glanced at Sam. He looked as if he wanted to die. Catching my gaze, he said in a quiet voice, ‘I’ve put you all in danger.’

‘Don’t you dare say that.’ Phil looked like he was going to explode. ‘You did the right thing. It’s not your fault this Ollie kid’s a bloody weak-willed
coward!’

‘Hey!’ I was reeling from what had happened, but I wasn’t about to let Sam’s dad disrespect Ollie. ‘We don’t know why he changed his statement. They could
have got their mates to threaten him.’

Phil gave me a look. ‘Sorry, kiddo, but the coward comment stands. You and Sam have come under fire, but you’ve stood firm.’

I looked away. ‘So what’s happened to Ollie? Do we know his sentence?’

Out of the corner of my eyeIsaw Sam shift uncomfortably.

Angie nodded. ‘The good news from his point of view is that the video shows he took no part in the assault that resulted in the death of Hamdi Gul. He’s got off with a community
sentence. A long one, and he’ll be closely monitored by liaison officers, but I should imagine he’ll be counting his blessings. All the evidence points to him only being an accessory.
He admitted everything, showed remorse and the pre-sentence report testified to a good character. The youth-offending team also reported that he has a difficult family background, coming over here
as a refugee. These things all count.’

Someone murmured something about justice being served. Sam’s dad opened his mouth, probably to blast Ollie and the court some more, then closed it. Even he’d clocked that these
comments weren’t welcome. Sam must have tipped him off that Ollie had been my boyfriend.

So all that’s happened is that Ollie’s got a criminal record for life and the real rats walk free, I thought, realizing just how angry I was. All we’ve gone through, everything
we’ve risked – for this?

Josh and Dale McAllister would have walked by now. I bet they’d been laughing their heads off. They’d made a mockery of justice and knew it. Who would they hurt next?

‘Are we . . . ?’ Sam trailed off. Angie gave him an encouraging smile.

‘Ask me anything, Sam. I’m here for you.’

And that makes us all feel so much better. I rolled my eyes. I was rapidly losing respect for so-called support officers.

Sam said, ‘Are we going to get any kind of protection? I mean, we’re in a pretty bad position now. They might want payback.’

‘Josh and Dale have been acquitted. We can’t continue to treat them like suspects.’

‘Oh.’ Sam looked at his feet.

His dad slapped him on the shoulder. In a businesslike voice he said, ‘Looks like we’re done here, aren’t we? Best go home and batten down the hatches. It’s clear that no
one’s on our side here.’

This drama wasn’t helping. Thank goodness Mum was being sensible.

‘They’ll get done for something eventually,’ I whispered to Sam as we all left. ‘This isn’t the end.’

He gave me an unhappy look. It reminded me for a second of how anxious he’d been that night outside the chicken shop, when all this had begun.

‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘The question is whether they’ll get done before we do.’

TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER

Dad ranted the entire drive home, about the hearing, how easily scumbags could make a mockery of justice, how the system always fleeced off decent hard-working people like us.
I’d heard him say things like this before but only now did I actually understand what he meant. We were nearly home when his mobile rang. Seeing that it was one of the numbers we had saved
for the police, he told me to take the call.

‘They’re coming round in about an hour, to talk through how they can help us,’ I said.

‘Help us through the part where we live in fear because we dared to stand up for what’s right?’ Dad practically yelled. ‘Thank God we’re in a well-protected house.
I might seriously consider that US transfer.’

US transfer?
This was the first I’d heard of that, but what was the point of planning a future here with the McAllisters breathing down my neck? My imagination was full of the
horrible things they might do to me, and I couldn’t even tell myself I was being melodramatic. They’d tried to kill me already. You didn’t get worse than that.

When we got in Tamsin met us in the hall and Dad filled her in. Jessie ran down the stairs, tail wagging. I knelt down and buried my face in her warm neck, closing my eyes and trying to pretend
this wasn’t happening.

‘I’m calling my solicitor,’ Dad said, striding towards the room he used as an office. ‘And the press! Someone must be able to help.’

‘Let him burn off his rage,’ Tamsin said as the door slammed. She brushed the back of my head. ‘He’s not mad at you.’

I got up, letting Jessie go. In a small voice I said, ‘My worst nightmare was my life going back to how it was the week after I saw the attack. Not wanting to go outside, looking over my
shoulder. But that’s reality now.’

Tamsin folded her arms, looking pained. ‘It might not be that way, Sam . . .’

‘Life was finally getting better. It’s not fair.’ My voice was a whisper.

‘I know.’ Tamsin’s voice was wobbly too. Probably thinking of what this means for the baby, I thought, hoping that this would be over by the time my little brother or sister
came into the world. ‘But look at it this way: the case is done and dusted, and it can’t go to a retrial unless new evidence comes to light, so you and the others are no longer a threat
to these yobs. The only reason for them to come after you is revenge, and that’s more of a TV drama thing than something that happens in real life.’

I wasn’t so sure. ‘Seems like a pretty good reason to me.’

‘These boys know they got away with murder. They’ll be keeping their heads down – they won’t want to attract attention. At least, that’s what I’d do if I was
them.’ Tamsin gave me a reassuring look. Unfortunately her words were far from reassuring, though it was nice of her to try. Imogen had said that Josh and Dale McAllister had walked from
youth court three times before this. They wouldn’t see the police as any kind of threat now. Or anyone else, for that matter. I didn’t know how they’d got Ollie to change his
statement, but I was sure they had. When you could control what people said and did like that, you were never, ever going to get anything nailed on you.