Find Them Dead

59 Wednesday 15 May

Meg sat down at the kitchen table, unsteady. Had those bastards tampered with the zip wire? And if so, what else could they tamper with?

Poor, poor Cassie.

The next video I send you might not have such a happy outcome for Laura, if you get my drift.

Bastards. Bastards. But what should she do? What could she do? What if that had been Laura?

Until the zip wire, she had seriously been considering calling the man’s bluff and sending a note to the judge. Now she didn’t dare. How could she get Laura out of danger? How could she persuade her to come home? But would even that take her out of danger?

She wondered, momentarily, if she should tell Cassie’s parents what was going on. They would go crazy if they knew. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t tell anyone; she did not dare.

She dialled Laura and heard the flat monotone of the overseas dialling tone. To her relief, she answered after just three rings.

‘Hey, Mum!’

Meg thought she could detect the stress in her voice. But she couldn’t let on she knew what had happened. ‘Darling, how did it go? Did you do the zip-wire thing — was it fun?’

She felt the hesitation in her daughter’s voice, desperately wanting to reach out to her but acutely aware her conversation was almost certainly being monitored.

‘Actually, Mum, it was a bit shit.’

‘Oh?’

Laura recited what had happened. Meg gave no indication that she already knew.

‘God, how is Cassie?’ Meg asked, desperately.

‘Yeah, she’s OK — she was pretty freaked out — they’ve given her something for shock and she’s asleep. They want to keep her here in hospital until tomorrow.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘They’re cool with me staying with her here — in the room. Sorry I hadn’t messaged you yet, it’s all been a bit crazy.’

Meg desperately wanted to scream at her daughter, ‘Come home! Come home now!’ Instead she said, meekly, ‘OK, my angel, that’s so good of you to be so caring.’

‘She would do the same for me.’

God, Meg thought, please don’t let that be necessary.

‘If anything else happens, anything at all, ring me day or night, and don’t forget to keep an eye on your drinks when you are out.’

Ending the call, with Laura promising to message her in the morning with how Cassie was, Meg decided to watch Twelve Angry Men again. It was about the trial of a young black man accused of murdering his father. The evidence was compelling, especially to an all-white male jury back in 1957. One of the things that had resonated with her was a juror who reminded her of Gwen’s protestations that she did not want to miss Royal Ascot. He was wanting a quick ‘guilty’ verdict, because he had tickets to a major baseball game.

Meg made herself some supper, then settled down in front of the television with a tray and a notebook and pen. As the film progressed, she repeatedly stopped it and noted down the arguments the actor, Henry Fonda, used to change the minds of one after another of the jury, until he had them all finally convinced.

She fell asleep as the end credits rolled.