“How was your relationship with your daughter during this time?” he said.
After a slight pause she replied, but this time she looked firmly down at her hands the whole time. “It was difficult. I guess part of me blamed her for the fact that she was still alive while my husband was dead. Emily was an accident you see. I wanted an abortion, but my husband begged me to keep her. I guess I resented the fact that he was gone and I’d been left to raise her alone.”
“I see. And it was during this time that you met Mr. Thomas?” he added.
“Yes,” she added, looking briefly at Frank. “When my husband was alive, I worked part-time as an administrative assistant in the probationary office, with Frank. We didn’t really speak much but then I saw him at a family barbecue. The office staff had organized it for some fundraiser. We got talking and then went for lunch on the next Monday morning. We remained friends until after my husband had passed away.”
“And at this family barbecue where he first noticed you, tell me, were your husband and daughter with you?”
“Yes, but they didn’t meet Frank. Well, Emily did. She was with me, but my husband was helping out with the barbecue.”
“And do you recall whether Frank spoke to Emily during this meeting?”
She looked quickly at Frank. “Yes, but he was very nice to her. He told her that her dress was lovely. That she was very pretty. She liked him. We both did,” she added defensively, looking up at the barrister.
“And Emily would have been around nine or ten at the time?”
“Nine,” she answered suspiciously. “What are you suggesting?”
The barrister held his chin and shook his head. “I’m merely suggesting that Frank paid very little attention to you before he saw Emily. It may be that he formed an attachment to her and used you as an opportunity to get closer to her.”
“Objection!” the defense barrister called out.
“Sustained,” the judge answered. “And please do try and refrain from making wild conjectures in my courtroom. Let’s try to stick with the facts of the case.”
“Yes, your honor,” the barrister agreed respectfully.
“How did Emily react to your marrying another man so closely following the death of her father?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t discuss it,” she answered without feeling. “I thought she would be pleased. Frank really did love her. He tried very hard to be a good father.”
“In what way?” the barrister asked.
“He was always buying her gifts and lots of pretty dresses. When he wasn’t at work he spent every minute he could with her.”
“And you were resentful of all the attention and affection that he lavished on her?”
She swallowed and looked down again. “Of course not. She was a young girl without a father. It was only natural that she’d need him as much as I did.” It was the most unconvincing answer she’d given so far. We might not have any physical evidence, but the barrister was doing a pretty good job of painting Frank as some sick pedophile who’d targeted her mum as a way to get to Em. It made me sick to my stomach to imagine how it played out.
“And in the years following your marriage to Mr. Thomas, did you ever see him hit or punish your daughter in any way?” She looked down again. Surely I wasn’t the only one seeing that this was what she did when she was lying. “He disciplined her. As she grew up, she became more willful and disobedient. I wasn’t equipped to deal with a teenager so Frank handled it.” Frank’s face twisted ever so slightly, and it was clear he wasn’t happy with how she’d phrased that.
“In what way did Frank discipline Emily?” The barrister asked. She swallowed again, and I clenched and unclenched my hands to stop me calling her out on all these fucking lies.
“He would ground her mostly. Confiscate things if she was really bad. Send her to her room. The usual way of punishing teenagers, I guess,” she replied so quietly I had trouble hearing her.
“Let me be clear then. You are telling the court that at no point did you ever see or hear Frank strike or beat Emily. I would remind you that you’re under oath,” he pressed her.
She shook her head.
“Please state your answer to the court,” the judge directed her.
“No, I never saw or heard him beat or strike her.”
“And the night of the alleged rape. What is your account of what happened?”
She looked briefly toward Frank, and he gave her a tiny nod. You’d miss it if you weren’t looking.
“We’d had a disagreement. She wanted to go out to a party. We didn’t want her wandering around at that time of night, so Frank offered to drive her there and pick her up. We argued about a curfew. She hadn’t even turned eighteen yet, and we felt that midnight was a reasonable hour to be home. She didn’t agree and argued with us. I don’t remember exactly what was said but eventually she walked out, still in her school uniform, and slammed the door behind her.”
“What happened then?”
“Frank wanted to go after her but I convinced him to let her calm down. She came home a couple of hours later, and her uniform was all torn up. Her face was bruised and beaten but she wouldn’t tell us what happened. She just kept screaming at Frank that it was all his fault. If he hadn’t been laying down the law, it would never have happened. She was yelling that she wanted to go back to when it was just me and her. Frank went over to try and calm her down and she scratched his face like a wildcat. One of the neighbors must have heard her and called the police. When they turned up and saw the state of Frank’s face, they took him in for questioning.”
“Well, that is a very elaborate story, Mrs. Thomas,” the barrister responded. “I understand that following the rape you were estranged from your daughter, is that right?”
“Yes. Not by choice, but yes.”
She spoke softly, and it was really beginning to piss me off. If you’re going to stab someone in the back, do it with conviction.
“May I ask then how you knew anything about Emily’s life after leaving your house?”
“We understood that she wanted some space so we left her alone but my husband hired a private investigator.”
“And you didn’t think that was a breach of her privacy at all?”