The Whole Truth

‘Ah,’ says Ev. ‘I don’t imagine she took that very well, did she?’

‘No, she bloody well didn’t.’ There’s a harshness in her voice now. ‘She told him he ought to think very carefully because he had precisely three minutes to make a decision and it had better be the right one. She was his supervisor – she could make him or break him. She could get him stuck in some shithole for the rest of his career.’

She picks up her spoon again, starts drawing circles in the droplets of water on the tablecloth.

‘She was going on about how she could offer him so much more than I could. That I was just a stupid little girl who was not only an also-ran in the brains department but probably didn’t have a bloody clue when it came to sex either. Whereas she –’ She stops, takes a breath that buckles into a sob.

‘It’s OK,’ says Ev gently. ‘Take your time.’

She reaches for a napkin, wipes her eyes. ‘Anyway, I’d taken Tobin to the bloody film but we’d only been there about ten minutes when he started screaming the place down and I had to take him home.’

Ev shakes her head. ‘I think I know what’s coming next.’

She gives a fierce nod. ‘Right. I could tell what was going on the minute we came through the door. I mean, the bloody noise they were making.’ She tosses the spoon back down on the table with a clatter. ‘I told Tobin to go down to the kitchen and I went straight up there. And there she was. On top of him, naked, screwing him.’

Ev takes a breath. ‘What did you do?’

Zoe gives a contemptuous snort. ‘What do you think I did? I took a fucking picture, didn’t I.’

* * *

Oxford Mail online

Saturday 14 July 2018 Last updated at 18:12

BREAKING: Man arrested in murder of Headington woman

By Richard Yates

The Oxford Mail has learned that a 46-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder and suspected sexual assault of local Headington resident Emma Smith, 44, whose body was discovered in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Do you have information about this story? Email me at richard.yates@ox-mailnews.co.uk

* * *

‘And what happened then?’

‘I just walked out. Went back to my flat. Seb came round about half an hour later. He was in a terrible state.’

‘That’s when he told you that she’d coerced him?’

She nods. ‘He was crying – he knew what it must’ve looked like – he knew what I’d think.’

No shit, Sherlock, thinks Ev. I’d have had his balls for the barbecue.

‘But you believed him.’

‘Not to start with. But yeah. In the end.’

‘And that was the end of it?’

Zoe shakes her head slowly. ‘No, that was only the beginning. Later that week Seb has a supervision with her and she asks him when they’re going to “meet up” again. So he tells her no way – that it should never have happened –’

Ev sighs. ‘Let me guess.’

‘Right. She tried to persuade him but he kept saying no, and in the end he thought she’d backed off.’

Ev waits.

She swallows. ‘Two days after that I got a phone call. From her.’

‘What did she say?’

The girl’s gone very pale. ‘That Tobin had been having nightmares, and when she talked to him about it he told her that I’d been grooming him. He didn’t use that word but that’s what she meant. Grooming him.’ She’s shaking her head. ‘He was six, for fuck’s sake. If it wasn’t so horrific it’d be totally hilarious.’

But Ev isn’t laughing. ‘She must have had some evidence to make an accusation like that.’

‘She had nothing,’ she says, shrill now – so shrill that a couple of other customers turn and look at them. ‘She claimed I’d been having an “inappropriate” relationship with him – that I’d been showing him “unsuitable material” on TV behind her back – it was David fucking Attenborough, for Christ’s sake, when I was looking after her kid when she couldn’t be fucking bothered –’

She must realize that people are staring, because she drops her voice. Her cheeks are flushed now and there’s a red stain reaching up her neck like a rash. She takes a deep breath, and then another. ‘I realized there was absolutely nothing I could do – it would just be her word against mine.’

Here we go again, thinks Ev. Only now it’s she said/she said.

‘She could say anything she liked, accuse me of the most vile and horrible things, because Tobin would say exactly what she told him to. He used to trail around after her like some sort of lovesick puppy. He’d do anything, just to please her.’

‘I suspect,’ says Ev, ‘that she was getting her defence in first. A pre-emptive move – just in case Sebastian decided to make a complaint against her.’