The Outcast Dead(11)

And Ruth realises that Frank is holding her red scarf, like the favour of some fallen knight.





CHAPTER 10


Ruth stands frozen to the spot. You, she says at last.

The man, Frank Barker, is looking equally stunned. He glances down at the scarf and then back to Ruth as if wondering how the two came to be in the same room.

My God, he says. It was you  …

Phil, who has been looking rather put-out (he doesnt approve of tension unless he is the cause of it), says suddenly, Oh I see! Ruth  –  you were the woman driver. Thats priceless.

It was entirely my fault, says Frank.

Sue him, Ruth, says the woman, who has remained seated, her face impassive. Sue him for every penny hes got.

Its no big deal, says Ruth, sitting down at the conference table. Im sorry Im late.

You had to drop your daughter off, says Frank. How is she?

Fine, says Ruth shortly. She doesnt like the way that Phil is still chuckling and the woman (what was her name? Danielle something) is still staring at her.
 
 

 

Here, Frank pulls out a chair. Sit down. Ill get you some coffee. Ruth sees a cafetiere and real china cups laid out on a tray. Phil must have brought them from home. The university only runs to plastic cups from a vending machine. There are biscuits too.

Are you sure you havent got whiplash? says Phil. You can make a mint out of whiplash claims.

Just another way for lawyers to get rich, says the woman, leaning forward to fill up her cup.

I havent got whiplash, says Ruth, through gritted teeth. Im fine. Its no big deal. Shall we get on with the meeting?

Good idea, says Phil. Now that the two experts have bumped into each other, ha ha.

Ruth is pleased to see that no-one else laughs. The woman, who turns out to be the producer, hands out glossy information packs showing a shadowy figure of a woman brandishing a knife.

This is the franchise, she says briskly. Her voice is an odd mixture of transatlantic drawl and upper-class English. Women Who Kill is a series about notorious woman murderers. It tends to be a bit sensationalist. Corinna Lewis presents it and shes not exactly one for subtlety, but Ive been called in to do this one and I want it to be a bit different, more accurate historically. Thats why I want to involve Frank here.

So not too many close-ups of the famous hook, laughs Phil. No screams in the night.

No, says the woman, deadpan. None of that. The thing is, weve got a different angle.

What Dani is saying, Frank leans forward, is that weve got some pretty compelling evidence that Jemima Green may have been innocent.

Mother Hook innocent? exclaims Phil. Youre kidding! What about all that Dont cry little darling stuff?

A myth has grown up around her, says Frank, but thats all it is. There was never really any evidence against her.

I thought she killed all those children and gave their bodies to the grave robbers?

She obviously knew the Resurrection Men, says Frank, and Ruth thinks that hes choosing his words carefully, but theres no evidence of any murders. Some of her charges did die but then infant mortality was high.

She was convicted of one murder, says Dani. Joshua Barnet, the child of a single mother, died in Jemimas care. The mother, Anna Barnet, accused Jemima of murder and the court believed her.

She couldnt produce the body, said Frank. That counted against her.

I bet it did, thinks Ruth. Aloud she says, So this programme is going to be an exoneration of Jemima Green?

Dani and Frank exchange glances. Its not quite that simple, says Dani at last. Ruth finds the producer rather intimidating. Shes a small woman with close-cropped black hair and precise bird-like movements, who gives the impression of knowing exactly what shes doing. Phil is completely mesmerised.

Frank has his theories, Dani is saying, but weve no evidence one way or another. The trouble is that the producers are wanting to make a very different sort of programme  –  this hook-handed monster, this evil woman. You know the sort of thing.

Phil, who has been saying this sort of thing ever since they found the bones, says, in a shocked voice, God, I hate all that sensationalism.

Me too, Phil, says Dani. Phil looks smug. But well have to put a bit in because thats what this series is all about. What I hope is that Frank  –  and Ruth here  –  can balance it with some hard-headed fact.

If theres anything about the bones themselves, says Frank, looking at Ruth, that gives us a more rounded view of Jemima, that would be a real boost.

Ruth notices that Frank, like so many other academics before him, is now on first-name terms with his subject. She also sees that Phil is dying to be included amongst the hard-headed experts.

Bones can tell us a certain amount, she says cautiously. Age, health, diet, that sort of thing. Generally speaking, bones cant always tell you how someone died but they can tell you how someone lived.

Phil looks rather irritated. Bones can tell us a bit more than that, Ruth. Tell them about the case up in Lancashire.

No, Dani interrupts him. Thats just the sort of thing that wed like to hear Ruth say on camera. Theres too much guesswork in documentaries these days.

We could get a facial reconstruction, says Phil. Theyre always good. Pricey though, but if the TV companys paying  …

Dani grimaces slightly. We havent got a massive budget, Im afraid. Anyway, thats the sort of thing I want to avoid. Id rather hear a few sober facts from Ruth.

Ruth tries to look suitably sober. She can sense Phils frustration from across the table. He had been so sure that his particular brand of charm would be perfect for TV but it turns out that theyre looking for dull professionalism instead.

Id love to have a look at the place where you found the bones, says Frank. Is that possible?

Yes, says Ruth. Ill take you, if you like. Its about an hours drive away.

We can go in my car if its easier, says Frank.

No thanks, says Ruth. Id rather get there in one piece.



Jesus, when you came into the room I thought youd come to arrest me.

I thought I was seeing things. And when you held up my scarf  …

Ruth is cutting her way through the mid-morning traffic. Frank sits beside her, completely relaxed, long legs folded into the tiny car. Its funny, thinks Ruth, its as if theyve skipped several stages in the getting-to-know-you process (a process which, for Ruth, can take several years). Now she finds herself laughing with Frank about their first meeting, even teasing him gently when she asks how an American has ended up as an expert on Victorian murderesses.

Im not an expert exactly but the Victorians fascinate me. They werent nearly as buttoned up as people think. I mean it was the age of Freud and Marx as well as the age of Dickens. There was Strauss telling them that the Bible wasnt true, Darwin saying they were descended from apes, theres a new middle class taking over, and the Queen goes into mourning and never comes out again. Its no wonder they were all a bit mad.

What about Jemima Green? Was she mad?

I dont think so, says Frank seriously. She wrote a diary almost up to the moment of her execution and its very lucid, not the work of a madwoman at all.

She kept a diary? Ruth thinks of her scorn when Mark mentioned a diary. Clearly the TV man had better instincts than her.

Yes, its very interesting. Ive done quite a bit of research on Jemima Green. Shall I tell you about it?

OK, says Ruth. Itll take my mind off crashing. Despite her earlier protestations she is finding driving slightly stressful.

Well, Jemima was born in Saxlingham Thorpe, not far from Norwich. She was the youngest of nine children so I suppose money was tight, but she did go to school and could read and write. Her diarys very well written and there are poems too. She trained as a nurse and worked in a mental hospital for a while. Then she lost her hand in a farming accident. Her father was a farmer and she was probably helping him with the harvest. There was a lot of new farming machinery at the time and accidents were common. Anyway, Jemima must have been desperate. She was twenty-nine, unmarried, she had to find some way to make a living.
 
 

 

So she became a baby farmer.

Yes, she took in unwanted babies. A sort of childminder.

Ruth thinks of Sandra and shivers. But Sandra is a highly trained professional, a mother of three, not some nightmare Victorian hag. Nevertheless she has to stop herself looking round at Kates baby seat. Only a few hours before she can see her again.

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment meant that fathers didnt have to provide for their illegitimate children, Frank continues, so there would have been no shortage of desperate women knocking on Jemimas door. Jemima took in the babies and then arranged for them to be adopted.

Except she didnt, did she? She killed them instead.

We know she arranged for some to be adopted. She kept quite meticulous records. There were a few cases at the time of baby farmers deliberately letting their charges die from neglect but there doesnt seem to have been any record of this with Jemima. All the witnesses testified that the children in her care were clean and well-fed. Like I said, there were some deaths but then infant mortality was high. When she came to trial there were stories of her killing hundreds of babies, but theres no evidence for any of this.

What about the baby she was accused of killing?

Joshua Barnet. He was the child of a governess, a respectable woman by all accounts. She handed him over to Jemima when he was just a few weeks old. The mother, Anna Barnet, seems to have kept in regular contact. Maybe she hoped to be able to reclaim him. Anyway, Joshua was never given up for adoption. When he was about a year old, Anna Barnet arrived to visit her son. She was told that he had died but Jemima Green wasnt able to produce his body. Anna was frantic, as you can imagine. She persuaded the police to search Jemimas house, which took some doing as the police werent particularly interested in foundling children. In fact, the police force as we know it had only just been formed. Anyway, the police found opium and blood-stained baby clothes and, most suspicious of all, something called The Book of Dead Babies.