‘Deformed?’ asked Ed, scribbling furiously in his notebook.
‘Deformed physically and mentally. It wasn’t normal at all.’
‘If a child doesn’t get any mental or emotional stimulation and is kept physically bound, it won’t develop normally. Surely you must see that?’
I’d spoken without thinking and Ed put his hand on my arm.
‘Let’s not forget, Anne, we’re here to find out information to help us help Laurie, not to make judgements.’
I felt my cheeks flame.
‘When did Peter start physically assaulting the boy?’ Ed asked.
‘Assault? That’s not what it was. You have to understand this wasn’t a normal child. You couldn’t deal with it like you would a normal child. It didn’t understand that sort of dialogue. It responded only to physical stimuli. Food . . . pain . . . it was that way from the time it first opened its eyes.’
‘So Laurie grew up knowing only that there was this sub-human thing in the basement?’
‘Pete thought it was important that she was exposed to it very early – so she wouldn’t be fazed by it. So as soon as she could walk, he’d take her down there to feed it. And he taught her how to discipline it if it got out of hand. It’s like those kids who grow up in houses where the parents speak different languages and turn out bilingual. If they’re exposed to something at an early enough age, they absorb it naturally and it becomes just something normal. No big deal.’
‘So he thought there was less chance of her talking to other people about it if it was just something run of the mill.’
Noelle nodded at Ed, as if she was pleased to be understood. Like we were agreeing with her or something.
‘So from early on, she was feeding and disciplining her brother. Did she enjoy that?’
Noelle frowned.
‘No. I wouldn’t say she enjoyed it. It’s like it was a household chore – you know, that she had to do, like scraping her plate into the trash or emptying out the kitty litter tray, if we had a cat. She put up with it.’
‘But she must have asked you why he was down there?’
‘Not really. She just accepted that it was bad. And that’s why it was down there and she wasn’t. She had a really good life, you know. We gave her everything, we took her everywhere. Pete doted on that girl. She knew we were good people, so she accepted what we told her without question, especially Pete. She’d have done anything he told her to.’
She paused. Then out of the blue: ‘How is she? How’s my baby?’
I started. It was the first time Noelle had shown any curiosity about her daughter. I stared at her, trying to work out if her concern was genuine or put on for our benefit, as if she had just remembered how a normal mother would act.
‘She needs me, you know.’ Noelle’s hitherto emotionless voice now rose to a high, almost squeaky pitch. ‘It’s wrong to separate young children from their parents. You will tell them that, won’t you? When you make your recommendations? You will explain that a child needs its mom?’
25
Paula
Sarah, pregnant again? Oh, she couldn’t be, she just couldn’t. Not when she’d only been back at work less than a year.
Paula vividly remembered what a nightmare it had been trying to cover for her while she’d been gone having Joe. The original replacement had left after only four months and then there’d been a succession of temporary placements each more useless than the last, meaning they’d all had to shoulder a lot more than their normal workload until finally Sarah returned, having taken her full year’s maternity entitlement. And two years before that, she’d had another year off to have Sam. Paula didn’t begrudge any woman having a family. But the thought of going through all that disruption again set her nerves crawling. And just when they were trying to prove that the department didn’t need shaking up. Paula had always liked Sarah, always considered them to be friends – so why hadn’t she come to her first instead of blurting it out so publicly?
‘Rachel, I take it you didn’t know about this?’ As they gathered around the base of the climbing tower on the first day of the team-bonding weekend, Mark Hamilton turned to face his most recent employee.
Rachel shook her head. Her face was flushed red, and Paula could tell from the twitching muscle at the side of her mouth that she must be biting down on her back teeth. This bombshell was not going to make her look good in front of her boss. In spite of Paula’s own frustration at the news, she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of satisfaction when she observed Rachel’s discomfort. It was the first time she’d seen her boss this nonplussed. It made her seem more human.