The Whole Truth

A sigh. Or perhaps it’s just more interference. ‘I’m sorry, darling, something’s come up here. I can’t get to see the senator until Friday. But I’ve managed to get some other meetings in, and given it’s the recess, there’s no need to rush back.’

His turn to sigh. Clearly he doesn’t qualify as a ‘need’.

‘Have you spoken to your father?’

He rolls his eyes. ‘No. They’re still in Sydney. You know that.’

‘No need to take that tone,’ she says crisply. ‘At least I’m trying to do something. No doubt he’s too busy being hipster dad to have time to support his firstborn.’

He bites his tongue. His mother is no less absent than his father, it’s just a different sort of distance. But he knows from experience there’s no point saying so.

‘Now,’ she says, ‘I’ve spoken to Meredith – talked her through the whole thing – and they’re going to call you, OK?’

And now he feels like a shit, because she has, for once, actually done something. ‘Thanks, Mum. Appreciate it.’

‘Only the best for you, my darling,’ she says, with more than a whiff of singed martyr. ‘You’ll be in good hands – Meredith has a ton of experience in cases like this. So just do whatever she tells you, OK? And don’t let yourself be bullied, either. Far too many victims back down because the police and CPS make it too damn ghastly to carry on.’

He smiles quietly. ‘Don’t worry about me, Mum. I’ve got it covered.’

* * *

Freya Hughes is hostile even before the door is fully open. ‘What’s this about? I’ve already told you everything I know.’

Ev gives a heavy sigh. ‘No you haven’t, and you know it. So are you going to let me in or would you prefer to do this at St Aldate’s? Either’s fine by me.’

Hughes’ eyes widen for a moment, then she releases her grip on the door.

Ev follows her inside and Hughes turns to face her, folding her arms.

‘When I was here earlier, I asked you about Marina Fisher and you said, “I don’t know her.”’

She frowns.

‘But you do, don’t you? You certainly know where she lives. You were seen there on Friday night.’

She looks guarded, clearly unsure quite how much Ev knows. ‘So?’

‘So you never said anything about it. Why not?’

Hughes shrugs. ‘It wasn’t any of your business. It still isn’t.’

‘Oh, I think it is, don’t you?’ says Ev wearily. ‘Your boyfriend makes an allegation of assault, and you don’t mention that you were round there only two hours before, rowing in the street.’

‘It wasn’t rowing –’

‘Well, pick your own word, but whatever it was, it was serious enough for a member of the public to call 101 and report it.’

Hughes turns away. ‘I was just annoyed, that’s all. We were supposed to go out that night but then Caleb cancelled at the last minute so he could do her bloody babysitting.’

‘You were jealous.’

‘Yeah, I was jealous,’ she says acidly. ‘Happy now?’

‘So you turned up with a bottle of wine, thinking you could still spend some time together? But I’m guessing he wasn’t expecting you.’

She looks sulky. ‘It was supposed to be a surprise, wasn’t it.’

‘But he wouldn’t let you in.’

Her expression hardens. ‘He said he was working. That he didn’t want to be disturbed. Even by me.’

‘Especially as you were rather drunk already.’

There’s a silence. Then Hughes sits down heavily on the window seat.

‘OK,’ she says, ‘I’d had a few with my mates before I got there. But I wasn’t drunk.’

‘But he still didn’t want you in the house.’

She looks away. ‘He said I might wake up Tobin. That Marina wouldn’t like it.’ Her sarcasm is venomous.

‘And he pushed you away. Quite hard, from what the 101 caller said.’

Her eyes narrow and she’s suddenly wary. ‘Well, they’re wrong. He never touched me.’

‘The caller was pretty sure. And she had no reason to lie.’

Even if you do. The unspoken words echo in the room.

‘Like I said,’ she says. ‘It never happened.’

Ev breathes an inward sigh. How many times has she heard women say this? Women who’ve ‘fallen down the stairs’, ‘walked into a door’.

‘You do know that would be common assault, don’t you? Pushing someone like that?’

‘Oh, please.’

‘I’m serious. Just because you’re clever and educated and well off, doesn’t mean you can’t be a victim. Domestic violence can happen to anyone. And it often starts just like this – with things that seem trivial, only then there’s a next time, and a next –’

‘Are you thick or something? There won’t be a next time, because there wasn’t a first time.’

Ev makes a note, and takes her time doing it.

‘So you smashed the bottle you’d brought and stormed off.’

Hughes’ gaze flickers away, but she says nothing. This, at least, she can’t deny.

‘And then later that same night, he’s on your doorstep, telling you he’s been assaulted. By the same woman you’d been jealous of for months and whose house you weren’t even allowed into only a few hours before. How did that feel?’

Hughes flushes. ‘It wasn’t like that.’

‘What was it like then?’

‘He needed someone to talk to – he wasn’t thinking straight.’

‘And you advised him to report her?’