Chapter Twelve

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Adrian:

“I think we should hear Pearl out.” I say, gripping to the small, red diary to stop myself from collapsing.

Cathie splutters a protest and I keep my eyes trained on the floor trying to calm myself. Eventually I let out a long breath and look up at the twins, “Because she knows who the murderer is, she's always known.”

I stare at Pearl, her eyes showing a mixture of pure emotion, a type of pain that I thought someone as cold as her would never feel.

After a long silence Cathie speaks up, her voice sounding forcefully calm, “So talk.”

Pearl breaks our eye contact and stares at the floor, her voice sounding weak, “It all started about a year ago.” She pauses, biting her lip as a tear slides down her face, “I got a job, Cathie, at a night club. I was only supposed to serve but then I started doing a bit of dancing and it kind of escalated until I began… I began stripping.”

I look towards Cathie to see her reaction, she stares ahead, her eyes filled with a look of shock, “I never meant to, I just couldn’t stop.” Pearl cries, grabbing Cathie by her shoulders, “Cathie, you’ve got to understand. I felt so loved.”

Cathie looks at Pearl for a long time before gently removing Pearl’s hands from her shoulders, “I think we should go to the living room.” Cathie says, leading Pearl by the wrist. I follow them and watch as they sit down next to each other, Cathie comforting her distraught sister. As Pearl begins to calm down, Cathie speaks up, a gentleness in her voice, as though she’s talking to a very young child, “Now, can you tell us who the murderer is?”

Pearl nods, “I can.” She wipes her eyes then lets out a choked laugh, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be crying. I’ll get back to the story. Basically, I was… dancing one night when Josh turned up. I don’t know what he was doing there but he saw me whilst I was dancing and we ended up sleeping together.” Pearl says matter-of-factly, Cathie doesn’t react, “We kept meeting up, he said he was in love with and I honestly believed him. I thought I was in love with him too. He said he was going to break up with Murphy, he never did, he just kept thinking of excuse after excuse.”

Cathie stares at Pearl, her hands clasped tightly together in her lap, “I understand that this is really hard for you to say and that you really need to tell someone. But how does it link in with Annabelle’s murder?”

Sighing, Pearl continues her story, “Annabelle found out that I was, at that time, in love with Josh. It was around the time when we had a massive falling out, I know I was absolutely horrible to her but what she did was so nasty. She started hanging around with you,” She glances towards me, “and Josh and Murphy. At first I thought it was just because she didn’t want to hang out with me but then it hit me, she was trying to steal Josh. At first I ignored it, thinking that Josh would ignore her advances; I was stupid, no one ignores Annabelle.”

My stomach twists up as I imagine Belle with Josh. My Belle was never really mine.

“So Josh was with you and Annabelle and he managed to keep it hidden from Murphy?” Cathie asks, her voice incredulous.

“Not for long.” Pearl says, “She walked in on Josh and Annabelle and completely flipped. Annabelle managed to get me in on it as well, she told Murphy everything that Josh had told her; about me dancing and Josh and me getting together. Lets just say Murphy wasn’t to happy. Murphy came over and had a scream at me but I told her I was completely over Josh, I had been since he got together with Annabelle. I don’t know why but it calmed Murphy down, maybe she thought we were in a similar situation, we had both been played.

“Murphy was absolutely furious at both Annabelle and Josh for a long time, she kept it inside though. Josh managed to convince her that it was over between him and Annabelle, that he would always choose Murphy over Annabelle, she believed him.” Pearl stops, tears welling up in her eyes.

“He sounds horrible!” Cathie cries out, “Why would she ever believe him?”

“Because sometimes we only believe what we want to believe, especially when love’s involved.” Pearl whispers.

I walk over to Pearl and kneel in front of her, “Are you okay?” Pearl nods but I shake my head, “I think you should go upstairs, have a nap, calm yourself down.”

Pearl looks as though she’s about to argue when Cathie steps in and takes hold of Pearl’s arm, “Yeah, we can talk more when you wake up.” She smiles faintly, “Do you want me to walk you upstairs?”

Pearl nods slightly, “Okay.” She replies, allowing Cathie to gently tug her from the room.

I take Pearl’s seat and stare silently ahead, trying to think of how to explain the next part of the mystery to Cathie. I didn’t want Pearl to be here for when we speak about Annabelle’s murderer and the reasons behind her relationship with me.

“So.” I look round to see Cathie standing at the door, “How did you know all of this?” She asks, slipping onto the seat next to me.

“Once you left, I began looking through the diary again. There was a pocket at the back with another five or so pages ripped from the diary and hidden in the pocket.”

“Why would she do that?” Cathie asks, lines of confusion stretching across her face.

“I don’t know, I really don’t understand Annabelle’s actions.” I say without emotion.

Cathie slips her hand on top of mine and squeezes lightly, “How are you? It must be hard knowing about… y’know Josh.”

I ignore the slight tingle that Cathie’s hand sends through my skin and move away towards the window, “You didn’t hear the end of the story. Annabelle only used me to show Murphy that she could stay away from Josh.” I say slowly, trying to ignore the pain in my stomach. “But she couldn’t stay away from Josh, I don’t know what it is he has but everyone seems to be in love with him. She went back to him, that’s when we broke up. I remember she said that she couldn’t hurt me anymore, at the time I had no idea what she was talking about, but now I see it.” I finish.

“Adrian.” Cathie murmurs, moving over to me. I flinch slightly as I feel her arms slide around me but I don’t move away; I haven’t been comforted in far too long. After a long silence Cathie whispers, “Adrian, how do you know Pearl isn’t the murderer? After listening to the whole story it still sounds like she could be the main suspect.”

“It’s in here.” I say, loosening my grip slightly on the red diary and handing it over to Cathie.

Cathie gives me a strange, scared look for a second before opening the diary at the back, she slips the hidden sheets out into her hands quickly skim reading them before coming to the last sheet and reading it aloud, “Must remember, meeting Murphy at the park at 11. Don’t know why she wants to meet up so late, she said something about a prank… she’s weird but I better go, she already doesn’t like me, no need to add ammunition to an already lit flame.” Cathie stares silently at the paper before she croaks out, “It was Murphy.”

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