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And when I think back to it now, later that evening actually counted for as good as it got in the life I was living then. I know that sounds strange, but when I remember myself, it’s as if there’d been a knife sawing away at whatever cord had tethered me to the ground, and now that cord was holding me by one thin, final filament.
We sat down together and ate the spaghetti bolognese. I was looking down at the three of us, from the ceiling or something, that’s how it felt. Like I was at the table and at the same time I was floating above. Katie was telling us about a stage-make-up shoot that she’d done in Sefton Park, how she’d learned to do the plaits this afternoon and that she’d done some on Thea as well. She seemed less angry, less ready to roll her eyes or say something cutting. Mark was quiet but he did smile a couple of times, he did ask Katie about her YouTube channel. Did I speak? I don’t know. Katie was up to 3,000 subscribers and had over 2,000 followers on Instagram, a separate account she’d set up under @KatieMakeUp. I didn’t really get it but I supposed the point was that she did.
And I watched us: my husband and my daughter and myself, eating the meal that I’d made, wearing the clothes that I’d washed in the kitchen that I’d cleaned more times than I can bear to calculate. I wasn’t part of them anymore. But at the same time, I was still attached, if that makes sense, by a long cord or something. Floating away. But tethered – just, only just.
‘And afterwards?’ Blue Eyes looks up from her notepad.
‘Afterwards, nothing. I tidied up. I filled the dishwasher. I hung up the laundry load that I’d put on to wash before I’d gone to my dad’s. The glass world I was carrying was heavy but I was still carrying it, yes, I was still carrying it then. Until the next morning. The next morning I dropped everything, of course.’
38
Mark
Transcript of recorded interview with Mark Edwards (excerpt)
Also present: DI Heather Scott, PC Marilyn Button
HS: Can you tell us where you were on Thursday the twenty-sixth of September, the night of Anne-Marie Golightly’s murder?
ME: I went to the pub for a couple then I came home. That’s it. You can ask Roy Briars. He was with me.
HS: And can you tell me what time you returned?
ME: It would have been about half past nine.
HS: Can anyone corroborate that?
ME: Don’t know. I’m not sure if Katie was in or out. She’s usually in her room.
HS: And your wife returned later that evening?
ME: Later, yes. She said the aerobics class or whatever it was finished at nine, but she didn’t get back till after ten. I was surprised she wasn’t back, to be honest. I was watching telly but I heard the front door, heard her feet on the stairs. Then the boiler fired up so she must have had a shower, then she must have got into bed because I didn’t hear her come down.
HS: So you didn’t see her that evening?
ME: No.
HS: And what about the next morning? Did you notice anything unusual?
ME: She seemed happier. I suppose that was unusual. She was a bit more like her old self. Chatty, like. She said she’d met this woman and that they’d got on like a house on fire and she was looking forward to the next week. It seemed to have given her a lift, like. I didn’t know who she meant, obviously, but I suppose that was that Golightly woman, wasn’t it? The one she…
HS: (Pause) Mr Edwards, I know this is hard, but can you tell us what happened on the Friday evening, how she seemed?
ME: She went to see her dad. She got back later than she said she would. She looked tired. But we ate with Katie and she seemed… OK. A bit spaced out, but OK.
HS: And you had spent the afternoon with Lisa Baxter, is that correct?
ME: Not the afternoon, no. She’d called round to see me for half an hour after work.
HS: And why was that?
ME: We were worried about Rach. Lisa thought we should call the emergency services but I said I’d talk to her. I was planning to talk to her that weekend about getting help.
HS: And the next day? Saturday?
ME: On the Saturday, I could hear her getting ready to go to work but I stayed in bed. I suppose we were avoiding each other.
HS: And did you have any contact with your wife that day?
