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Back False Witness Save as PDF
Chapters (100)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
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  18. 15
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  20. 17
  21. 18
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  29. 26
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  40. 37
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  42. 39
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  44. 41
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  47. 44
  48. 45
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  50. 47
  51. 48
  52. 49
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  55. 52
  56. 53
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  70. 67
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  75. 72
  76. 73
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  80. 77
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  84. 81
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  88. 85
  89. 86
  90. 87
  91. 88
  92. 89
  93. 90
  94. 91
  95. 92
  96. Acknowledgements
  97. DEAD GUILTY
  98. 1
  99. FALSE WITNESS
  100. Also by Michelle Davies

She did tell her parents but they were too caught up in their own problems to appreciate how bad it was. Her mum, Ruth, had gone back to work full time after Julia started school but her dad, Malcolm, wasn’t happy about the long hours she worked. At one point they even separated and her mum went to stay with her sister for a bit. Then one day, just as suddenly, she came back.

Twenty minutes later the three of them headed back down the high street in the direction of the police station. They’d just drawn level with the taxi rank when the sound of someone yelling made them turn round.

‘How have you got the nerve to show your faces in public?’

Marching across the road towards them, her face contorted by a look of disgust, was a mum Julia recognized from drop-offs. She was one of the scarier-looking ones to frequent the playground, with an abundance of tattoos, dyed purple hair and a ripe vocabulary that needed moderating around children but never was. Neither of her children was in the same class or year as Poppy or Dylan, and Julia had never exchanged so much as a ‘hello’ with her.

‘She should be locked up!’ the mum yelled, pointing at Poppy.

Julia was horrified. ‘Don’t say that, she’s done nothing wrong.’

‘She killed that poor little lad. Everyone knows it.’

Julia went to say something but Ewan got there first. Purpling with anger, he strode over to where the woman was and stood so close they were toe to toe.

‘Don’t you dare say that about my child.’

‘Why? I’m only saying what’s true,’ the woman spat.

Every muscle in Julia’s body was primed to run away from the confrontation.

‘Come on, Ewan, let’s go.’

He shot her a look of disgust. ‘Just because you’re too weak to stand up for our daughter.’

Tears pricked Julia’s eyes. Why did he always have to make her feel like such a failure?

He turned back to the woman. ‘You say one more lie about my daughter and I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.’

He said it in such a blithe, matter-of-fact way that the woman laughed. So he said it again, this time more menacingly.

The mum stepped backwards, stunned into muteness. It was clearly an alien sensation for her, lips moving but no sound coming out.

‘Ewan, come on, leave it,’ said Julia, who was now trying to shield a sobbing Poppy from rubberneckers. ‘She’s not worth it.’

The mum’s voice was hoarse when she spoke again.

‘You need to take a long, hard look at yourself,’ she said, but the fire had gone out of her and her delivery was as feeble as her insult was weak.

Ewan spat out a last retort as he walked away.

‘I’ve done nothing to be ashamed of and neither has my daughter.’

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