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Back I Know What I Saw Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for I Know What I Saw
  3. By the Same Author
  4. Dedication Page
  5. 1
  6. 2
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  54. Now read on for a preview
  55. 1
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  59. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Blake lets the video run on. The camera and the other officer follow Ebadi along the hall and into the house. Marble again on the floor, running straight through, its gloss firing light in every direction. As the camera turns I see the fireplace is there, but it too is cased in grey spidery marble. The camera turns briefly again and instead of the chesterfields there is a white sofa in a large L. The lens darts round with the movement of the officer and as it does I see the dining table is gone. Where it once stood, there is a huge, ornate glass coffee table bordered by what look to be cushions. Then I look more carefully and see that it is not a coffee table I am looking at but a sunken dining table. It has been dropped about three feet into the ground.

All since Tuesday night.

17

Saturday

‘It’s impossible,’ I say. There’s no solution to this formula.

‘Is it?’ Conway says, but he’s not really asking.

My brain continues to whirr and click through the gears. Could the murderer have changed everything? The murder was late Tuesday night. I told the police about it Wednesday night. They claim to have visited the address that night. It couldn’t be. Is it a trick of some sort? Is it the wrong address? But even as I am asking myself the questions, I already know it’s the right place, but somehow the impossible has happened.

‘It’s not exactly the way you described it, is it, Mr Shute?’ Conway again.

It’s not. There is no hiding from that. I don’t want to hide from that. It’s the truth.

‘Well, the layout is the same,’ I say in desperation but the words fall from my mouth like pebbles on to sand.

‘Nothing is the same, Mr Shute. Nothing that you have described to us, in detail, is the same.’

‘But—’

‘I will ask you a final time, Mr Shute. Did you witness a murder at this address? At number 42B?’

I notice that Blake has curled into herself in pity.

‘Yes. I know what I saw.’

‘So how do you explain that video?’ she asks softly. Her voice pleads.

‘I can’t. But I saw it.’ And then a thought comes to me that I voice straight away. ‘There in that room where that sunken table is. Did you check under there?’ I say but the question dies in the air. It’s not possible.

‘Xander. Mr Shute. Can I be really clear?’ says Blake. ‘If you maintain the lie, we are going to have to charge you with the more serious offence of Perverting the Course of Justice. If you accept it now as a lie, we can consider the lesser charge of wasting police time.’

I shake my head. This feels too fast and – wrong.

‘I – I know what I saw. Something’s not right.’