I was pleading now. ‘I’m just – I thought Jeremy could help, maybe. Figure out who hurt Anna, who did this.’ I couldn’t explain that I thought someone was framing me – and it was so tenuous. Someone had been in my house, yes, someone who knew me, but that didn’t mean they’d killed Anna, or left my scarf nearby. And how would I ever prove it if they had?

He had stepped away from me. I didn’t know how to rescue this.

‘Can I see you tomorrow?’ I said, desperate.

‘I don’t know, Rachel. Anna’s dead – Sam, I’ve been trying to take care of him all day, but he doesn’t understand – and her parents, they’re in bits. And you were arrested! You actually found her body and you didn’t call it in! How do you think that looks? But all the same I’ve come to see you, I wanted to be with you – and you’re here with some other man? A husband I’ve never even heard of. I mean, Jesus. What am I supposed to do with that?’

‘I . . .’ He waited for a moment, but I could say nothing to defend any of this, and after a second or two he turned away, disappearing into the night.

Post on ‘Mary Poppins Murders’ discussion forum (June 2018)

Post by liljackie

Is anyone going to talk about the drugging? That the kids were found to have some sort of British medicine in their systems? It’s like liquid paracetamol, but it makes the kids sleep. You can only get it there, so she must have brought it with her. And the aunt said the baby was really sleepy when she was there, plus the little girl had been late for school a few times because she wouldn’t wake up. My theory is that Casey gave Madison too much of this medicine and she stopped breathing, so she had to stage the “intruder” set-up to cover it up when the parents found out what she’d done, and she panicked and killed them too. Except she did it so badly there weren’t even signs of a break-in!

Rachel

Rachel

In prison I’d had to learn to control my reactions. You can’t cry in a place like that, not in public anyway. You have to keep your face neutral, not make eye contact. And when you start to panic, you have to force yourself to breathe and keep going. Because no one is coming to help you, and once you’re medicated, strapped down to a bed, there’s no way back. I’d done four years on Death Row without a single drug.