Chapters (49)
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Also by Graham Hurley
- LIMELIGHT
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- AFTERWARDS
As the evening progresses, there’s only one dissenting voice, an ex-property developer who bewails the money and resources wasted on the initial search for Christianne’s body. It must have cost thousands, he says. It turned out to be a red herring and someone should be made to pay for that. It’s an entirely reasonable point, but this man has badly misjudged the evening’s mood. Instead of the support he’s obviously expecting, he’s met with a chorus of boos. The police, at that point, were doing their job. It’s what’s happened since that matters.
The debate – well-mannered, quietly passionate – goes on for the best part of an hour and a half. Sparked by the Palo Alto footage, contributions have flooded in from every corner of the hall, and from the half-darkness outside. Evelyn presides over this exquisitely local occasion with good humour and impeccable judgement. Inviting her to MC the event was, on Mitch’s part, a stroke of genius. Towards the very end of the debate, when people are beginning to check their watches, Evelyn redirects all our thoughts to Christianne.
‘She came to the right place,’ she says quietly. ‘And we were very lucky to have her.’
Watching from the back of the hall, I can only shake my head in wonderment and admiration. Beautifully put, I think. Just perfect.
The debate over, people stream out towards the car park, pausing to drop money in buckets for the Palo Alto appeal. Meanwhile, I succumb to a series of TV interviews, two of them live, refusing to rise to questions about my arrest and my treatment at the hands of the police. I’m very happy to talk about Christianne, and about the wider issue of so-called mercy killings, but when a woman from Sky News asks me whether I’m comfortable sharing a poster that might have come out of the Wild West, I offer a rueful smile.
‘I never auditioned for Annie Oakley,’ I say. ‘Maybe now’s the time.’
Evelyn and I accept a lift home. The bungalow quickly fills with faces from the public hall. We break out the wine, distribute glasses, fill bowls with crisps and olives, and ask people to help themselves. Mitch has turned on the TV and fired up a collection of laptops and iPads. That way, he says, we can keep tabs on the coverage, assuming any channel has decided to give it screen time.