Life Less Lived Ch. 12

"What a monster! What a bunch of monsters!" Jessica was almost in tears along with the Medcalf girls at all these revelations.

"All the while," Sophie chipped in, "Johnson, the father of them all, would be miles away, knowing all this was being done for his revenge, with a simple and convincing alibi."

"But how did you get out without being burned, Ginny? Mr Hammond here said you flattened the boy ... Mark," Jessica repeated the name in her ear from Pat the producer/director, "and ran into the other stall, and almost immediately the explosion happened."

"No, I made it into the entrance of the stall only, I had to stop because Daddy was on the floor by my feet, and the very first thing I did was bend down to check his breathing. I saw Aunt Barbara and Marina -"

"Marina Shaw, she's Daddy's fiancée," Sophie interjected, "She was so lovely," she turned to her sister, both with tears running down their faces.

"Aunt Barbara was on the floor at the far side." Ginny continued, "Marina was bound and blindfolded and she threw herself at the three murders, it was unreal, I could see it all in slow motion, she was amazing."

"She, Marina was going to be our Mummy," Sophie said, "we love her as much as Daddy does and we are all devastated by her loss."

"But who is she?" Jessica asked, "and why did Johnson seem surprised to see her, even know her, after all Patience's apparent research?"

"I don't know about where this Johnson comes in," Ginny said, "but we know that Marina was Daddy's first love and vice versa, but they were separated early on and neither could contact each other for over thirty years, but once back together again, neither could bear to be parted again. And Aunt Barbara has always been a part of our lives, too. Neither can ever be replaced. To have both them and Mummy taken away by these evil vindictive murdering madmen and woman, is too much to bear."

"It is such a pity that Patience bitch got away, she's probably burned all the evidence by now," Jessica said.

"That won't matter, Jessica," Ginny smiled grimly, "it's all on tape."

"But our recording is not evidence, Ginny," Jessica told them, "it's all circumstantial."

"No, I've got it all on record, stored on the cloud. I use an app on my phone, so I can record operating and treatment notes. I was a little worried about muffling as it was in my shirt pocket as usual but under my riding jacket, but I played a little of it to the police officer in charge that I left it with, and it was loud and clear."

"How do you switch it on and off with your hands tied behind your back?"

"Ha! It is a voice operated app so I don't have to touch it after I've scrubbed up. The phrase to start it is 'this won't hurt a bit'! I won't tell you on air what I say to stop recording, I'd never live it down."

Then they could hear shouting from the group of firemen who were clearing the smoking rubble from the collapsed wall, several of them waving at the fire chief to come and have a look.

"Ay up," Matt said, "looks like they found summat."

To be continued.