What is it, Carly? What’s happened?
[Shuffling]
Vocalize, Carly. Come on.
[Heavy breathing]
(CJ): I… I suddenly, um, realized that this will be my first Christmas without her. It was alarming for a moment… to think it. But… I—I’m better now.
(AL): Carly, what is it?
[Pause]
(CJ): I am Carly.
(AL): Excellent! Again.
(CJ): I am Carly.
(AL): [Laughs] No need to cry, Carly. This is wonderful work, and I am so proud of you! Now, again.
(CJ): [Crying] I am Carly.
(AL): Again.
(CJ): I… am… Carly. [Sobbing]
(AL): This is excellent, Carly. You’re doing well. Now, I’m going to give you an assignment. I’d like you to write down everything you can remember about the night your parents died. Not what I told you, but what you yourself remember. Then I’d like you to attend the Friday group session and read it aloud to everyone.
(CJ): Okay.
(AL): You’re very brave. I’m so pleased with your progress, Carly. Maybe, if you keep it up, you can return to Elmbridge by the New Year.
[Chair scrapes]
(CJ): Thank you.
[End of tape]
64
The following outgoing phone call was recorded on 23 December 2004, 41 days before the incident:
[Three rings]
[Muffled noises] “Who is this? [Sigh] You know what time it is, dickface?”
[Heavy breathing] “Naida! Naida, it’s Kait!”
“Kaitie—you called. Thank God.”
“You were right—I have to get out of here.”
“What happened?”
“I was in a session today, and I saw something—I don’t know—something wrong with her face. She isn’t who she says she is!”
[Silence]
“Kaitie, are you alone?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Hang up.”
“But why? What is it?”
“I can hear someone breathing on the line.”
[Click]
[Line dead]
No one thinks of how much blood it costs.
—Dante Alighieri
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.
—William Shakespeare
65 135 days after the incident
Criminal Investigation Department, Portishead Headquarters
Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Portishead, Bristol
Friday, 17 June 2005, 15:34 PM
AUDIO INTERVIEW #2, PART 2: Detective Chief Inspector Floyd Homes (FH) and Scott Fromley (SF)
(FH): And that’s all, huh? You’re telling me that’s all you know about what happened to Juliet?
(SF): Yes.
(FH): I see. And what about the night of the fire? Do you also know nothing of that?
(SF): I can’t remember exactly. I don’t know!
(FH): Several people are dead, two are missing, and one is permanently crippled… and you don’t know?
(SF): I wasn’t there at the end—I never saw anything. All I know is that it happened. I don’t know anything else.
(FH): And Carly Johnson? How well did you know her, huh? Maybe you’d better rethink that answer, lad, because Naida’s talking.
(SF): You asshole—
(FH): Watch your mouth. You’re facing some serious charges, Scott. If I were you, I’d answer my questions honestly. [Pause] Carly Johnson. Were you intimate with her?
(SF): What the hell is that supposed to mean?
(FH): Did you and Carly Johnson have sex?
(SF): I want to speak to my father.
(FH): Answer the question! Did you and Carly Johnson have sex?
(SF): No—
(FH): But you wanted to. Maybe you suggested something of that nature to Carly herself. Maybe you forced her into it—
(SF): No! I told you, no! I was with Naida, that didn’t change—
(FH): Something triggered her, and you’re the only one left!
[Loud bang]
[Heavy breathing]
[Pause]
[Softer] Scott, I need to know how it all went down. You’re the only one who knows.
[Silence]
See, I think you know more than you’re telling me. Why, I don’t know. You’ve got no one to protect and everything to lose. So tell me what happened that night!
[End of tape]
66 40 days until the incident
Naida Camera Footage
Friday, 24 December 2004
Time Index Not Noted
Basement
Naida swings the camera around the small room. It is nothing more than a cemented space with a solitary lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. The circle of light that the bulb creates does not touch the corners of the room, which sit stagnant in shadow. The mic picks up the sound of dripping water.
“Lovely spot,” Kaitlyn murmurs, folding her arms.
“It’s temporary. I’d stash you in my room, but the chances of you being seen—”
“No. No, you’re right. This is fine. Cold, dank, lonely.” She gives a grin. “Feels familiar.”
“I’m going to set the camera up there,” Naida says, angling the camera at a strip of wall near the ceiling. “I can monitor the footage through my computer.”
“Won’t the battery die?”
“Nah, I’ll hook it into the school’s power supply, and it’ll feed directly to my laptop. I’ll rig it to send automatically to an online server too, so we can watch it later in more detail.”
“Watch me in more detail, you mean. We’re past sociology projects, aren’t we?”
“It’s not about that anymore. We need this. Need proof.” She spins the camera to face her and messes with the focus.
“They told me I was crazy,” Kaitlyn says after a beat of silence. Her voice barely registers in the mic.
Naida glances at her, then steps forward. “You’ve got to put that out of your head, sugar. It won’t help Carly.”
Kaitlyn looks away, and the progress of the camera—and Naida—stops. “What you did… going there. Seeing me, the note, everything. I… thank you.”
“I’d do it again and more in a heartbeat.” Naida hesitates, and then adds, “But what made you come here? Why believe me?”
“I could blame it on the pill diet they had me on, but… in my last session with Lansing… I saw something. I don’t know, probably nothing. But…”
“Tell me.”
Kaitlyn sighs sharply. “I sound so bloody crazy, and I hate it because I’m not crazy.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy. You’ve got to trust me with the truth.”
“I saw something in the room with us in my last session with Dr. Lansing. A girl. She smelled wet and earthy, and she looked terrified; her mouth was wide open, and her teeth—” She takes a breath. “She was pointing at Lansing. Like she was warning me. And I knew… I just knew I had to get out.”
