I Know It Was You

Chapter 11

ELEVEN

David Jarrett began to spend more and more time in the prison library. He had always been a reader. He had held a library card since he was seven years old, and usually read at least two books a week, often more. He read either in hard copy or downloaded eBooks from the library.

But his time in the prison library was not spent in reading novels but reading law publications and reviewing the case against him. He had an idea to study for a degree in law whilst he was inside. Maybe.

He had obtained copies of his trial transcripts and read and re-read every page. Thinking with greater clarity than at the time of his trial, he could follow the trail of evidence that led to his conviction, and reluctantly concluded that the case against him had been solid. Apart that is from the fact that he was completely innocent!

He had been framed, but not as he claimed in court by the police.

DCI Grace Swan had not set him up.

The only other person with reason to do him harm was Chloe Macbeth. True, Chloe had been an unwilling participant in what David called the ‘brother and sister games’ where he had sexually abused both his sister Julia from the age of about seven and Chloe from age twelve

Julia had also claimed he had r***d her, but it wasn’t r**e, No way. ‘OK, she struggled a bit and said no, but she submitted in the end. So, it wasn’t r**e, no matter what she said’.

He also knew that Julia had told Chloe about the supposed r**e (which wasn’t r**e, but consensual) and the ‘games’ had then stopped since Chloe had threatened to inform the police or get him beaten up by unsavoury characters she claimed to know.

Bitch!

But in hindsight, he could finally appreciate that Chloe Macbeth had good reason to hate him. But hate him enough to kill both Donald and Jarrett and frame him for the killings?

But she had both the motive and opportunity to stage the murders and set him up for it. She was in and out of the house all the time, and for all David knew, might even have had a key given her by Julia. She was near enough his size to have easily worn his clothes as she killed both Donald and Janet.

She was also violent, having served time in Askham Grange women’s prison for GBH.

But, he realised, the trouble with the motive is that it incriminates him in the s****l a***e of children. If he told new defence lawyers Chloe hates him because he abused her and his sister when they were both young. they’d walk straight out of the door again and report him to the police.

Going to jail for kiddie-diddling is not an option. Child abusers get slashed with prison shivs, their food gets spat, pissed, and shat on. Warders look elsewhere when the other cons beat the s**t out of you, or like Ian Huntley, you get boiling water thrown at you. Prison life as a nonce is the worst of the worst.

Best not to say anything about that motive.

Knowing why somebody hates you enough to frame you, is not good enough. It’s out of the frying pan and into the fire.

No, he has to focus on the conduct of the trial, the mistakes and inadequacies of his defence team, the bias of the judge, and his one-sided directions to the jury and move away from accusations of evidence planted by the police.

Moreover, family members are always the chief suspect when the murder appears to be ‘a domestic’. Did the police look beyond the disaffected adopted son, did they consider any other options beside the t**t who did himself no favours by his attitude and who had no alibi?

His defence had failed him, that was obvious. They did not have to prove him innocent but simply cast doubt on the prosecution case. To challenge the timings. To prove the police were blinkered in their approach and had focussed too much on the domestic nature of the crime. And they had failed miserably at that simple task. To cast doubt on the prosecution case. Simple, but they f****d it up.

They, the useless f*****g lawyers, had appealed his conviction as a matter of routine. With about as much enthusiasm as requesting an anal probe. They had gone through the motions, submitting the appeal within twenty-eight days after conviction as required by law.

But they had offered no new compelling evidence, offered no good reasons why the conviction should be overturned. And, of course, it had been rejected out of hand and the commencement date of his sentence re-adjusted to begin from the date the appeal was thrown out. What a f*****g joke!

He had to get his new defence team to challenge the conduct of both the police and the court.

But in the meantime, Chloe, you are going to suffer.

Big time.