CHAPTER 51
Twm was off to the hospital as soon as he and Sioned had unpacked, which left the three of us to find our own balance in relative calm. To be honest, the more I sat with my old friend, the easier it got, and I caught Sioned smiling indulgently over her tea a couple of times, just as she caught me watching her.

“It is a revelation, isn’t it, Diane?”

“Um?”

“How you feel that you will never be able to accept someone as how they show themselves to you, and then you realise how wrong they were in their old role. You have not met our other daughter yet, have you?”

“No, not exactly”

There was just a little flicker behind her eyes, and I realised how hard she actually was, how formidable a mother.

“But you have met someone she knew, am I right? A nasty young man, and a couple of policemen that are no longer such?”

I caught Annie then, silent as she stared at me in her own intensity. I just nodded, and Sioned smiled.

“I expect you will meet her shortly, but understand this. I grieved for my son, and Twmi, my Twmi, wept. We mourned until we could see there was no reason to do so. That was a moment I shall ever remember, when we realised that our son had never existed”

She paused for a sip of tea, eyes down before they flicked back up.

“You will know that we did a lot of reading, of finding books and places on the internet that we hoped would inform us, if not actually help. There are so many, and most of them are not good sources, nor places to linger long. In the end, it became clear, and with prayer we understood. There has only ever been our Sarah, our other beautiful daughter, and if your friend may forgive me, we see that as being as true of dear Annie here as it is of Sarah. Annie?”

“Aye?”

“You will forgive my presumption?”

“Of course, love”

“Then please go to the sideboard over there. The bottom drawer has some albums. They are for the family, and by the family, and Elaine allows this”

Under Sioned’s guidance, Annie brought out a couple of large, brown old-school photograph albums, and I caught a cheeky smile from Sioned, almost matching Annie’s in mischief, as she joined the two of us on the settee.

“You will no doubt be used to digital albums, stored on computers? Well, these are from an older time, and besides, they need no electricity. Now… our two little ones at Traeth Mawr… Ah! This is what I sought”

It was a picture of four women, taken on a steep slope with the sea in the background. To the left was Elaine, heart-breaking in her youth, but still so clearly the person who had moved and shaken the whole of South Wales Police. To the right was a much slimmer girl, the same hair showing her kinship to her older sister.

“Sarah?” I asked, pointing.

“Aye. That is our other pretty daughter, when she was yet unknown to us. The other two girls were friends of theirs, Rebecca and Joanne, but they were lost before we could know them. A lorry driver who was… A misfortunate accident”

She sat silently for a few seconds, before turning the page sharply.

“Here! This is My other daughter, and my new one, at their wedding. Siân is… em… blessed with so much red hair. And here, here is the other wedding”

I could still see the girl on the hillside, but now so much more mature, in a gorgeous wedding dress, posed next to yet another huge man, black beard shot with little streaks of grey, both of them looking stunned by happiness. Sioned sat silently once more, a fond smile of fond memory glowing from within.

“That is the last of the real photographs, girls. The rest are printed from digital cameras, but they still hold our past. Here is Arwel and our grandson”

Another big man, one I remembered, with a sandy-haired boy and a black and white dog that seemed to be in mid-air, on a wide stretch of sand running down to the sea. There were more pictures, all holding smiles and warmth, and while I am fully aware that family albums are, by their nature, rather short on darkness, there were real moments of joy captured in that one.

Just then, Annie’s phone buzzed.

“Aye, love?”

After a short conversation, she closed her phone.

“Eric says that two fat ladies have both gone into the emergency weight-loos programme. Sorry, but his sense of humour is, well… His sense of humour is everything anyone knows me should expect. They have birthing partners, and each has a camera”

I must have looked puzzled, for she grinned at me.

“Grand-dad to be is in with Elaine, after your hubby said something about previous experience, he has gone in with Siân. Previous, Di?”

“Our own son, Annie. Rhodri. That your phone, Sioned?”

“Oh! Aye. A text message---expect Tony and Sarah shortly. Arwel and Alice will be here tomorrow. Annie, they will be in the garage, I am told”

“Ah. Too crowded now, aye? Di? Time to learn about putting up tents”

One big, one small, both so much easier to erect than my memories of camping with Dad in the North held. Mats and sleeping bags laid out and shaken, even more tea from Sioned, and then a rumble outside as two or more motorbikes drew up. I caught Annie almost salivating, and cocked an eyebrow at her.

“What? Oh, it’s Tony. He has a seriously tasty bike, and while I can’t ride the things anymore I can still appreciate the decent ones. Sioned, the old pot is still pretty full!”

“Fresh tea it will be, woman, or chocolate for the boy. Either way, there is a kettle to boil. Get the door?”

Three people, and while I had seen all of them in photos, the boy was a lot taller. He was the first to reach Annie, and as she hugged him he muttered something into her hair.

“No, Jim. He’s with his Nan and Grandad”

In answer to yet another silent query from me. “Our son, Di. Darren. No, don’t give me that look! Adopted, aye? Jim, no room here, love. Now, tents are up for you and your Mam and Dad, if you want to sort yourself out. Sar, Tony? Very old friend of mine this is, Di Sutton. Her man’s to the hospital with Eric, who says they’ve both gone in”

Tony’s tells were off the scale for worry, and Sarah simply stepped up to hold him from behind, staring at me.

“Another copper, aren’t you?”

“It shows that much?”

“Bloody hell aye! You, er, nicked the other guest bedroom?”

“Fraid so. Didn’t bring a tent, unlike this one”

“Ah, dim ots. The boy likes camping, anyway. Just don’t lock the back door, OK? Tone, er, Di, rather? Mind if we borrow your room to change? Jim just needs to get out of his waterproofs, and Annie?”

“Aye?”

“You can tell us who she is exactly while we change”

I wanted to say something about being from the team that jailed three of her old friends, but pulled it back just in time, as Sioned’s stare drilled all the way through my head to the wall behind me. P, P, DC Sutton.

They were all down in a few minutes, Jim opting, as predicted, for a hot chocolate as we arranged dining room chairs in the living room. Even though I knew her history, I couldn’t see anything in Sarah apart from ‘mother’ and ‘mature biker chick’, so I took the initiative.

“Hi. I am Diane Sutton. My other half Blake is in the hospital with the mothers-to-be. I worked with Elaine on a big project in Cardiff, and, well, I know we’re all a bit biased here, but she gets under your skin, so Blake and me, that’s my husband, we popped over”

Annie was snorting.

“Gets under your skin, ye gods! Sarah, pull your horns in, woman. Diane: do you mind if I give them some background?”

I simply shrugged and nodded, and she grinned back at me, so bloody happy in her skin.

“Sar, I worked with Di here for a while before I moved to England. When I had… when I had one of my bigger nasties, Di was there to pick up the pieces, and she was the one who kept me sane in hospital. That one with the fire, aye? The three kids?”

There was a clear ‘shit’ from Sarah, but Tony just nodded, looking closely at me while he gathered his words. They came with a gentle smile, though.

“I see. You got the wrong end of things there, then. I am going to put you on the spot here, so apologies in advance. How do you see Annie now?”

I flicked a glance to my left, and gave him yet another shrug.

“How I should have seen her years ago, Tony. Annie?”

“Aye?”

“You mind if I show them that pic from the café?”

She grinned again, and I pulled out my phone.

“Bit of a story here, isn’t it? Blake and I had the heads-up, so when Annie went to see her family the first time--- shhh, Sar! Yes, that was when we first saw your uncle. My story, yeah?”

Tony was laughing out loud at that.

“Darling, doll-features, heart-face: no bloody doubts here that your sis trained this one!”

Whole glaciers were calving, shattering into G&T-sized chunks as we spoke. I grinned back at him in appreciation.

“Anyway, this photo, hubby and me call it the Ice Cold in Alex shot. You know where they hold back before tasting the beer?”

Multiple nods, even from Jim: a family of taste and appreciation of the finer things, it seemed.

“Well, this shot is when Eric walked in with the other lad”

Sarah muttered “Geoff”, still leaning forward in attack mode, but when the photo was passed round her relaxation was immediate. Annie tried to gloss over things with comments about soppiness, but Sarah simply chopped her hand in the air to shut her up.

“Diane, I am pleased to meet a true friend to this girl. She has always had them, but she has been far too stupid to understand that simple fact. Eric is a… He is someone that goes beyond”

She looked hard at her family, something else there in her eyes.

“We lost a friend a little while ago, a new friend we were just getting to know. He was a man who helped a young girl when she needed it, and it was Eric who was there throughout. This man, yes? He was the brother of a friend of a friend of another friend, and so on, but…”

She shook her head hard before continuing.

“Men, yeah? So much crap spoken about them. So much rubbish about how all the world’s problems are down to them, and I look at what I see here. Dad. My darling husband. This boy here, our son. Bloody Eric… Di?”

“Yeah?”

“Your husband?”

“Blake?”

“Blake. Can I take a guess? That he is someone who can see past the surface, see into the soul, see what is needed?”

I nodded back

“Absolutely. I had issues before we met”

“I know”

She paused to look around her family.

“Jim, love? Could you please go and check the tents? Mam and Dad have some things to discuss that are a bit… Please, aye?”

The lad gave her a long hug before leaving, and as soon as he was out of the room, she swept us with her glare.

“You must all think I am stupid! Diane, who was it nicked Joe Evans?”

I simply stared back, till she grimaced.

“Not only do I watch the news, but I get the papers from home. That cunt---sorry, Mam1 Evans and Pritchard, and my dear friend Joe. I know they went down a little while ago, and I am pretty sure, from what Lainey said she was doing jut then, that she was involved. If you were working for her, girl? Tell me the fuckers went down hard!”

I felt my face snarling, and I was astonished at how feral Sarah’s own expression became. Fuck P, P for once.

“Blake and I were involved. The stop was… I emptied a whole can of pepper spray into Dai Pritchard’s face. Lainey broke someone’s face with her baton”

“Joe Evans”

I came back from my memories, and he was leaning forward, eager for more. I looked across to her husband, and his expression was that of Bryn and Barry with my peppered pig.

“Joe. You do know it was the whole fucking family? My own…”

Fuck it,

“Ashley fucking Evans raped me, and the same two cunts that you met visited me in hospital. We weren’t their only victims”

“Joe”

“Ah, shit. He, well, Lainey said to him, ‘Elaine Powell. Don’t think you know me, but you’ve met my sister’. That’s when he pissed himself, standing at the Custody desk. Sar, I could introduce you to so many other victims, but no point. Him, and that bastard who raped me, they’re done… Shit! Come here, love!”

The tears would wash out