Read A Fatal Verdict for Free Online

her own mother - and to her liberal father too.
    Cut wrists ... suicide. Kathryn’s own hands trembled as she gripped the wheel and slammed through the gears with unaccustomed violence as the lights changed in Blossom Street. Surely that was impossible. However sulky and obstreperous her youngest daughter had become she had never harmed herself before. Quite the reverse - she had always turned her anger on her parents, teachers or friends, whoever was irritating her at the time. She was more likely to cut someone else’s throat than damage herself in any way, Kathryn thought. So this must be an accident; either that, or something worse. Even when her marks had gone down after Christmas she never turned things inwards to blame herself; her character wasn’t like that. She blamed her parents all over again, her tutors, everyone except herself and the real villain of the piece, that ghoul who was waiting with her at the hospital. Christ! Kathryn swung the car aggressively towards the station, thinking if only I was a man, if only Andrew had been tough enough to slam the door in that flashy young man’s face when he first appeared. If only I could get my daughter back again, healthy and sane ...
    But then that was exactly what had happened, a week ago. Shelley had come home in a tearful rage to say that she was leaving David, he had deceived her with another woman and it was over, it had all been a dreadful mistake. Joy had leaped in Kathryn’s heart and she had broken open a bottle of wine to celebrate. Shelley had embraced her mother for the first time for months. Her eyes were open now, Shelley told her, she understood how David had tried to manipulate her and draw her away from her own family while lying to her about his other girl, or girls, however many there were. He was history now, she was going to start her life again, change everything. She acknowledged the dreadful marks she had had this term but her last essay had been better and she was going to work hard from now on.
    So how could she possibly be in hospital now with cut wrists, the mark of a suicide, a cry for help? It made no sense at all. It must be an accident or some stupid student prank unless ... well, what else could it be? Jane’s message had frightened Kathryn so much she hardly knew where she was or what to do next, except get to the hospital as fast as possible which she couldn’t do now, because she was stuck in a traffic jam on Lendal bridge. She drummed her fingers furiously on the steering wheel as people strolled by in the evening sunshine, talking, holding hands, kissing, pushing babies, leaning over the parapet of the bridge to admire the river view.
    My daughter may be dying in hospital, doesn’t anyone understand? She felt so alone, in a glass bubble all of her own with no one to talk to. Then remembered she had to ring Andrew. She pressed the  button on her mobile which stored his office number, but it rang unanswered. In the library no doubt, she thought bitterly - among the medieval archives where he said a mobile phone would be out of place and disturb his concentration, the hypocrite! If he was there at all and not in bed with some graduate student like last time. God, where is the man when I really need him? She rang the answerphone at home and left him a message, it was all she could do for the present. By the time she had finished that she was moving along Gillygate where David had his wretched flat, and past the Salvation Army Hall to the hospital on the left, a vast grey city where life and death were decided, and there was a long queue outside the pay and display car park for Christ’s sake, with people carrying flowers and taking their grandchildren to visit, while my daughter may be bleeding to death at this very moment ...
    Grimly, to an accompaniment of horns and shouted protests, she overtook the queue and  screeched into the Accident and Emergency car park where she pulled up beside a police car.
    Waiting for her at