He’s right. He’s the cop community leaders talk to. The top brass who isn’t afraid to walk the streets.
‘Why didn’t you come to me?’ Sugar pleads with such wretched sorrow.
Dixon rocks on his heels. ‘Because I was afraid. And ashamed. How am I going to look people in the eye when they find out what I did? That I did not stand up for justice.’ The last is not a question, but a simple statement of the truth.
He settles his weary gaze on me. ‘Today I made my decision which side I was on by bringing back the blood sample.’ My heart leaps. ‘I’ll make sure it gets lodged with the correct team and I’ll send the details over to you, Sugar.’ He locks strained gazes with Sugar. ‘What do you want me to do?’
It’s me that answers. ‘Stand up for justice.’
I don’t go home but get on the first train going to my destination. Once there I walk the rest of the way until I find the house I’m looking for in a row of Georgian houses that face the seafront. I won’t lie, I’m nervous. I press the bell. An older man opens the door. His face crinkles into a smile when he sees me.
He turns and yells inside, ‘It’s a present for you.’
‘A present? What present?’
‘Come and find out, you soppy fool,’ the older man calls back with a twinkle in his eye.
He leaves me standing on the doorstep.
Then he appears. He grins like the man I’ve always loved.
‘This is the best gift ever. And no more DNA ones.’
I fly into Joe’s arms.
CHAPTER 49
One week later
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Ronnie asks.
‘It’s not a question of what she wants to do, it’s a question of what she has gotta do,’ Miriam counters.
We’re inside my office at home. The room where I now keep a framed enlarged copy of the photo of Hope and the others in the office at the Suzi Lake Centre. The digital company who enlarged it for me were also able to get rid of the marker-pen rings around their faces. Having this is such a comfort to me, their presence will be with me always. I made sure the company included the second row of women behind the desk because seeing all the dreams of the women, not Hope’s alone, is so important to me as a young woman still making her way on her journey.
Miriam is sitting on a chair looking pensively on while Ronnie stands behind me with a small pair of hair clippers.
‘Miriam’s right,’ I join in, ‘it’s definitely time for the big chop.’
The big chop is cutting off all the old hair so that the new can grow. In my case, continue what I started in the river, getting rid of all the straight hair so that my curls can grow back. I thought I’d be jumping out of my skin with nerves, memories of young me being held down while a razor was taken to her head, but I’m not. It’s probably because I had already taken the initiative and cut my hair. Sure, I’d been forced to do it, but the important thing is that I did it.
‘Ready?’ Ronnie again.
‘Get on with it,’ Miriam chastises.
Since Ronnie found Miriam, where you see one, you see the other. And me and Sugar have both noticed how they entwine their little pinkies when they think no one is looking. Or larking around as Ronnie tries to teach Miriam how to waltz, which she learned all those years ago at the Suzi Lake Centre. I feel such joy for them both. If anyone in this world deserves happiness it’s Miriam and Ronnie. And let’s hope that Ronnie’s photo makes it to the wall in my sister’s sitting room after passing the landmark of the six-month Miriam Experience.
While Ronnie starts trimming, I cast my mind back to this week’s events. Firstly, the blood sample is definitely that of my mother’s. I’m still so devastated about her but at least it’s partly her evidence that will put Danny away. He didn’t do himself any favours by keeping the evidence that he had been a trustee at Pretty Lanes. Despite burning the document I have the photo of it that the police are using to track down another copy. Now the blood sample can open up a case about the Suzi Lake Centre, and once again Danny’s name is squarely in the frame there.
Other former directors and employees of Pretty Lane have also been arrested. I must admit to being worried that Janice Baker would be amongst them, but thankfully she left at the end of 1993. Since the hospital is now under the leadership of a different trust it has no case to answer. Still, from what I hear there are moves to demolish the old hospital block and turn it into a memorial garden with a plaque of remembrance for Hope, Amina and Sheryl.