The Official Book Club Guide: The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder. Kathryn Cope

They continue with the interview as Jasper recounts what else he can recall about that night.

       8 April

      Leaving Bee on the floor, Jasper runs home and hides in his den. When Ed returns from work, however, he immediately knows that something is wrong as he sees Jasper’s blood on the stairs. Jasper tells his father that he has stabbed Bee. Ed treats his son’s stomach wound before giving him a painkiller and a sleeping tablet. He says that he will go to check on Bee and, by the time Jasper wakes up in the morning, everything will be sorted out.

      Jasper wakes up a few hours later and remembers that he left his paintings at Bee’s house. He returns to Bee’s kitchen and believes he sees his father wearing a navy baseball cap kneeling by Bee’s body. Jasper asks if Bee is dead and his father confirms that Jasper killed her. Jasper notices that the china dancing lady is now in the kitchen. He grabs the paintings and runs home.

       Saturday, 16 April

      DC Chamberlain asks Jasper if he touched Bee’s neck when he killed her. Confused and overwhelmed, Jasper throws a glass of water at the detective constable. Chamberlain announces that Jasper is free to go as they do not believe that he killed Bee. A post-mortem has revealed the cause of her death to be strangulation.

      Jasper’s father is also released without charges and they return to Vincent Gardens. In his room, Jasper is disturbed to find that his notebooks and paintings are all out of order. His father explains that the police searched the house for evidence and have taken away Bee’s kitchen knife, which he had hidden in the cutlery drawer.

       Monday, 18 April

      Jasper and his father both write a list of ‘Important Facts’ about the night of Bee’s murder. When they compare them, they offer completely different versions of events. Ed’s list claims that he did not kill Bee, that he was not in her kitchen on the night she died, that he was not wearing his baseball cap that night and he did not take her body to the woods. It also states that Bee was still alive at 9.30 p.m., as he spoke to her outside her front door. Jasper’s list states that he did not kill Bee after all and that he saw his father in Bee’s kitchen with Bee’s dead body.

      Jasper decides to paint the events of the night of Bee’s murder on two separate canvases: one depicting the scene of Bee’s stabbing, the other portraying the moment when he returned to the kitchen for his canvases. In doing so, he remembers that, when he returned to the kitchen, Bee was wearing different clothes, her hand was bandaged and her position on the floor had also changed.

      Jasper realises that Bee must have still been alive when he first left her. After he had gone, she must have got up, dressed her wound and got changed. Jasper’s father confirms that when he went to check on Bee at 9.30 p.m. her hand was bandaged. The version of events that she gave was that Jasper had lost his temper and slashed himself to make it look like she was responsible. Bee had also advised Ed not to go to the police or the hospital as social services would inevitably become involved. Jasper’s father adds that Bee was alive until the early hours of the morning, as David Gilbert later called on her to complain about her loud music.

      Jasper finds Bee’s white rabbit diary hidden amongst his own notebooks. Written when she was nine years old, the diary reveals that Bee was frequently punished by her mother for being ‘bad’. One entry, however, recounts Bee’s excitement at the prospect of her mother and Mrs Watkins going to an evening prayer meeting together. In their absence, Bee’s babysitter had promised her a Mad Hatter’s tea party

       Tuesday, 19 April

      Having read more of Bee’s diary, Jasper has learned that her babysitter sexually abused her. Although Bee told her mother, Pauline Larkham refused to believe the story and continued to let the ‘Mad Hatter’ babysit her daughter. With no one to turn to, Bee wanted to die.

      Concerned that Bee’s bird feeders are empty, Jasper persuades his father to accompany him to Ollie’s house. When a man answers the door wearing a grey sweater and jeans, Jasper accuses him of failing to feed the birds. He is thrown into confusion, however, when the man speaks in a red voice, revealing himself to be David Gilbert. Jasper accuses David of being in the wrong place and wearing the wrong clothes. He is further disorientated when Ollie Watkins appears wearing uncharacteristic red trousers and speaking in a voice tinged ‘with strange coloured streaks’. It emerges that Ollie has a chest infection which has changed the colour of his voice.

      Jasper picks up some china animals from Ollie’s dresser and notices that, like Bee’s china ladies, they are made by Royal Doulton. David tells Jasper that both Lily Watkins and Pauline Larkham collected Royal Doulton and admits that he is a big fan of it himself. Jasper also examines an Alice in Wonderland