As I continue to make suggestions, Kelly makes changes to her article.
‘You should ask Claire to run the story online as well as in print,’ I say when we’ve finished. ‘That way, you can add the video of Rose playing the violin.’ Kelly’s face lights up at that idea.
An hour or so after the news meeting that afternoon, Claire summons me into her office.
‘How are you getting on with the Melissa Slade case?’ she begins.
‘Um … I’ve interviewed the parents,’ I say. I feel myself reddening as an image of an irate Ivy Moore flashes before my eyes. Her words echo in my head. We don’t talk to reporters. ‘I need to work my way through the other family members to get a clearer picture.’
‘You should get in touch with her first husband, Simon Goodman,’ Claire says tucking a non-existent strand of hair behind the ear that doesn’t have the pencil. ‘I’m sure he’ll be able to throw some light on the details of the appeal.’
‘Yep. I’ll do that.’
‘That article Kelly wrote is brilliant, by the way. She won’t take the credit. She wants to have your byline on it as well as hers.’
‘No, don’t do that. It’s her own work. I didn’t do much. Just helped her tweak it a bit.’
‘It was good of you.’
‘Is that all?’ I know full well it’s not. Claire’s got that eyelash-fluttering thing going on, which means she’s about to ask me to do something I won’t want to do.
‘No. I wanted you to take Kelly under your wing, mentor her for a while.’
‘Well, I’ve been overseeing her copy. I can certainly continue to do that.’
‘I was thinking more along the lines of taking her with you—’
‘But she has her own patch. And she doesn’t need me to hold her hand. She’s quite cultured, you know. Very bright.’
‘—when you’re working on the Slade case,’ Claire continues as if I haven’t interrupted, ‘so she can see how good investigative reporting is done.’
‘Do I have a choice?’ I don’t want to work on the Slade case anyway, but if I must do it, I’d rather do it alone.
‘Not really, no.’
There’s a pause during which my mouth opens and closes like a goldfish’s as I grapple for a valid argument. Before I can come up with anything, Claire says, ‘We’re done.’ I resist the urge to swear until I’ve left the Aquarium and closed the door behind me.
‘Grab your coat, Kelly,’ I say curtly, striding past all the workstations towards the door leading to the stairs. She catches me up before I make it down the two flights of steps to the exit.
‘Where are we going?’
‘To meet a man called Simon Goodman.’ Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the expression on Kelly’s face and realising I’ve snapped at her, I add, more gently, ‘I’ll bring you up to speed on the way there.’
Simon Goodman hadn’t been hard to find. He’d launched a campaign for his ex-wife’s release back in 2013 when she was found guilty of murder. He seems to have been inexorably proclaiming her innocence ever since. His email address was on the melissaslade.org.uk website and so I wrote to him, asking if we could talk.
Kelly and I walk the short distance to the Watershed Café and we’re sitting at a table when Goodman arrives.
‘Jonathan Hunt?’
I’ve been looking out of the window, enjoying the view of the Floating Harbour and I was expecting Goodman to be wearing a uniform rather than in plain clothes, so he’s the one who spots me. He shakes my hand, considering me through narrow blue eyes as I introduce my new mentee.
‘I don’t have much time,’ he says.
Kelly takes this as her cue to get up and fetch the coffees, leaving me to make a start.
‘Do you mind if I take notes?’ I ask.
‘Not at all. In fact, I’d prefer you to.’ He takes a seat opposite me. He’s at least ten years older than me, pushing fifty at a guess, but he’s wearing it well. He has thick dark hair, which shows no sign of receding or greying, designer stubble and a long straight nose.
Goodman is based at Bristol’s Central Police Station in Broadmead, which is why he chose to meet at the Watershed Café – it’s about halfway between his place of work and mine.
‘Superintendent Goodman—’
‘Simon.’
‘Simon …’ I pause. If he’s uncomfortable at what must be a role reversal for him – after all, he’s the one who generally gets to ask the questions – he doesn’t show it. He unbuttons his shirt at the neck and then steeples his hands, waiting. I’ll bet he’s good at interrogations whereas I’ve come unprepared, as usual. I decide to begin by checking a few facts. ‘You and Melissa were colleagues. Is that how you met?’
‘Yes. We met in 1995. We were both at the Bridewell Police Station. A whirlwind romance, really, but in the end, working together and living together, it became too much. I was obsessed with my job and when I was married to Melissa, I made the mistake of never switching off from it. We often worked on the same cases. We carried on working on them at home. I didn’t give her enough attention.’
He pauses, but I’m so surprised at the candid account he has just given me of his marriage and its breakdown that I don’t know what to say. I try to come up with another question. Fortunately, he saves me the trouble.
‘As you can probably imagine, Melissa has suffered terribly in prison at the hands of other inmates because she was a police officer.’
I think the fact she’s a convicted baby killer might have helped make her a target for her fellow prisoners, but I don’t share this thought. ‘Was she good at her job?’ I ask.
One side of Simon’s mouth turns down, which I interpret as an expression of disapproval. He’s obviously not impressed by my interview technique. ‘Yes, she was. Very good indeed.’
‘And you had one child together?’
‘Yes, a son: Callum. He’s at university now, but he comes home every weekend and helps out with the campaigning. And before you ask, Melissa was an excellent mother, too.’ His irritation is palpable.
‘Sorry.’
Simon lets out a long sigh. ‘No, I’m sorry. Melissa was vilified in the media when she was arrested. Everyone had made up their minds she was guilty long before she appeared in court. I’m hoping the media might be kinder to us this time round. I’ve read some of your articles about the case online, and, well, I know you try to report objectively.’
I wince, as the headline of one of my articles springs to mind. SLADE: THE BABY SLAYER. And then another one: FROM COPPER TO KILLER. They hadn’t been my original headlines – I can’t remember them now. Claire’s predecessor had changed them as they weren’t sensational enough for his liking. He’d kept my impartial tone in the articles themselves, though.
‘I’ll do my best to stick to the facts,’ I say. ‘As I told you in my email, I’ve been asked to write about Melissa’s application for leave to appeal, but I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of it all.’ I need to brush up a bit more on the case itself, even though I covered it. I should have done that before meeting Goodman. I ought to get hold of the court transcripts, but I don’t really want to wade through them.
‘Well, as I’m sure you know, her conviction was upheld at the first appeal four years ago,’