The Chain (A Catherine Diary) - Stamfield. Complete

Chapter 64

64

Eventually, I went for the jugular. 'If you stole sweets from one of the boys, why would anyone believe you didn't take Carla's pendant'

I thought I had gone too far, when she turned around, tears streaking her cheeks and anger in her eyes. She stomped towards me and I feared for myself. I was more physically fit than Sherry, but I certainly wasn't a fighter and I had never seen Sherry angry before, let alone in a fight.

I took two steps backwards and she must have seen the worry in my eyes, because her fury subsided and she looked at me for support.

'Was he okay?', she asked, her voice shaking and soft, for a moment I was confused by her question, 'the diabetic boy, was he okay?'.

'Oh...yeah, he was fine', she looked relieved, I didn't know what else to say.

'I didn't take the pendant', she whispered, even though no one else was in the room. If I was honest with myself, I felt sure she hadn't, yet I needed to hear her say it to be sure.

I smiled at her, 'I didn't think you did'

She looked confused, but again awash with relief. 'It's a compulsion, I can't help myself, I take things. Recently, I've had it under control, I only take things I think are trivial or unlikely to be missed', she took a step towards me, 'you probably think I'm crazy, but I've had it since I could remember. Mum and dad used to have parties at our house all the time and I was the cute little girl, who would wake up in the night and everyone would feel sorry for. I was six or seven and I would drink the alcohol from their glasses, when they weren't looking, one day one if my aunts left her purse in the kitchen, mum had sent me to get a bottle of cola from the fridge, instead I relieved my aunt of twenty pounds that was in her purse. It was so easy. After that I couldn't stop myself.

'As I got older, people became more suspicious of me. I even got caught stealing sweets from a shop twice, the second time they went through this whole pretense of phoning the police, so I would be arrested. I was scared shitless. After half an hour of waiting for the police, in the managers office, he eventually informed me he hadn't phoned them, but I should learn from the experience.

'Since then I been trying to quit. I thought I'd done well, I figured a sweet here and there wouldn't hurt anyone', she looked at me apologetically, 'I could have stolen a lot more that day, but I just filled my pockets with sweets.'

I placed a hand on her arm and she fell into a hug. I had never been that tactile towards Sherry and it felt a little awkward.

'I didn't take the pendant', she repeated.

'I believe you', she broke away from me, to look me in the eyes, see whether I was being honest with her. I wasn't sure whether she was convinced. 'Who did take it then? Was it Jack?'

'I don't know. I don't even know if it was stolen, Carla may just have lost it', it was a possibility I had considered, but since the mention of it being stolen, Everyone had seemed to have dismissed the possibility it hadn't.

I watched as Sherry washed her face at the taps, delved into her bag for some wipes, wiped her face clean and reapplied her makeup.

'Please don't say anything to the others', she eventually said.

'Do none of them know?'

I had expected her to say that Jane knew, but she responded, 'only Monica. She's the only one I've told'.