Alice

Chapter Fourteen

1

The next morning, Diane asked for a newspaper in her police cell. The police, who had absolutely no sympathy for her, decided to grant her wish. Diane read the article in horror, and in the meantime, her fears were confirmed: the story was on the front page of the Sun newspaper:

"WOMAN STABS PREGNANT WOMAN IN QUIET NEIGHBOURHOOD

A woman has been arrested for stabbing a heavily pregnant woman in the womb yesterday afternoon, reports say.

Diane Tritton, the owner of the cafe in which the event took place, apparently stabbed the ex-wife of her husband, Alice, after a heated row in the cafe, according to witness statements. Witnesses say they heard screaming and saw Alice collapse at the doorway of the entrance of the cafe, before falling unconscious in the street. Before losing consciousness, several witnesses agree that she clearly pointed towards Diane Tritton.

It was reported that Alice Tritton was around six months pregnant. She was taken to Manchester Hospital where she was forced to give birth to the baby, which was already dead. Alice's mother has spoken of the trauma the event caused Alice.

'I could not believe my eyes when I saw my own dead grandchild' said Ellen, Alice's mother. 'The knife had clearly gone through its head, so it had no chance of survival. Alice was traumatised. She's in a stable condition for now and will need to stay in hospital for at least a week. Doctors said she was very lucky to survive considering how much blood she lost'.

'As for Diane Tritton, I hope she gets what is coming to her for doing this to my daughter and grandson - at one point I think they said it was a boy'.

After Alice was taken out of theater, she was well enough to identify Diane Tritton to police as the person who had committed this crime. Diane had already been arrested at the scene, and was taken to Manchester police station where she remains in custody".

Diane's fingers were no longer able to hold the newspaper because they were feeling so numb. She dropped it and it fell straight to the floor, scattering the pages everywhere. The mess was the least of her concerns. Diane was perhaps more shocked than anything at the fact that the press were allowed to print her name and location. How could they just do that? How did Alice somehow manage to recover in such a small space of time? Modern medicine can do wonders, she thought. Of course Alice would not die – she was going to see this right through. Diane only imagined the horror she would have to face if she ever stepped foot out of the door of this police station again. The terror did not stop there, however. The disgusted police officers and detectives who had already assumed her guilt were more than happy to hand her more of the country's most popular newspapers. The Independent, The Telegraph and The Mirror all had this story as their front page, each giving very similair "information" to what was written in The Sun. She had no access to the other newspapers but presumed that they would all be the same.

The detectives in Diane's interview showed no sympathy for her. They believed without a doubt that she had done it. The alternative was that Alice had done this to herself, and who would do such a thing? Doing that to yourself and to your child while pregnant was unthinkable, no matter how insane a person was. That was what everyone would think, Diane repeatedly told herself. While Diane had been sitting in the cell for hours completely alone except for her thoughts, a new, worrying thought came to her mind: everything that Alice had done so far had some sort of method and reasoning behind it. Yes, she had stabbed herself in the stomach and murdered her own child, almost murdering herself in the process, but she had a reason. In doing so, she knew that Diane would be blamed for it and would subsequently be sent away, which was something she always wanted. Diane thought that anyone who was insane would not be able to think as rationally as that. Maybe Alice had this planned all along. Maybe months, even years ago, this very idea came into her mind. The fact that Alice might have been sane frightened her the most.