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Edwards pales. ‘No. I—’
‘There are sixteen different websites here, Mr Edwards, all catering for those whose preference is young females,’ continues Jennie. ‘Your porn site history shows the same preference – teenagers with older men.’
‘You clearly have a strong sexual interest in teenage girls, Mr Edwards,’ says Zuri, barely able to hide her disgust.
‘I like to watch these women – yes, okay, I admit that. But that’s it.’
‘Girls,’ says Jennie, unable to disguise the disgust she feels towards Edwards. ‘Some of the girls on these sites are barely sixteen, Mr Edwards. They’re children.’
He shakes his head. ‘They know what they’re doing.’
Anger flares inside her and she swallows it back down. She has to stay focused on the end goal here, getting Edwards to admit his affair with Hannah. ‘Hannah was the same age as a lot of the girls on these websites, wasn’t she?’
Edwards stares back at her. Doesn’t reply. His brief looks po-faced.
‘The rumours about you and Hannah were rife at the school. You told us so yourself when we last spoke. You said, and I quote, that the kids were always creating “some kind of drama”. Are you sure that’s all it was?’
‘Very sure,’ says Edwards, crossing his arms.
‘That’s interesting, because we have a witness who saw you and Hannah Jennings kissing,’ says Zuri, her tone professional. ‘We know that you touched her.’
‘They’re lying,’ says Edwards, his eyes darting side-to-side.
‘We don’t think so,’ says Jennie. The smell of stale sweat mixed with cheap vinegary aftershave is coming off Edwards in waves. ‘Did you fixate on Hannah just like you have on Angela?’
Edwards shakes his head. ‘No, I never fixated on—’
‘Did Hannah end things with you?’ says Jennie, refusing to let him off the hook. ‘Did you lose your temper and kill her?’
‘For God’s sake I was the one trying to end it!’ shouts Edwards, banging his palms down onto the table. Ignoring a warning look from his solicitor, he continues, ‘She was all over me and the rumours were flying around the whole bloody school about us having a fling. I told her it had to end.’
‘So, for the record, you now admit that you did have a relationship with your student, Hannah Jennings?’
Edwards exhales hard. ‘I’m not sure you’d call it a relationship as such, but things did get a bit heavy a few times.’
‘Define heavy, Mr Edwards,’ says Jennie, holding his gaze.
He looks away, keeps his eyes downcast as he speaks. ‘We kissed. There was a bit of fooling about.’
‘Did you have sexual intercourse?’ asks Zuri. ‘Was there any kind of penetration?’
Edwards curses under his breath. He glances at his solicitor but the man just shakes his head. Edwards’ voice is lower when he replies, ‘Yes.’
‘How often?’ says Zuri, leaning forward, keeping up the pressure on him.
‘A few times,’ says Edwards. ‘Six, maybe seven times over a number of months.’
Jennie tries not to let the revelation derail her line of questioning. She wishes Hannah had confided in her; she thought they’d told each other everything. But it seems her thing with Duncan Edwards wasn’t just a one-off; it had continued for months. ‘But you wanted it to stop?’
‘Yes. She instigated the whole thing, not me,’ says Edwards, wearily. ‘Hannah was more of a fantasy I got to act out; it was never anything real. I was happy with Angela and I wanted to marry her. I wasn’t looking for more.’
Hannah was most definitely real, thinks Jennie, and given Edwards’ browsing history and obvious hard spot for teenage girls, she doubts he resisted. He’s just sorry he got caught, that’s all. ‘When did you end it?’
‘I was trying to end it,’ says Edwards, grimacing. ‘By June, when the upper sixth were due to go on study leave, the rumours were gaining momentum. Sheila, the headmistress, had caught wind of them and called me in to explain myself. It was excruciating. I thought I was going to lose my job, or Angela, or both.’
‘So what happened?’ prompts Jennie, unable to feel any sympathy for the man.
‘The day she disappeared, just after I’d finished teaching my last class of the day, Hannah came to see me. She had that look on her face and I knew what she wanted.’ Edwards pauses. Shakes his head. ‘I can’t believe I’m telling you this. You’re just looking for an excuse to pin this on me, and now …’
