‘I don’t remember.’  She shook her head.  ‘I can’t think.’

‘Would you mind if I called the nursery and ask?  They’ll be able to tell me won’t they?’

‘Yes that’s fine.’

‘Do you mind waiting here while I do it Julie?’

‘Not at all.’

Two hours later and Detective Kane had found out Ben had fallen off the play equipment in nursery on the last day he was there.  He’d bumped his head but they hadn’t called an ambulance or even his mother but just given him a cold compress for five minutes.   He’d had a call off the hospital as well from the autopsy team; the only injury they could find was a bleed to the head.  It had caused him to eventually black out and he’d never come around from it.  The nursery was at fault for his death, but his mother still didn’t want to accept that her little boy wasn’t poorly but was dead.

                Kane called a police councillor to speak with Julie and explain to her exactly what had happened and then the nursery for a copy of their accident log.  They faxed it to him straight away and he could see that the bump to the head that was recorded matched the same place that the autopsy team had found the bleed to the brain.  The next thing to do was speak to the nursery staff; they would charge the people who dealt with the accident with a charge of Manslaughter at least.     Mean while the councillor had arrived to speak to Julie, he could hear her sobs coming from the room she had been waiting in.  No wonder she hadn’t accepted it, her little boy was gone. 

                ‘Louise Ashbury I am arresting you in connection with the death of Benjamin Clayton. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you may later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.  Do you understand?’

                Louise shook her head, ashen grey.  How could she have had anything to do with the little boy’s death?  She didn’t even know he was dead.  They bundled her into a car and took her to the station where Julie was coming to terms with the loss of her son.  There were a lot of arrangements to make and she wasn’t going to be able to make them.  The councillor had called her parents who were currently on their way across from the other side of town.

                The desk Sergeant took her details and she was taken to a cell to await a police lawyer.  The wait took its toll on Louise and she broke down, how could she fight this?  She couldn’t see a way out, she didn’t know that Ben was poorly.  She was the one that called to see if he was okay because he hadn’t been in nursery for two weeks, she was the one that had the social workers called.  How could it be her fault?

                An hour later the lawyer arrived ready to speak to her before the police took her statement; the Sergeant unlocked the door for him and left.  As the door opened her body came into full view, swinging limply from the ceiling by a belt.  It was the only way out she had seen, so she’d taken her own life to prevent it being smeared across the papers.

                ‘Sergeant!’