A Dreadful Past Read Online Free PDF Page A

she appeared to be sighted and they, fearing that she would be able to identify them, on the spur of the moment attacked her and took her life. She seems to have been fated to die young. Sara survived a bad car crash only to have her skull smashed once again which, on the second occasion, did what the car crash failed to do in that it killed her. So attacking and murdering a young blind woman did happen but I don’t think that it was as callous as the news reports made it out to be.’
    â€˜That is very big-minded of you, sir.’ Carmen Pharoah smiled at Noel Middleton and did so with dilated pupils.
    â€˜Perhaps,’ Middleton replied and inclined his head in response to the compliment, ‘but it helps me to make sense of it. I have to come to terms with it somehow and thinking like that has helped me quite significantly.’ He paused. ‘But, you know, hardly a day goes by without me thinking about the burglary … the dreadful incident which cost my parents and sister their lives.’
    â€˜I understand that your father’s house was quite remote, sir?’ Ventnor asked.
    â€˜Yes, it was. It still is … It still stands,’ Middleton replied. ‘I drive past it quite frequently. Now with new owners, of course. I dare say the present occupiers might let you look round if you asked but I can’t see how that would help you.’
    â€˜I don’t think it will be necessary.’ Ventnor glanced at Carmen Pharoah, who shook her head in agreement. ‘Not after this length of time.’
    â€˜It was a farm, you see,’ Middleton explained. ‘Well, a smallholding really, hardly a farm, just one hundred and fifty acres, but it was owned by the farmer and not rented. He didn’t make much of a living off the land – it was too small to allow that. You need at least eight hundred acres to make a good living from a farm. When the farmer reached state retirement age he put it up for sale and Father bought it. The smallholding was to the north of York, just beyond Skelton, as you probably know, so it was quite a prestigious location. The land commanded a very high price and so the farmer and his wife had a very comfortable retirement in a bungalow on the coast after all those years of scratching pennies. Father let all the acreage return to wilderness apart from just an acre or two surrounding the house, which he had landscaped into a garden with lawns and flowerbeds, but it was that – it once being a smallholding – which made the house relatively remote.’
    â€˜I see.’ Ventnor once again glanced round the room, noting again how solid the building seemed.
    â€˜The house itself was a four-bedroomed Victorian farmhouse which Father modernized, and it was quite roomy for the four of us. It had plenty of additional rooms which were used for purposes such as to study in or for storage … It also had an attic but no cellar, this being the Vale of York with a high water table. The acres of wilderness outside made a lovely play area for me and my sister and our friends … over a hundred acres to roam about in during the school holidays. We made dens and built camp fires … we camped out on the land during the summer … I have some very good memories. Father had it fenced off with a low fence. It was easy for someone to get over the fence but it delineated the boundary of the property which kept people out. He also had it painted yellow on the outside, which deterred people from climbing over it.’
    â€˜Yellow,’ Carmen Pharoah quizzed. ‘Is that significant?’
    â€˜Yes … yes, it is,’ Noel Middleton explained with a knowing smile.
    â€˜Very significant,’ Thompson Ventnor confirmed. ‘Really … believe me, it is very significant.’
    â€˜You see, people will shy away from yellow,’ Noel Middleton continued, ‘but are attracted to other colours like black, green, red and