In a carefully protected airtight container, a cardboard folder. The first document: a police report dated August 1996. Joseph Beaumont. Charge: intentional violence. Victim: a woman, her nose fractured following an altercation. Closed without further action.
There was also a letter. A certain Clare had contacted Margaret before the wedding to warn her. And Margaret's response explained why she had chosen to remain silent: she feared that her daughter, young and in love, would stand up for Joe and remove him from her life. So she kept the evidence and made a deal with Joe: "If anything happens to Sarah, it all goes to the police." *
