The Book of Lies Read online

  THE BOOK OF LIES

  Mary Horlock was born in Australia but grew up in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. She moved to England at the age of eighteen, where she studied Art History and later worked at the Tate. She is a former curator of the Turner Prize. Mary lives in London with her partner and their two children. The Book of Lies is her first novel.

  THE

  BOOK

  OF LIES

  MARY HORLOCK

  TEXT PUBLISHING MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA

  textpublishing.com.au

  The Text Publishing Company

  Swann House

  22 William Street

  Melbourne Victoria 3000

  Australia

  Copyright © Mary Horlock 2011

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  This edition published by The Text Publishing Company 2011

  Published by arrangement with Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE.

  Map of Guernsey copyright © Victoria Kinnersly 2011

  Cover design by WH Chong

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

  Author: Horlock, Mary.

  Title: The book of lies / Mary Horlock.

  ISBN: 9781921758102 (pbk.)

  Subjects: Life change events Fiction.

  Friendship in adolescence Fiction.

  Family secrets Fiction.

  Truthfulness and falsehood Fiction.

  Guernsey (Channel Islands) Fiction.

  Channel Islands History German occupation, 1940–1945 Fiction.

  Dewey Number: 823.92

  Primary print ISBN: 9781921758102

  Ebook ISBN: 9781921834226

  to

  for

  because of

  Darian

  My name is Catherine Rozier, please don’t call me Cathy. If you do I’ll jump. Don’t think I’m bluffing. It’s a 3000-foot drop and even though I’m fat, I’m not fat enough to bounce. I’ll dive headfirst into ye ancient Guernsey granite outcrops and then my mashed-up body will be washed out to sea. Of course, if I get the tides wrong I’ll be stranded on the rocks with seagulls eating my eyes. I know for a fact they’ll eat anything.

  Killing myself wouldn’t be too clever, but then neither was killing Nicolette. It’s been a fortnight since they found her body and for the most part I am glad she’s gone. But I also can’t believe she’s dead, and I should do because I did it. Yes. That’s right. I killed Nicolette on these very cliffs and I’m frankly amazed that no one has guessed. When her body was dragged out the water, the verdict was she’d fallen. Ha-ha. (Only I’m not laughing.) Why hasn’t anyone worked it out? The Germans were right, the people on this island are a bunch of half-wits. When they landed here in the Summer of 1940 they must’ve thought they’d won the War already. They called Guernsey A SMALL PARADISE. Excusez-moi, but since when did a few manky palm trees make a paradise?

  And when everyone finds out what I’ve done there’ll be no more pretending what this island is. If you want me, come and find me. Assume I’ll be skipping along Clarence Batterie, stretching out my hands towards St Peter Port, preparing to take the plunge. If this counts as my last will and testament I hereby bequeath my unspent book tokens from last year’s prize-giving to my mother. I’d also like to make it clear that although my disappearance from this miserable rock coincides with Christmas, it has nothing to do with her New-Recipe Mexican Turkey.

  Obviously she’ll be upset. I was supposed to be the first in the family to go to university.

  But at least I made front-page news (kind of, sort of, almost). Nic’s death was all over the Guernsey Evening Press1 for four days on the trot, and they even used one of the photos I took of her – the one in Candie Gardens where she’s leaning back against a tree with her hair spread out across her shoulder. Did I mention she was beautiful? She got a full page because of how she looked. When you saw her perfect face, it was hard to imagine that she was ever such a Bitch. But she was. My so-called best friend was a Liar and a Traitor who deserved everything she got. I won’t go into the details of how I know this, but I won the Inter-Island Junior Mastermind so, trust me, I’m rarely wrong.

  Nicolette Louise Prevost had to die.

  I now realise we should never have been friends, but some things are destined, as per Shakespeare and his tragedies. When she found me that night, on these very cliffs, I knew she was planning something deadly lethal. Do not think for a minute I am a violent person. Just because I like watching mindless violence on television doesn’t mean I want to go round cutting throats (or that I know how to). I was scared and I panicked – do you blame me? It was pitch-black, and the rain beat down so hard I could barely open my eyes. When she came at me out of the darkness it was like my worst-ever nightmare. I screamed but the wind just took my voice away, and there was no one there to help me, which is how she always liked it. We fought, we kicked. She grabbed my hair but I grabbed hers too because I’m not stupid. It was like Friday the 13th (Part 1 or 2). If only I could’ve ripped her head off and had fake blood spurt everywhere.

  But, of course, it never happens like that. All I did was push her. Honest. That was all it took. One big push and she was gone. Gone. I still can’t believe it. She vanished into blackness, and the churning sea swallowed her. How cool was that?

  And fair enough that a part of me is glad. It’s how it should be. I was doing the world (or Guernsey) a favour. Bullies should be punished, right? They are like the Nazis, picking on poor, isolated people and pulling them to bits. What I did was not an Abomination (excellent word). I should even feel a teensy bit happy and proud. So why do I feel cheated? Nic’s gone and left me with this guilt, and I know I should go, too. Then somebody else on this stinking rock can feel guilty in my place.

  But don’t think I’m going quietly. First I’ll write this down so that everybody knows. It’s such a good story I could turn it into a book, and perhaps it won’t look so bad once I see it there in black-and-white. After all, being a murderer isn’t such a big deal for this little island. This is Guernsey, please remember, where there are plenty of secrets no one’s ever meant to talk about. If you’re British you’ll know how us Guernsey people have been accused of all sorts. Usually we blame the Germans. Me? I blame Dad.2

  The trouble started with him dying and no, I didn’t kill him, although I admit I thought about it. Dad was the expert on Guernsey’s Guilty Past – he had boxes full to bursting on that very subject. He was the one who first told me that History has a bad habit of repeating, and he had a bad habit of always being right. Mum was never interested, though, which was/is a bit of a problem.

  Mum doesn’t care much for real-life events and says the newspapers are just too depressing. She prefers her crime and murders bought by the yard from the Town Church jumble. It’s funny, because she’s a total prude and won’t even swear but she’ll plough through any amount of blood and gore as long as it’s not real.

  I’d love to pretend that none of this is real for her sake, at least. Poor Mum. How do I even begin to tell her what I did and why? If Dad were still here he’d know what to do. He’d start by saying that you have to go way back. Perhaps if Mum had done that sooner she would’ve seen what was ahead. If I’m writing this for anyone I suppose I’m writing it for her. She knows what happened to Dad, and what happened to Dad is definitely connected to what happened to Nic. It’s amazing, really, how everything connects. But what would
you expect on this tiny island? We all know each other, or worse, we are related.

  We talk about getting away and seeing the world, but we never do. We stay here making the same mistakes, over and over. I’m a murderer and it’s not just my fault. I can blame the Germans, and I can blame my parents, and I can blame my parents’ parents. Don’t you see? Once you know your History, it does explain everything.

  It turns out I was a murderer before I was even born.

  Contents

  12th December 1965

  13TH DECEMBER 1985, 5.30 a.m.

  13th December 1965

  13TH DECEMBER 1985, 5 p.m.

  13th December 1965

  14TH DECEMBER 1985, 9 a.m.

  14TH DECEMBER 1985, 5.12 p.m.

  15th December 1965

  15TH DECEMBER 1985, 7.32 a.m.

  15th December 1965

  15TH DECEMBER 1985, 1.34 p.m.

  15TH DECEMBER 1985, 4.30 p.m.

  16th December 1965

  16TH DECEMBER 1985, 11.56 a.m.

  16th December 1965

  17TH DECEMBER 1985, 5.30 p.m.

  17TH DECEMBER 1985, 9 p.m.

  18th December 1965

  18TH DECEMBER 1985, 5.30 p.m.

  18TH DECEMBER 1985, 7.30 p.m.

  18th December 1965

  19TH DECEMBER 1985, 12 p.m.

  19th December 1965

  19TH DECEMBER 1985, 7 p.m.

  20TH DECEMBER 1985, 9 p.m.

  20th December 1965

  21ST DECEMBER 1985, 12.18 a.m.

  22ND DECEMBER 1985, 2 a.m.

  22ND DECEMBER 1985, 2.30 p.m.

  22ND DECEMBER 1985, 6 p.m.

  23RD DECEMBER 1985, 6.30 p.m.

  23RD DECEMBER 1985, 9.30 p.m.

  24TH DECEMBER 1985, 5.30 a.m.

  24TH DECEMBER 1985, 7 p.m.

  Acknowledgements

  12th December 1965

  Tape: 1 (A side) ‘The testimony of Charles

  André Rozier’

  [Transcribed by Emile Philippe Rozier]

  Faut le faire pour le register: this is the testimony of Charles André Rozier, a useless wretch now often thought a half-wit, the eldest son of Hubert Ebenezer Wilfred Rozier and Arlette Anne-Marie of Les Landes. Back when people talked to me, they only called me Charlie. I was born the year of Our Lord 1928, when this island of Guernsey was still that small and perfect paradise. Would that we could go back to that time, would that I was never born at all!

  But I was born and I did live, and this miserable life is all I cling to. The rest was taken from me by one I counted as a friend. He was just a kid, like me, when he stole everything I valued. I call him many things. Murderer. Traitor. You can call him Ray Le Poidevoin. As solid a name as Guernsey granite, but common for this island. Let’s hope he meets a common end.

  Eh me, Emile, I want the wrongs righted but you won’t read my story in the Press, and I don’t want it printed there, neither. They say I am the guilty one, only out for revenge, but they have been lying since the War began and don’t think it’s over yet. Only today I was on them cliffs by Clarence Batterie, knee-deep in pink campion and squinting at the sun, but every view was framed by German concrete. It is an abomination what has happened to this island! And as I stood there I imagined Ray was aside of me, watching the black clouds of death rise up from the horizon. It was just like in that summer of 1940, a hot summer that chilled me to the bone. I looked down into the crystal, twinkling sea and near surrendered to it. I felt my knees buckle and the ground slip away, but you know what stopped me? It was old Ray pulling me back like he did that once before. Emile, it is a curse on me! I am ever in his clutches.

  Why is it we find this little rock so hard to leave? If only I were again on the streets of St Peter Port, the kid that I once was, holding tight to our mother’s hand. I remember how we pushed our way through the chaos of weeping and shouting. It felt like the whole island was on the move and if ever there was a right time to go, it was then. The Germans were too close for comfort. Everyone knew what they was doing to France – we heard the guns loud and clear – so I was to be packed off to England with my classmates. But as I stood with my teachers on the quay I didn’t feel scared. Words like war and death didn’t mean too much to me, and England meant the ends of the earth, a million miles away.

  Reckon there must’ve been something evil in me even then, since that day was the first time I’d ever felt special. Before, I was just p’tit Charlie with too-pale skin and twiggy legs who got poked and teased and laughed at, but as we marched up the gangplank I felt something stirring deep inside. I’ve spent a long time trying to explain what it was that made me do it, and I cannot find a simple, single reason. Perhaps it was the fear and mayhem, perhaps it was the heat, or perhaps it was a bit of island madness. As that bright sun beat down I felt my cheeks burn up, and then I started screaming.

  ‘I shan’t go. You can’t make me! You put me back!’

  Back then I had a pair of lungs, me, and I could shout myself inside out. I was lashing out with my elbows and kicking like a donkey. Quel tripos! The boat was already moving as I lunged for the side and started going over, and I would’ve ended up in the water had it not been for Ray. He was right at the edge of the pier, holding on to the railings, leaning over to me. All I saw was a big, brown hand and then I felt this grip so tight it cut off all the blood. I was safe, or so I thought, as Ray Le Poidevoin reeled me in.

  ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ someone asked.

  ‘He’s going to stay and kill some Jerries!’

  I laughed although I didn’t know why, and I clambered with my new friend up onto the harbour wall. Someone tried to grab my shirt. Did I hear my mother shout? I turned to watch the boat move off and the sea open up. Then I turned back to St Peter Port, to the crowds that thronged forward. Nobody could touch me and I thought I was so clever: this was history in the making and I would help to make it. Did I realise then what a dark and damnable history it would be? No, but I should have had an inkling when Ray pointed upwards, into the rich blue, cloudless sky.

  ‘Look!’

  I lifted my head and nearly toppled backwards from the effort.

  There were German planes circling high overhead, and they looked like little silver fish. The world itself was turning upside down and would never be righted.

  ‘Now, man amie,’ Ray whistled. ‘Now the party’s starting!’

  13TH DECEMBER 1985, 5.30 a.m.

  [My bedroom, 2nd floor, Sans Soucis, Village de Courtils, St Peter Port, Guernsey,3 The Channel Islands, The World]

  I’m not a party person. I’ve never liked crowds of people: all that pushing and shoving and possible sweat. But if I’m faithful to the facts, that’s where my story starts. Saturday, 25th November 1984 to be precise. The day Nicolette had that stupid party. I should never have been invited, and everyone was morbidified that I was.

  And by everyone I mean my classmates at Les Moulins College for Cretins, the only all-girls’ school on the island. They mostly hate me for no good reason. Just because I sit at the front of the classroom and get all the questions right and hand my homework in early. And they call me Cabbage because of it. Teenage girls are très mega horrible, and Nic was exactly like that but prettier. She’d been moved from the Grammar School, having been put down a year on account of her dyslexia. For some people (me) this would’ve been embarrassing, but my classmates took one look at her long blonde hair and big green eyes and turned dyslexic too.

  It was pathetic how they fought to be her friend, scrambling to sit near her and jostling to get her attention. No better than boys now I think of it. I didn’t join in because I never do, and maybe that impressed her. I was also busy with my Festung Guernsey4 timeline, which secured me an A+ in our Living History project. There was a bit of a fuss over it, actually, because I’d included quotes from local people who’d had to work for the Nazis, and some of my classmates didn’t like seeing their surnames underlined in luminous green. N
ic thought it was hilariously funny, though.

  But that wasn’t why she invited me to her party. The truth is, she was the new girl in class and she invited everyone.

  Even Vicky. Vicky Senner lives down the road from me and our mums have been friends for ever. She’s called Stig because she’s dark and hairy and is a champion builder of dens. Before Nic came along, she was the closest thing I had to a best friend, and we agreed to go to the party together.

  I was (I’ll admit) excited, and I was curious to see inside Nic’s house. She lived on Fort George, one of those modern fancy housing estates5 Dad used to call a TRAVESTY, and as per ever he was right. Les Paradis looked exactly like Nic’s birthday cake – all sickly-rich and cream-coloured. It had chandeliers in every room and gold-plated knobs on the banisters.

  Therese Prevost, Nic’s mother, gave me the full guided tour.

  Therese is very important to this story although I’m sure she’d rather not be. She’s extremely beautiful, like an older and more French-polished version of Nic. You could easily make the joke that they were sisters, except that Therese had done all the fussing older women do: she’d had her hair multi-coloured at Josef’s in Town Church Square and her lips tattooed a dried-blood red. And she always wore heels – this explains why she walked so slowly. I sometimes thought she floated across a room, and she had this way of holding her hands out to each side like she was waiting for her tan to dry.