Page 140 of Dying Truth

‘Oh shit,’ Dawson said, suddenly checking his watch.

‘What?’ Stacey asked.

‘The bell tower—’

‘Is right at the other end of the complex,’ she said.

‘And it’s where Geoffrey Piggott is due to be at exactly eight o’clock to ring the bell that starts the concert.’

All three of them exchanged glances as they considered the repercussions if Dawson’s gut was right.

‘Oh shit,’ they all said as they began to run.

One Hundred Two

Laurence Winters closed the door and stood in front of it.

‘Graham, what the hell are you doing?’ he asked.

Kim caught up with the pure hatred that travelled across the pool between the parent and the school counsellor. As she looked around at them all she realised she was the only one who looked shocked.

‘I’m finishing it, Laurence,’ Graham said, heaving Saffie to her feet. The girl cried out but most of the sound was absorbed by the material in her mouth. Terror shone from her eyes.

What the hell was he finishing?

Kim tried frantically to fit the pieces together. Graham and Laurence had been Spades at the same time twenty-five years ago, but what did that have to do with Lorraine Peters and the murders of Sadie and Shaun? Had Graham been the father of Lorraine’s child? Had Laurence hurt her, and Graham was avenging her death by killing Laurence’s child?

But why do that twenty-five years later? It didn’t make sense.

Joanna had given Graham the abortion poem to decipher and explore with Sadie. He had pretended that he hadn’t understood it. And then Joanna had asked for it back to show her at the pub the night she’d died.

She suddenly realised that Graham had been able to tell them a great deal about Sadie’s inner feelings despite the fact she’d never opened up in her sessions.

Graham Steele had been in possession of the girl’s diary.

Graham Steele and Thorpe had been told by Joanna that it was Christian Fellows she had sent to look for ShaunCoffee-Todd.

Suddenly, Graham took a knife from his pocket and flicked it open.

He placed it at Saffie’s throat. The girl screamed.

Hannah gasped and reached out.

‘No one come any closer or I’ll slit her throat, I swear.’

‘Graham, I’m sure we can sort all this out if you just let Saffie go,’ Kim said.

He looked at her as though only just realising she was in the room. His eyes dismissed her as he turned back to Laurence Winters.

‘You don’t deserve any children, you bastard, after what you did.’

Again, Kim realised she was the only person in the room that had no clue what was going on. She knew that everything that had happened was linked to the death of Lorraine Peters right here in this pool twenty-five years ago.

‘Look at you, you fucker. Look at the both of you,’ he said, including Hannah in his sneer. ‘Look at the life you’ve lead. The charmed, perfect, entitled life with your happy little family. The fucking golden couple. Not so fucking happy now, is it, Laurence?’

‘You killed Sadie?’ Kim asked, taking a step along the length of the pool. She realised that he only had eyes for the Winters.

‘Of course I killed her,’ he spat over Saffie’s head. ‘And I’m going to kill this one and then we can call it a hat trick.’