Page 71 of Killing Mind

Tiff forced herself to remember that Britney had said very little about where they were going except that she’d love it.

‘That’s your house?’ Tiff asked, as she looked down on Unity Farm.

‘Ha, I wish, but it is my home.’

‘What is it?’ Tiff asked as she looked down into a small valley.

‘It’s a retreat,’ she explained, simply. ‘And you’ll be made very welcome.’

Tiff tried to take in everything from the vantage point.

To the left was a stone farmhouse building that looked out on to a collection of barns that had all been refurbished. Beyond the barn at the end were slabs of concrete that looked like foundations for more buildings. Immediately at the bottom of the hill were polytunnels and fenced-off planting areas.

Tiff took a step forward, but Britney touched her arm lightly.

‘Just one minute.’

Tiffany wondered why they were standing at the top of the hill as the light began to fade.

Britney looked at her watch and held up her hand.

‘Any second…’

Before the word now could leave her mouth, the whole site below suddenly came alive with light as uplighters fitted into the ground illuminated, bathing all the buildings in a warm orange glow showing the beauty of the stone structures.

Delicate warm fairy lights adorned the guttering of each of the barns and in surrounding trees. Waist-high lamps illuminated the paths to all of the buildings. From the corner of her eye a tree branch moved and Tiff thought she saw a light in the wooded area.

‘Never gets old,’ Britney said, taking a step to head down the hill.

Tiffany took another good look as she followed Britney down and she really had to agree.

She’d never seen anything so pretty in her life.

Fifty-Nine

Stacey put down the phone and returned to her fake profile. The boss was on her way back and she hoped to have something to show for her time. She’d been told to focus on Jake Black and Unity Farm. So far she’d had little luck with either.

Her searches on the cult leader had revealed that he had been an only child born into a family of inherited wealth from his paternal great-grandfather, who had made his money buying cheap clutches of land and selling to developers at the right time for both housing and expansion.

Jake’s grandfather had managed to squander most of the family fortune on dubious overseas investments leaving just enough to give Jake a decent private education at the best schools in the country.

When Jake had graduated from Cambridge, unable to sustain their lavish lifestyle further, his parents sold the family estate to pay off debts and emigrated to Australia, leaving Jake Black used to a lifestyle that he now had to fund himself.

So far she’d been unable to find anything more on his activities, and Stacey knew that nothing she’d learned so far was going to ignite any excitement in her boss, but what had been more interesting to her, after speaking to the mother of Helen Deere, was the veil of secrecy that seemed to surround Unity Farm and that was where she had now turned her attention.

Even to her own eyes, the fake profile of Janey Taylor looked a little bit suspect.

She had done all she could to make it seem legit: she’d posted photos stolen, or borrowed, from other profiles and had shared posts about Scientology, Meditation and Yoga. She was hoping that the moderator of the group wouldn’t look too closely before allowing her to join.

It had taken longer than she’d thought, and Penn had offered to do the digging on the financials of Sheila Thorpe.

‘Okay, here goes,’ Stacey said, pressing the request to join button.

She sat back in her chair. All she could do now was wait.

‘Yeah, doing a fair bit of waiting, myself,’ Penn said. ‘Estate Agents wouldn’t consider giving me any information except for the name of the purchaser’s solicitors. They’ve given me the name of Sheila’s solicitors, who are now debating whether they’ll tell me anything at all. Even given the situation they’re seeking advice.’

‘And you’re sure the money from the house sale didn’t go into Sheila’s account?’