Page 32 of Wanting Daisy Dead

‘Hey Ali, thanks for standing in today to interview us,’ says a familiar voice.

‘ Yeah, thanks, Ali!’ says another.

‘Confused? You will be. If you haven’t already guessed, guys, today’s interview is unique. The podcast host, Tammy, and her sister, the podcast producer Tiffany, are in fact Cordelia and Cassandra – David Montgomery’s daughters.’

‘Whaaat?’ Dan’s shaking his head. We’re all feeling the same.

‘What a plot twist!’ Lauren gasps.

‘Who?’ I ask, just to play my part.

‘The bloody podcasters are David’s daughters !’ Georgie hisses.

‘Keep up, Maddie!’ Dan adds good-naturedly.

‘So the girls are actually called ... Cordelia and Cassandra, but as they have unusual first names their relationship to David Montgomery might easily have been discovered on Google. So, when starting the podcast, they decided to call themselves Tammy and Tiffany, giving themselves American backstories and American accents.’

‘We didn’t want our story to overshadow anyone else’s, that is, until we were able to reveal the truth – and that time is now,’ says Tammy.

Yes, I’m Cordelia, but on air I’m still Tammy – even before we started to fight for Dad’s innocence, my ‘podcast persona,’ has always been, California Tammy.

My sis and I had a tough time growing up, and this podcast has allowed us to escape from reality, to have a facade for the outside world, but keep our real selves hidden, safe from the spotlight.

I hope you understand, and don’t feel too deceived.

‘Okay, so let’s start this story!’ says Ali. ‘Tiffany, or rather Cassandra, you’re the younger sister. How old were you when your father went to prison?’

‘I was eight and my sister was ten. My dad went to prison in 2007, two years after ... Daisy died.’

‘That must have been so difficult for you both.’

‘Yes . Despite us being so young, there was a lot of abuse, online trolling – not aimed at us, aimed at Dad, but it was tough – and our mum suffered a lot.’

‘When your father was first imprisoned, you were involved with the campaign to get him released. Tammy, can you tell me, did you ever believe your father was guilty?’

‘No, I didn’t, and we worked with Mum and our grandparents – Dad’s parents – to try and prove that. But back then everyone believed the right man was locked away, and the world wouldn’t listen.’

‘You were just little girls. How did your lives change as a result of the conviction?’

‘A lot,’ says Tammy. ‘Our grandparents sold their home and spent their life savings on lawyers, and this continued when we attempted to start appeals. Mum was later forced to sell our family home, and her mental health suffered – she couldn’t work.’

‘We did have supporters, but we were constantly being attacked, both online and in person,’ adds Tiffany . ‘People sometimes shouted at us in the street, saying, “Hope your murdering dad dies in prison.”’

‘Yeah, it was a horrible time,’ Tammy concedes. ‘But then, about ten years ago, the TV news interviewed us and we talked about how much we’d been through, even though we’d never committed a crime. And since then people have been a bit kinder.’

‘And you told me earlier that something else came from that TV interview?’ asks Ali.

‘Yes, after it aired, we received an anonymous donation,’ replies Tammy .

‘Was it a large donation?’

‘Yeah. I don’t like to say how much, but it was extremely large.

So much that at first we thought it was a joke.

Then we were worried it might be illegal to accept it, so we contacted the police and explained that it had arrived in our bank via a money order.

They said, “Looks like you have a rich benefactor.”’

‘Wow!’

‘Yeah. It’s an annual payment, and apparently we’ll have this for life.’

‘And you’ve no idea who this person is?’

‘No. It could be a complete stranger,’ says Tiffany .

‘We have a theory that it must be family on Dad’s side who are keen to help us, but don’t want to be involved in the scandal.

We are so grateful, as the money helped us both through university, and we’ve been able to buy a home for Mum and put money away for our futures.

We also started the podcast with some of the money, and pay lawyers’ fees and researchers for the cases we’re working on. ’

‘We do it for our dad,’ adds Tammy. ‘We’re sad that he’ll never be here, being interviewed, taking part. But these episodes we’re making now are so important to us on a personal level, and we know he’s listening. So now we’re continuing in his memory.’

The recording ends.

Everyone around the table is stunned, and even Georgie has perked up.

‘I’m shocked,’ I say. ‘I can’t believe that his daughters have been interviewing us and—’

‘Yeah, not sure how I feel about that,’ Georgie says, ‘and I know they’re recording, so I want them to know. They should have told us.’

Lauren is shaking her head. ‘I’m shocked, but unlike Georgie I’m not angry.’

Georgie rolls her eyes.

‘No, I can’t be angry – those girls have suffered. All they’re doing is trying to get some redemption for their father, and good luck to them.’ Lauren’s deliberately trying to highlight Georgie’s unreasonableness.

‘Why would a stranger, an anonymous person, pay a load of money to those girls?’ Georgie asks, ignoring Lauren’s shady comment. Georgie’s probably using this moment as her chance to leave the spotlight and start accusing someone else.

‘As they said, it might not be a stranger, it could be their extended family,’ Alex offers, totally redirecting where she’s going with this.

‘Yeah, but if it’s a stranger, then why?’ Georgie’s determined to point the finger and turn this kind gesture of a donation into something sinister.

Alex shrugs. ‘I dunno. They donated money because they’re kind people?’

‘No, what I mean is—’

‘What Georgie’s trying to say,’ Dan says, talking over her, ‘is it might be a guilty stranger. Someone who feels bad about Professor M doing their time?’

‘The killer ?’ I ask.

‘Could be,’ Dan says, ‘but his daughters said it was a lot of money, and who here could afford that?’ He looks pointedly at Alex.

‘Yeah, I reckon Lauren’s done pretty well for herself too,’ Georgie pipes up. ‘I mean, three homes – gosh, you must be loaded after all your success with the book.’

Lauren is horrified and, sitting there in her wine-splattered rented dress, visibly shrinks away from this damning remark equating wealth with guilt.

Little do any of them know that after Alex I’m probably the wealthiest here. But no one’s looking at me, because I’m staying out of the spotlight. How I got my money is my secret – and I intend for it to stay that way.