Page 46 of Worse Than Murder (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller #13)

‘N ot running this morning?’

I turn to see Tania Pritchard approaching me. I’m standing by the edge of the lake. I’m wearing tracksuit bottoms and a thin hoodie. The coffee in my hand is untouched and now cold. I haven’t slept since Philip woke me last night. I tried to, after Gill left at dawn, but my mind wouldn’t settle.

‘Not this morning.’

‘Matilda, I want to apologise for yesterday. I know you think I’m hiding something from you, but I’m really not.

Lionel has been sitting on a dark secret for thirty years.

I know he knows more than he’s told me, but he won’t budge.

At the end of the day, he knows I’m a cheap hack who’ll sell my soul for a front-page lead. ’

‘You’re not, though, are you?’

‘No. I’m really not. Why do you think I’ve spent my entire career on a shitty local rag? If I was a super-bitch journalist, I’d be on the nationals, living in a penthouse apartment and shagging politicians on the sly.’

‘Michael Gove, or Jacob Rees-Mogg?’

Tania stifles a smile. ‘Eww. Do you mind? I’ll bring my breakfast up. There are no sexy politicians, are there?’

‘Certainly not in this country.’

‘It’s a strange state of affairs when you’re watching the news, and you start wondering what Theresa May is like in bed.’

‘Bloody hell, Tania, you’ve spent far too long on your own.’

‘Tell me about it. Am I forgiven?’ she asks, stepping closer.

‘Of course, you are.’

‘So, what happened here last night? Sally in the post office told Tara in the card shop who told Jean in the tearooms that an air ambulance left this place in the wee small hours.’

‘Is that High Chapel’s version of fibre broadband?’

‘It is, actually.’

I fill her in on the events of last night, but don’t tell her about Lionel really taking the charity money. I don’t think Tania would cope with that.

‘Jesus. Are you all right?’

‘Apart from a massive headache, yes.’

‘And Philip?’

‘I haven’t heard from Sally yet.’

‘You really think it was Jack Pemberton who broke in?’

‘I can’t think of anyone else who it could be. It’s not chancers after a few bottles of booze. Whoever it was aimed that gun at Philip and squeezed the trigger. They didn’t know it wasn’t loaded.’

‘But even if it was Jack, why would he commit murder?’

‘As a warning.’

‘Who to?’

‘Me? If he has been watching all this time, for thirty years, then he knows I’m here. He’s seen me sticking my nose in and he’s warning me off.’

‘Bloody hell,’ Tania says, concern in her voice. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘I’ve run away from Sheffield. I’m not going to run away from High Chapel, too.’

We both look out at the lake. It’s calmer this morning, the sun sparkling on the surface of the water as it ripples onto the shore. The storm of last week is a mere memory.

‘I was thinking last night,’ Tania begins. ‘Whoever took the girls, whether it was Jack on his own, or Jack and Travis, it’s going to have been a sexual motive, isn’t it?’

‘That’s the number one theory.’

‘What I was thinking was, who else could Jack have abused? Did he only aim his advances towards the twins, or…?’ She leaves the question unanswered.

I turn to her. ‘Alison? Good grief. I suppose there will be other victims. He won’t have stopped at the twins, they never do.’

‘How do we find out for sure?’

‘I don’t know. We can’t do anything before we have definite proof and that’s not going to be easy to find.

Alison is clearly struggling with her memory.

I think she’s trying too hard to remember, and that could lead to a false memory.

I’m going to try and speak to Lynne and Iain again, but individually this time. ’

‘Why individually?’

‘I got the feeling they both wanted to tell me something last time we chatted, but they wouldn’t in front of each other.’

‘They’re keeping secrets from each other?’

‘Of course they are. They’re a married couple.’