Page 101 of Worse Than Murder

‘Lynne came to see me at the restaurant last week. She said, after the girls originally disappeared, you found something belonging to Jack. You didn’t tell her what it was, but it led you to believe Jack had harmed the twins in some way. Would you tell me what it was you found?’

It’s a while before Iain begins. He blows out a breath, fiddles with the press studs on his gilet and flicks a piece of lint from his lapel.

‘We’d not long finished converting the barns into stables. Everything had been delayed with Celia and Jennifer going missing. Jack seemed to have lost interest in the business, but I kept trying to get him to come up here. Even if he just sat in the office, it would at least get him out of the house. I came in here and he quickly hid something away. I didn’t think anything of it at first. A couple of hours later, Jack was in the toilet, and… I don’t know, something in my mind told me to look in his jacket. It was a magazine. It was foreign. It might have been German or Dutch, I’ve no idea. But the pictures…’ Iain’s bottom lip quivers, and he turns away.

‘Take your time.’

‘They were kids. Girls and boys. Some were naked, some were half-naked. Some were on their own. Others…’ He leans on the table and puts his hand in front of his mouth as if trying to stop a torrent of vomit. ‘Men were doing things to them. I felt sick to my stomach. I feel sick now just thinking about it. I can… I can still picture them. In my head. I can’t… I’m always seeing them.’

‘You confronted Jack?’

‘I heard the toilet flush. That must have brought me back from… I don’t know… from wherever my mind had taken me. It was Jack’s magazine. I’d seen him looking at it. But he was my brother. He was my little brother. How could he be looking at it when he had three girls of his own? It didn’t make sense. He came back into the office. I turned to look at him and I just saw red. I threw the magazine at him. I can’t remember what I said. I was asking him all sorts. Where did he get it from? Why? What did it mean? Who was he?’

‘What did he say?’

‘He didn’t deny it.’

‘Did you ask where he’d got it from?’

He nods. He takes a breath. ‘He said it belonged to Travis and that he’d given it to him.’

‘Travis Montgomery?’

‘Yes. He said he found it…’ Iain lowers his head and places his hands over his face.

‘Iain.’

‘I can’t even bring myself to use the word he said,’ he cries.

‘What did he say, Iain?’

Iain reaches for a tissue and wipes his eyes. He blows his nose and tucks the tissue up the sleeve of his jumper.

‘He said he found it stimulating.’

‘Oh God.’

‘I looked at him, and I realised I was looking at a stranger. I had no idea who he was anymore. I asked him how long he’d been interested in young children. He said for as long as he could remember. I asked him if he’d ever done anything about it. He said it wasn’t until Travis arrived and he saw him… he…’ Iain is clearly struggling to reveal the horrors of thirty years ago. It’s completely understandable.

‘Take your time, Iain,’ I say, trying to offer him reassurance. He needs to get this out. He’s been bottling it up for three decades.

‘When Travis wasn’t working on the farm, he was always tinkering around with his car. One day, Jack went out to look for him. The girls were all running around the garden. I think they had a few friends over, too. Jack found Travis in his car, watching them. He… Jesus. He was… pleasuring himself.’

‘Oh my God.’

‘The thing is, Jack…’ Iain pauses. He swallows hard and it looks as if it hurts. ‘Jack said that he understood how Travis felt. He said he felt relief that it wasn’t just him who thought about… children in that way.’

I’ve heard some sick horror stories in my time, but this one is right up there with the most disturbing. It’s suddenly very hot in here and I feel sick. I have so many questions racing around my mind, but I don’t want to ask them as I really do not want to hear the answers. But I’m a detective. It’s my job to ask these questions.

‘What happened?’ I ask. ‘Jack and Travis. What happened next?’

‘I’ve… no idea. Jack started crying. He broke down right in front of me. And I knew. I knew what he’d done.’

‘Did he admit to killing Celia and Jennifer?’

‘No. He said he must have done, but that he couldn’t remember. He said he saw the twins, and Alison, playing in the field. He was watching them and smiling at how much fun they were having. Everything after that was a blank until he drove up to the house and saw the police there.’

‘How much time had gone by from when he was watching them to getting back home?’