Page 105 of Worse Than Murder

‘How did you and Jack end up together?’

‘There was something about Jack that… I don’t know. I always felt he needed saving.’

‘Saving?’

‘He had a sadness around him. I didn’t know it was depression at the time. I just saw this tall, handsome man who needed bringing out of his shell.’

‘Didn’t Iain mind you going out with his brother?’

‘Me and Iain had long since split by then. Besides, Iain was working his way through the village,’ she says with a laugh in her voice. ‘For brothers, they were polar opposites. I mean, they looked alike, but talk about chalk and cheese.’

‘And you ended up back with your first love.’

It’s a while before Lynne speaks. ‘I love Iain for helping me in those early days of the twins going missing, of Jack… he helped me. He saved me. He helped with Alison. He provided support and comfort when I needed it.’

‘Didn’t you want to have more children?’

‘I’d have loved to,’ she says, a warm smile spreading on her face. ‘Iain can’t have them, though.’

I clear my throat. ‘In your police statement, you said you were having an affair with?—’

‘I didn’t have an affair with Travis,’ she interrupts.

‘But you changed your statement.’

‘Before the girls… before everything happened, I was a different woman. I loved my children with all my heart, but marriage to Jack was… difficult. He couldn’t help it. It was his moods. They took over him. There were days when he wouldn’t get out of bed, when he wouldn’t talk to anyone. The atmosphere in that small cottage was unbearable. When the kids were at nursery and school, I’d go over and see Iain.’ She looked at me. ‘Like I said, they were opposites.’

‘You were having an affair with Iain?’

She nods. ‘Iain didn’t want Jack to find out.Ididn’t want Jack to find out. Iain and Lionel– Inspector Bell– they were good friends. Iain told him that I was in bed with Travis at the time the girls went missing. Lionel said, if I went in and adjusted my statement, just me and him, nobody else would need to find out. I don’t even think Travis knew about it. Lionel knew us. He took us at our word.’

I can feel the blood boiling inside me. That’s not how a police investigation is supposed to be run. You don’t take people at their word just because you know them. Lionel Bell had a conflict of interest. An outside unit should have been brought in to lead the investigation. Maybe, then, Celia and Jennifer wouldn’t have been at the bottom of the lake for thirty years.

‘But it means Travis doesn’t have an alibi for the time the twins were taken,’ I say.

‘Jack did it. Jack confessed to Iain, then…’

‘Then what?’

‘I should go,’ she says, quickly standing up.

I follow. ‘Your husband confessed to abusing the twins. It’s looking more than likely that Travis was involved, too. Do you think he abused only them? Do you think it started and stopped with Celia and Jennifer?’

Lynne stops and turns back to me. Her face is ashen. ‘What? You think he… Oh my God!’ She puts her head in her hands.

‘Did you know?’

‘Of course, I didn’t.’

‘Jennifer fell in school a couple of weeks before the summer holiday. She kept saying her arm was hurting her, but the fall only left a graze. That sounds like she had other injuries.’

‘What? No. No. Why are you saying this?’

‘Someone hurt her, Lynne. Someone forcibly grabbed her and hurt her.’

Her face is red. She’s struggling to breathe through the tears.

‘Everything changed when he came here.’