Page 138 of Worse Than Murder

‘Mum, you’re scaring me. What’s happened?’

Lynne stops and turns to her as if seeing her for the first time. ‘Alison?’ Her voice is quiet.

‘Mum, what are you doing out so late? You’re shivering. What’s going on?’

‘I saw your dad.’

Alison recoils. ‘What?’

‘Your dad. I saw him. He looked almost the same as he did thirty years ago.’

‘Mum, you’re not making any sense. Why don’t you come inside?’

‘I don’t know what to believe anymore, Alison. We killed him. We killed your dad. Yet, he’s still there. He looked straight at me.’

‘Mum, what do you mean, you killed him? You can’t have killed him.’ Alison grabs her mother, pulls her into a hug and coaxes her towards the cottage.

‘I killed your dad, Alison. I killed him. And he’s come back for me.’

* * *

I drive the Porsche at speed through the dark streets of High Chapel. There’s no other traffic around. I saw Lynne Pemberton run away from the restaurant and into the woods. She turned back and watched as the flames took hold. Yet, from the look in her eyes, even from a distance, I could tell she wasn’t in full control of what she was doing. It was then when everything seemed to fall into place.

Lynne and Iain recently celebrated their wedding anniversary and had gone to their favourite restaurant in Kendal, a good forty minutes’ drive away, yet they had never been to Nature’s Diner. Why? Clearly the answer is because they don’t want to be in the same building as a body they placed in the cellar thirty years ago when the building was derelict. But there are other things, too. When I saw Lynne alone at the edge of the lake, she told me to go home, to leave High Chapel. I thought it was a threat, but now I see it was a warning. Lynne told me to leave before more damage could be done. Damage by whom? Lynne, herself? Iain?

Lynne and Iain had been in love when they were teenagers. He couldn’t have children, and she yearned for them. She dumped him for his brother. How would that have made him feel? Angry? Bitter? Disappointed? Enraged? Murderous? He’d had to sit back and watch as Lynne and Jack created a perfect happy family unit while he remained at home with his father working on a farm that was haemorrhaging money. Yes, their affair had been rekindled, but it wasn’t enough. Iain didn’t want to sleep with Lynne when the opportunity arose behind Jack’s back; he wanted something more. He wanted the oldest motive for murder: revenge.

I swing the car around the corner and slam on the brakes when I see Alison and Lynne standing in the middle of the road.

* * *

At the restaurant, two paramedics run towards Tania who is struggling to put Claire into the recovery position and keep her warm. They push her to one side and take over. They check Claire’s airways and put a mask over her nose and mouth. There is nothing more for Tania to do. She runs around to the front of the restaurant, not taking her eyes from the burning building. She sees Matilda’s friend, Adele, being placed on a stretcher and then into the back of an ambulance and the Meagan family receiving treatment with red blankets around their shoulders.

‘What’s happened? Are you all okay?’ she asks.

‘We’re fine.’

‘Claire Daniels has been attacked. The paramedics are with her now. Did you see anything?’

‘We were asleep. We didn’t know anything until the alarm woke us up,’ Sally says.

‘Matilda woke me up,’ Philip adds.

Tania looks around her. ‘WhereisMatilda? Is she…?’

‘She said something about going to see the Pembertons.’

‘What? Now?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did she say why?’

‘No,’ Philip says. ‘But judging by the look on her face, I think it’s something big.’

‘Jesus. I should go over there. If you see the police, tell them where I’ve gone.’ Tania backs away and skirts around the fire engines to return to her Punto. ‘Why do I get the feeling I’m about to do something completely stupid?’ she asks herself.

* * *