Page 139 of Worse Than Murder

‘What’s going on?’ I ask, getting out of the car.

‘I don’t know,’ Alison says, wiping away her tears. ‘Mum said she saw Dad, but then she said she killed him, too. It’s like she’s in a trance or something. I don’t know what to do.’

‘Let’s get her inside.’

Together, we both walk Lynne into Alison’s cottage, into the living room, and sit her down on the sofa. Alison grabs a blanket from the back of the sofa and wraps it around her mum’s shoulders. She’s still shaking.

‘Lynne, it’s Matilda, can you hear me?’ My voice is calm despite the rage I can feel coursing through my veins. Lynne could have killed an entire family tonight. Actions have consequences, and I’ll not forget the look of horror on Carl’s face as he lowered himself out of the window for as long as I live.

Lynne nods.

‘I think I know what’s going on, but you’re going to have to tell me yourself. I saw you, just now, running away from Nature’s Diner. You set it on fire, didn’t you?’

‘What?’ Alison exclaims. ‘No. She wouldn’t. She?—’

I silence her by raising my hand.

‘Lynne, you went down into the cellar, didn’t you? You saw the body behind the wall. You saw Jack.’

She nods. ‘I don’t know what I expected,’ she begins. Her voice is barely above a whisper. ‘After thirty years, I thought I’d be looking at a skeleton. I saw… I saw an actual body. He still had his hair. He was wearing his clothes. He was in the same position I’d left him in. How? How is that possible?’

‘He was mummified. There was no air. You basically sealed him in a tomb.’

‘Wait,’ Alison says. ‘Mum didn’t kill my dad. She… didn’t. She couldn’t.’

‘It was Iain who told you to set fire to the body, wasn’t it?’ I ask. ‘It was Iain who told you that Jack had abused the twins and killed them. He said you should kill him to stop him abusing Alison. What happened? Did he kill Jack and tell you to help him hide the body?’

She nods.

‘No,’ Alison cries out, grabbing her mother’s hand. ‘I don’t believe a word of this.’

‘Everyone has said your mum changed after Celia and Jennifer disappeared and when your father supposedly walked out into the lake. It’s understandable, but the change wasn’t through grief. It was manufactured.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Do you ever go out with your mum, just the two of you?’

Alison frowns. ‘Sometimes.’

‘Answer me truthfully.’

It’s a while before she speaks. ‘No.’

‘Why not? What about mother and daughter shopping trips? Nights out for a drink in the local pub, or to the cinema?’

‘I… I don’t… we…’

‘Does she ever come over here to the cottage for a coffee and a chat?’

‘No. I always go over to the stables.’

‘Why?’

‘What?’

‘Why doesn’t she come here on her own?’

‘I… she’s… she’s busy with the paddocks and everything.’