Page 24 of Worse Than Murder

‘Not that I’m aware of. It really was as if they vanished off the face of the earth. I mean,’ she looks around her to make sure no-one is listening and lowers her voice, ‘When Carl was taken, there was a ransom, wasn’t there? Not with the Pemberton twins.’

‘Speaking as a detective, in a case like this, we look close to home for the perpetrators. Anything about Jack and Lynne?’

‘No. I don’t think… hang on,’ she stops in her work again. A heavy frown appears on her forehead. ‘I don’t think either of them had alibis. Lynne was home alone. I mean, she was looking after the kiddies, but they were out. Jack… I don’t know where he was, possibly out on the farm with Iain. That’s another thing as well. Travis Montgomery.’

I remember the name from one of the news articles I’d printed off last night. ‘Who’s he?’

‘He worked on the farm for a while. There was a rumour– now I’m only telling you this because of what I heard, I’ve no evidence of it myself– but there was a rumour that Travis and Lynne were carrying on.’ She practically whispers those last two words.

‘Carrying on as in having an affair?’

‘I don’t think it was a full-blown affair or anything, but there was talk, and you know what they say…’ she says, leaving the comment hanging in the air.

‘No smoke without fire,’ I finish for her.

‘Precisely.’

‘Does Travis still live around here?’

‘No. He wasn’t local. He went back home not long after Jack went.’

That raises a few more questions. ‘What did everyone in the village think happened to Celia and Jennifer?’

‘Well, let’s just say people held onto their kids a bit more closely after they went missing. Understandable, isn’t it? Two pretty girls like that, it doesn’t take a detective to twig on why they were taken. No offence.’

I smile. ‘None taken. And Jack disappearing like he did, what did people make of that?’

‘Jack was always a quiet man. He suffered with depression, had done since he was a child, according to Lynne. Something big like that happens, I suppose he’s a ticking time bomb. You have to wonder what was going through his mind to leave Alison on the back seat of the car during a storm and walk out into the lake.’

‘You think he deliberately drowned himself.’

‘I do.’

‘Yet, there have been sightings of him.’

‘There have. I’m not sure what to make of those. They upset Lynne, that’s for sure. I mean, she can’t move on.’

‘Are you close to Lynne?’

‘Not as close as I used to be. We had kids the same age. She had the twins in the September. I had my Rupert in the December. I think she found it difficult to be around me straight afterwards.’

‘Do you know what Lynne makes of all these sightings of Jack?’

She sighs. ‘The same as us all, I suppose. If one person had seen him, you’d think it was a trick of the light or something, maybe even someone who looks a bit like him, but they kept on coming. You have to start believing them, don’t you?’ May pulls out a chair at the table she’s cleaning and slumps into it. ‘As I said, I’ve known Lynne for decades. I honestly don’t know how she’s coped. She’s completely different to how she once was. I mean, it’s going to change you, isn’t it, everything she’s been through, but she was always such a happy, confident woman. Before the girls went, she worked all hours as a midwife, she ran about this village helping anyone and everyone, a real backbone. Then, well, it was as if all the life had been torn from her. You look at her now and you can see she’s a shadow of her former self. I hardly recognise her myself.’

‘Lucky she has Iain.’

‘Yes.’

‘How long was it after Jack disappeared before she and Iain got together?’

May sucks in her lips as she thinks. ‘Do you know, I’ve no idea. I never expected Iain to settle down. I know he doesn’t look much now, but he was a very handsome man when he was younger. Tall, thick dark hair, broad shoulders. You saw him most weekends with a different woman on his arm. He seemed to get caught up in Lynne and Jack’s tragedies and realised family was more important. He did a lot for Lynne after the twins went missing. When they announced they were getting married, it just seemed right. We were all happy for them. It was about time Lynne had some good luck for a change.’

I’m starting to get a headache. Is it so strange for Lynne to marry her brother-in-law following the disappearance of her husband? Was it love that brought them together or a shared grief? The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Jack’s disappearance was through guilt rather than grief. If so, how much do Iain and Lynne know, and what are they keeping from Alison? Then there’s the mysterious Travis Montgomery. Were he and Lynne having an affair? If so, why didn’t she turn to him when Jack had gone and not Iain? Or did she shun Travis because she felt guilty for cheating on her husband?

There’s that word guilt again. Maybe guilt has nothing to do with any of this. Maybe it’s me feeling guilty about my actions leading to the deaths of my family and I’m trying to force it onto them so that I’ll feel better.

‘Or, perhaps I’m overthinking things.’