Page 81 of Worse Than Murder

‘Hmm.’ I think about me and James. I’d thought we were meant to be, but I was robbed of him after less than ten years of marriage. It wasn’t fair. Lynne had married who she assumed was her first love, but was she happy?

What does happiness fucking mean anyway?

‘Do you think Iain knew about the affair between Lynne and Travis?’ I ask. I really should stop my mind going off on a tangent.

‘I’m not sure. Why?’

‘Well, Lynne came to see me in the restaurant and told me all about Jack admitting to abusing the twins. I did tell you about that, didn’t I?’

‘Yes.’

‘Sorry, my mind is all over the place at the moment. Anyway, I’ve just been to see Iain and Lynne, and Iain clearly knows she told me about the abuse, but she didn’t mention she’d had an affair with Travis when that came up. I’m guessing Iain doesn’t know about it.’

‘It doesn’t have anything to do with him though. She was married to Jack at the time. Not Iain. When you were married, did your husband know about all your exes?’

‘Definitely not.’

‘There you go, then,’ Tania says, reaching for a chocolate caramel muffin.

‘So, Lynne and Travis have an alibi for when the twins were taken. Jack doesn’t. Iain does. I’d like to speak to Inspector Lionel Bell.’

‘Why?’

‘I get the feeling there’s more going on with the original investigation than Lynne knows about. They mentioned something about Lionel stealing some money, yet I didn’t see any of that mentioned when I was looking online the other night.’

‘No. You wouldn’t,’ Tania says, a firmness in her voice.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ve known Lionel for as long as I can remember. I don’t believe he did steal that money, so I refused to write about it.’

‘What happened?’

‘Gideon Oliver was the same rank as Lionel Bell. They worked well together. Gideon finds out he’s got cancer and leaves work. The village turns out in force and raises thousands for him so he can pay his mortgage and bills. We did all sorts for him. Next thing, Gideon finds out that the cancer has spread like wildfire. He’s dead within a week, bless him. He was only forty-one. Anyway, we’d raised all this money, and nobody knew what to do with it. I don’t know how the rumour got out, but the whole village is talking about Lionel having it in his bank account.’

‘Did he admit it?’

‘Well, he admitted it was there because it was, but he was clueless to how it got there.’

‘He would say that, though, wouldn’t he?’

Tania composes herself. ‘He turned up on my doorstep one night in floods of tears. He swore on his wife’s life that he did not take that money. I believed him.’

‘Yet he still resigned from the force.’

‘He had no choice. Mud sticks, especially around here.’

‘Who had the money in the first place, before it ended up in Lionel’s bank account?’

‘It was held in an account the newspaper opened to collect all the donations and everything we raised.’

‘So,youhad access to the bank account?’

‘Not just me: anyone who worked on the paper. It was a bank book back in those days. We didn’t have cards and PINs. Anyone could have accessed the money if they had the bank book. Look, Matilda, Lionel is a good man. I believed him. I still do.’

I nod. ‘I think something is happening, here. I think this goes right back to when the twins went missing. For thirty years, someone has been trying to control this narrative to hide the truth; and with the car, and possibly the twins, being found, they’re worried it’s all going to come crashing down around them.’

‘Who?’