Page 97 of Worse Than Murder

Gill coughs. ‘Too long. Years. Decades.’

‘I’m right, aren’t I? Travis reported his car stolen. The girls went missing. Your father was blackmailed to remove it from the file.’

Gill starts to cry. She stands up, goes over to the hallway door and closes it so we can’t be overheard. She returns to the sofa.

‘My daddidsteal that money,’ she says, her voice breaking. ‘Mum had not long since died. She had no insurance. You don’t think you’re going to need it, when you’re thirty.’

‘How did she die?’

‘She had a brain aneurysm. She went to bed one night, everything safe and normal, and didn’t wake up the next morning.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘With no second wage coming in, a funeral to pay for, mortgage, bills, food, and me, Dad couldn’t cope. Gideon was dead. That money was just sitting there.’

‘Who blackmailed your dad?’

‘I don’t know. He’s never told me. I’ve asked him until I’m blue in the face and he’s point-blank refused to name them.’

‘Do you have an inkling?’

‘No. I don’t. I really don’t. I know it’s horrible for me to say, but I’ve tried to forget. I’ve hoped and prayed that the case would remain unsolved, at least while my dad is still alive. I know he won’t be able to cope with it all coming out. Now the car has been found and the girls are in the back, I knew it wouldn’t be possible to keep it a secret. I thought– and I’m so sorry for this– but I thought if you were the one to expose it, people might turn on you rather than me and my dad.’

‘Thank you for that,’ I say, flippantly. ‘Well, I’ve got a serial killer in Sheffield after me; I suppose having an entire village wanting to lynch me on this side of the Pennines won’t make any difference.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she says again. She wipes her eyes with the backs of her hands. ‘What are you going to do?’

I remain silent while I think. ‘Whatever your dad is wanting to protect you from is clearly still a threat thirty years after the event. That can only mean one thing– whoever took Celia and Jennifer is still out there. It wasn’t Travis Montgomery. He was merely a scapegoat. The kidnapper is alive and well, keeping an eye on all of this and ready to strike when the truth is close to being revealed.’

‘Jack Pemberton?’ Gill asks.

‘Who else?’

‘So, he killed his daughters then faked his death to avoid capture. But why did Travis go missing?’

‘Maybe Jack killed him. Maybe Jack really has been watching his family from a distance, keeping an eye on his daughter growing up. Maybe he saw Travis and Lynne together, didn’t like it, so killed him.’

‘Yet, he was fine with Lynne marrying his brother?’ Gill asks.

‘Clearly.’

‘The question that springs to mind then is how do we find a man who doesn’t want to be found?’

‘We have to lure him out.’

‘How do we do that?’

I think for a moment, but nothing comes to mind. My head is too heavy. ‘I haven’t a fucking clue, Gill.’

‘Not running this morning?’

I turn to see Tania Pritchard approaching me. I’m standing by the edge of the lake. I’m wearing tracksuit bottoms and a thin hoodie. The coffee in my hand is untouched and now cold. I haven’t slept since Philip woke me last night. I tried to, after Gill left at dawn, but my mind wouldn’t settle.

‘Not this morning.’

‘Matilda, I want to apologise for yesterday. I know you think I’m hiding something from you, but I’m really not. Lionel has been sitting on a dark secret for thirty years. I know he knows more than he’s told me, but he won’t budge. At the end of the day, he knows I’m a cheap hack who’ll sell my soul for a front-page lead.’

‘You’re not, though, are you?’