‘And Mr Slaney?’ Cooper said.
‘Evan Slaney was just as much at fault with his delusions. It was he who prevented Reece from being brought to justice. If it hadn’t been for Slaney, it would all have been over and done with ten years ago. And we wouldn’t have had to go through this nightmare.’
‘He feels betrayed,’ said Cooper.
‘Oh, we were all betrayed, Inspector.’
‘And you managed to keep up the pretence that Reece had just disappeared,’ said Cooper in amazement.
She smiled. It was a tight, humourless smile.
‘I learned that from an expert,’ she said.
‘But it was Lacey who brought the knife that day,’ said Cooper. ‘She got it from her uncle’s workshop.’
‘Possibly.’
‘Oh, I know that’s true.’
‘Then why are you asking me?’
‘What I want to know,’ said Cooper, ‘is who actually stabbed him?’
‘I couldn’t say.’
‘Couldn’t say? You were there, Mrs Heath, so you must know. Who stabbed Reece Bower?’
She didn’t answer directly.
‘It was an accident really. When it happened, we panicked. I don’t suppose we were thinking straight, any of us. You do stupid things in the heat of the moment, don’t you? And with three of us together, it seemed to make things worse. None of us was able to think it through logically. Someone said we should hide the body.’
‘So you buried him?’
‘We couldn’t have taken him far. A body is heavy, as we found out. Oh, I suppose the three of us could have lifted him into the boot of a car with a bit of struggle, but the cars were out at the front on the drive, right by the road. All our neighbours would have seen what we were up to.’
‘Yes, I’m sure they would.’
‘So there was only one option. The back garden isn’t overlooked. Frances remembered the police searching it when Annette disappeared. They thought it was the most logical place to dispose of a body. And so it was. And that’s what we did.’
‘All three of you?’
She nodded. ‘We spent a lot of time digging. I can’t believe how shallow the grave was when we finished because it seemed to have taken us so long. And then not all the soil would go back in again. It seems obvious, but we hadn’t accounted for that. It took us another hour to disperse it throughout the garden so it wouldn’t be noticed.’
Naomi stared into the distance, somewhere beyond the confines of the tiny interview room.
‘It’s funny, you know,’ she said. ‘Once you set out on a job like that, there’s no going back. We couldn’t put him in the hole, then change our minds and dig him up again, could we? The evidence was too damning. We’d already moved him, put him in the bin bags, dragged him out into the garden. There would have been no way of explaining all that when the police came knocking. When you came knocking, Detective Inspector Cooper. Besides, we thought, without a body...’
‘There would no murder charge?’ said Cooper.
‘Well, Reece got away with it.’
‘It wasn’t because there was no body. He would have been tried, and probably convicted, if it hadn’t been for the sighting of Annette alive and well in Buxton.’
‘Oh, Annette’s father,’ said Naomi. ‘What a gullible old idiot.’
‘Tell me one thing,’ said Cooper.
‘What? Isn’t it all clear for you?’
‘There will be a lot of questions yet, I’m afraid,’ said Cooper.
‘Oh, of course. You have to build a case. Make sure the Crown Prosecution Service have a reasonable likelihood of a successful prosecution.’
Cooper read in her sardonic smile a reference to the failure of the charges against Reece Bower ten years ago. They were probably the exact phrases that someone had used then, perhaps the SIO herself, Hazel Branagh, as she explained why the prosecution would not go ahead after all. Naomi Heath wasn’t around at the time, but the words would have been remembered very clearly by Frances Swann, he imagined. They were the words that had killed any chance of justice for Annette Bower.
‘What I want to know,’ said Cooper, ‘is why you didn’t just dispose of Reece’s wallet and phone — or even bury them with him in that shallow grave? Why did you decide to plant them at locations in Lathkill Dale? Whose idea was that?’
‘It was Frances’s idea,’ she said. ‘She wanted to force you into searching the dale. Frances always believed you would find Annette if you looked hard enough, if you searched thoroughly, in the proper way that didn’t happen all those years ago.’
Naomi looked straight at Cooper. He saw satisfaction in her eyes.
‘And you know what?’ she said with triumphant smile. ‘It worked.’
Back in his office, Cooper was reflecting on the interviews and waiting for Lacey Bower to be brought in from Sheffield. He was convinced the three women had been in on the death of her father together but though the circumstantial evidence was strong, he wasn’t any closer to knowing who had struck the fatal blow. That was a crucial question.
He suddenly jerked upright and looked at his watch. It was time to put in the call he was dreading.
He dialled his brother’s number at Bridge End Farm, and it seemed a long time before the phone was picked up.
‘Hello.’
‘It’s Ben. What did they say, Matt?’
And Matt said just one word:
‘Malignant.’
31
Six days ago
Frances Swann stared at Reece Bower as if he were a complete stranger. His face looked drawn and haggard, but there was a strange light in his eyes, as if he was getting a thrill from the story he was telling her.
‘I can’t believe my ears,’ she said. ‘Is this some kind of joke?’
‘No joke,’ he said. ‘It’s all true, Frances.’
‘So Lacey was right. You’ve lived a lie all these years. You’ve made us all live a lie.’
Frances turn to look at Naomi. She was sitting back in an armchair as if it was a perfectly normal day, an afternoon with the family. Yet when Frances looked closer, she could see Naomi’s body was rigid. Her knuckles were pale, the tendons stood out on her neck, and a red flush was rising to her cheeks.
Reece made a dismissive gesture, as if it was all a fuss over nothing.
‘Don’t make a big drama out of it,’ he said. ‘So Lacey has let the cat out of the bag. But we’ve all got to carry on as normal.’
‘Why? For you?’
‘Yes, Frances.’
‘And what about Annette?’
Naomi spoke for the first time. Her voice was distant.
‘Reece, tell us exactly what happened.’
‘Okay, okay. Well, it was a quiet day. It was a Thursday, late in October. The schools were back and the holiday season was over. I remember it had been raining in the morning, but Annette fancied she could tell from the sky that it would clear up. She liked to think she could read the clouds. So we got in the car and set off to Lathkill Dale for a walk. Because it was so quiet we managed to get right down to one of the parking places just above the mill. That was lucky. Otherwise, it’s murder coming back up that steep hill to the car park.’
He paused, licked his lips, as if reflecting on what he’d just said.
‘And she was right,’ he continued. ‘It had cleared up by the time we got out of the car. Annette was always right.’
‘Was no one else around in Lathkill Dale?’
Bower shook his head. ‘The rain had kept everyone else away.’
‘Go on.’
‘Well, we walked some way up the dale, then Annette wanted to divert off the path to look at the old mine workings. But there must have been an unmarked shaft... She fell, just disappeared from view. I don’t know how far, but it was a long way down. I could hear her screams as her body bounced off the stone. And then there was a thud, far away. She was quiet after that. Very quiet. So quiet that I didn’t have any doubts... Yes, I called out to her, but there was nothing. I knew then.’