Lulu sighed in relief. ‘So the memories he’s accessing are real. Sometimes they’re not.’
Carol cupped her hands round her mug. ‘You know, it’s silly, but I still think about that little rabbit. About what happened to it. It’s probably sealed in a police evidence bag somewhere, forgotten in the archives.’
‘What do you think happened to them? To Duncan and Maggie and Isla?’
‘Oh, goodness.’
Lulu waited.
‘The police think they went off somewhere, voluntarily,’ Carol said carefully.
‘But you don’t believe that?’
Silence. Then: ‘No. I don’t. Duncan would never have gone off like that and left Nick. And Isla’s rabbit . . . If they’d decided for some reason that they needed to disappear, they wouldn’t have left Isla’s favourite bunny behind. They doted on that child. My husband thinks it was one of the young offenders Duncan used to mentor – which would explain the third mug and bowl and spoon. He thinks they invited one of them for lunch and the yob went psycho. Or maybe it was one of Dean Reid’s relatives. The boy who was murdered? Has Nick told you about that?’
‘Um . . . no?’
There had been mention of a murder in that YouTube clip, Lulu remembered.
‘A few weeks before the disappearance, one of the boys on Duncan’s programme, Dean Reid, was murdered at The Phoenix Centre. There was a big mix-up and Duncan was arrested for it and charged, but evidence soon came to light clearing him. My husband thinks one of Dean Reid’s relatives might have thought Duncan got away with the murder and took revenge.’
‘But you don’t think that?’
Carol took a sip of tea. ‘No. I’m afraid I’ve always thought Maggie must have . . . I don’t know. Had one of her mad turns. A murder-suicide is what I suspect. Maggie was a troubled soul. Could even be quite – violent. Nick was always sure that she murdered Dean Reid too.’
‘But why would he think that?’
‘Dean was a real little tearaway. Had been giving Duncan grief. Making things up about him, like Duncan had hit him. Even tried to blackmail him for a thousand pounds. Nick thought Maggie flipped and killed him.’
‘And do you think she could have? I mean, she was tiny, wasn’t she?’
‘Though she be but little, she is fierce.’ Carol grimaced. ‘Oh, you wouldn’t have wanted to pick a fight with Maggie.’
Really? Lulu thought of the petite woman in that wedding photo, sunnily smiling.
‘Wouldn’t she have been incapable, physically, of – well, of disposing of Duncan’s body?’
‘She probably had help from one of her delinquent friends. Maggie had mixed with all sorts. She probably called one of them and got him to take Duncan’s body away and deal with it.’
A man with a van.
It was so surreal, sitting here talking to this nice woman in her nice conservatory about body disposal options.
‘So how did Maggie seem, that morning, when you picked Nick up?’
‘Oh, I didn’t see her. I picked Nick up from the end of the drive as usual. There was a little sort of hut there where he used to wait for the school bus. A lot of country properties have them.’
As Carol walked Lulu to the Audi, sheltering them both under a huge red and yellow golf umbrella, another vehicle appeared, snaking along the driveway towards them between the lawns.
‘Here’s my son, Andy.’
The car came to a halt, and a giant of a man unfolded himself from the driver’s seat. He must have been six-five at least and was very well built. He gave Lulu a shy smile. He had a scar running through his mouth that pulled one side of his face down.
‘Andy, this is Nick’s wife, Lulu,’ said Carol, with the air of presenting him with a wonderful surprise.
But Andy gaped at Lulu as if he’d just seen an alien jump from her stomach.
‘Nick’s back!’ Carol burbled on. ‘Well, for a couple of weeks, anyway. I was thinking, Lulu, it would be lovely if you and Nick had time to come round for dinner, and you can join us, Andy. We can have a proper reunion!’
Andy was still standing with his mouth open, rain pouring down his face, and Lulu remembered, now, that Nick had suggested that Andy maybe wasn’t playing with a full set. Lulu gave him a warm smile and told Carol that would be lovely.
She’d just got back to Sunnyside and secreted the Audi back in the garage when her phone chirped. Michael.
‘Lulu, it’s Yvonne. I think she’s in trouble.’
14
Maggie - October 1997
At the back door, Maggie handed Duncan a pair of gardening gloves. ‘Here you go. And here’s the repellent.’ He was going to be clipping the yew trees at the bottom of the garden, and they were always full of midgies, apparently. Midgies couldn’t get enough of Duncan.
‘You think of everything!’ He put an arm round her, leaning over to nuzzle Isla in the baby carrier on Maggie’s chest. He hadn’t said anything about the fact that Maggie was now taking Isla with her wherever she went. It was the October holidays, and Nick was at home all the time, so no way was Maggie trusting Isla out her sight.
Maybe Duncan had decided to humour her.
‘I think that baby monitor we have could be buggered,’ she said. ‘You know you thought maybe the voice I heard on it, the voice I thought was Nick, was the radio? The radio definitely wasn’t on, but Pam was saying a woman told her she started picking up weird stuff on her monitor, deep voices effing and blinding, like her baby was possessed. Turned out it was tuned to the frequency a local security firm used on their walkie-talkie thingmies. I was wondering if maybe ours has been picking up some other bastard’s monitor.’
Aye, right.
There were no near neighbours apart from Yvonne and Michael, so it didn’t make sense, but Duncan was nodding along. Any explanation for what had been going on in this family, other than Nick is a psycho or Maggie is a loony, would float his boat.
‘We should replace it, then,’ he said.
‘I was thinking I might go into town and get one from that baby shop. Will be expensive, mind. Can I take some cash from the drawer?’