Disordered Minds

probably thought she'd be spotted before she even reached the end of the road.'

'Why wasn't she?'

'Pass.'

'Dear, dear, dear! You're expecting me to swallow more coincidences than I ever offered you. It's complete nonsense, Jon. You must see that.'

He held up his hands in mock surrender. 'I'm simply playing devil's advocate on behalf of the fat controller. I said I'd run it past you and I have.'

'Do you believe it?'

Jonathan considered for a moment. 'Andrew's looking for anyone other than Howard to be guilty ... and he prefers Mr. Burton or Mr. Trevelyan because he likes the symmetry of child abuse running through the story.'

George pulled a face. 'You're supposed to be bringing a critical eye to bear on the evidence.'

He grinned. 'Then I'll tell you what I do believe. When Louise told Andrew she looked through Grace's window on the Tuesday, it was done deliberately to implicate Roy and his friends.'

George squinted at him again. 'Why?'

'I don't know ... unless it's the truth...'

'She always picks blokes who're violent,' Rachel said. 'The one she's got at the moment gave her a black eye a few weeks ago. That's why Billy's worried about her. You could argue it's bad luck, except that, for a while, she was married to one of the boys who raped Cill. We don't understand that at all, because she must have known what she was getting into. She'll tell you she didn't know their names and couldn't identify them, but she'll be lying.'

'It wasn't an accident that we all hooked up on the the day of the rape,' said Billy. 'Cill and Lou knew where to find them, so they must have been with them before. There's no way she wouldn't have recognized Roy when she saw him.'

'Who's Roy?'

'Roy Trent ... manages a pub in Highdown. He's the one Lou married.' Billy shook his head. 'He's a right bastard ... raped Cill twice then kicked her. So why would Lou want to marry a man like that? I can't get my head round it at all.'

Sasha smiled slightly. 'Better the devil you know?' she suggested. 'She'd have had more power in a relationship where she held a bargaining chip. Secrets are powerful weapons. You made that point yourselves in reference to the way your parents treated her.'

'Then why leave him for someone she can't control?' asked Rachel. 'It doesn't make sense.'

'Only because you're assuming a rationale behind her behavior which probably doesn't exist. If Roy was an inadequate lover, she'd move on to a man who was better.'

''She can't go on doing it forever,' said Rachel with a moue of disapproval. 'She's no spring chicken anymore.'

'I shouldn't think age has anything to do with it but, in any case, you said she's trying to look like Cill at thirteen, so perhaps she wants to act thirteen as well.'

'That's pathetic.'

'Yes,' Sasha agreed soberly, 'but, if your husband's right about his father, then she's a very damaged woman. Louise would have learned at ten or eleven that orgasm equals relationship ... so how can a relationship exist without it? It would explain why she cut Billy out of her life, and why she isn't interested in you or your children. She lacks the skill to handle nonsexual relationships.'

'She hasn't spoken to Dad in years,' said Billy, 'just took money off him.'

'I expect she felt she'd earned it.' There was a brief silence while Billy and Rachel digested this.

'God!' said Rachel abruptly. 'I hope we're not wrong about this. It's a hell of an accusation against a seventy- year-old.'

Billy looked at Sasha. 'What do you think?'

She hesitated, wondering how blunt she could be. 'I'm no expert,' she warned, 'but you've described a common background for abuse. Absent mother, touchy-feely father, secretive behavior, taboo subjects-he certainly had the opportunity.'

'Is that a yes?'

'I'd certainly like to talk to him about Cill. As far as I know, he wasn't interviewed at the time of her disappearance.' She watched Billy's expression turn to anxiety. 'It's what you suspect, isn't it? That he knows what happened to her? Your mother, too?'

He looked devastated, as if he'd wanted her to say the opposite. 'Yes,' he admitted. 'And Louise.'

'It certainly sounds as if he was using your sister as a procurer, although I wouldn't think she understood what role she was playing until she brought Cill into the house. You said she was jealous and uppity, so I'm guessing she realized that your father was getting bored with her.' She paused. 'As a matter of interest, how did she react when the boys paid more attention to Cill on the day of the rape?'

'She teased them about being virgins. It's what got them steamed up.'

'So she contributed to what happened?'

Billy covered his eyes again. 'She made Cill come back to help her, and that's when they jumped her.'

'What did Louise do?'

'Curled into a ball,' he said harshly. 'Me, too, if it comes to that. Neither of us did a damn thing ... just let it happen.'