But someone had wanted me to think that. Someone had planted those messages to frame Phil and gone back later to delete them – making it look like I had faked the whole thing. Someone wanted me to look paranoid, delusional. And that same someone had planted the medication at the garage for the police to find. I had no doubt that Mike was behind it. I just needed to prove it.
I went to the pub early and got myself a glass of wine. It was funny, I thought, how I was habitually late for almost every meeting or appointment except those that involved alcohol. The strength of my craving was frightening, enough to scare me into not touching my wine. I needed to get a grip – on my drinking and on my nerves.
Everything was becoming clearer. Mike had killed my sister, then set me up to frame someone else for it, and I was being forced to play happy families with him until the police figured this out. My legs trembled under the table.
By the time Adam and Rachel got to The Ship, I had bitten the inside of my lip so hard that it was bleeding and the shaking in my legs was almost uncontrollable. Adam clocked the full glass on the table but said nothing.
My mind was spinning – one thought had not finished before another began. Everything came to me in a jumble, my thoughts jumping from Mike to Amy, to Phil and back to Mike, from the funeral to the reading of the will and Amy’s car in the garage and that small grey room in the police station, everything blurring and blending into one.
There should have been an outcry, we should be protesting, banging on the door of the police station and demanding that they do more, dig deeper. Yet here we were, in the pub making chit-chat, while my sister’s murderer was free.
Adam asked how the kids were doing and Rachel answered before I could open my mouth – I suppose she still felt like she knew them better than I did. She was probably right. Besides, that wasn’t the most important thing right now.
I tuned out their conversation and let the thoughts come to me, trying my hardest to focus.
Mike was lying – he had been lying all along. He had lied so much, it was difficult to know where his lies ended and the truth began, like a tangled ball of string. Lies stacked on top of lies – all in an attempt to cover up what he had done to Amy. But this – Julie Knox – this was the first time I had caught him out and could prove it. This was a cold, hard, fact – a bare-faced lie that I could prove was untrue. This was my starting point – the end of my string. From here, this was where it would all unravel.
The Stables. Jennifer – she would be able to help me.
An idea hit me, and I gasped. Adam and Rachel stopped talking and stared at me.
‘Are you OK?’ said Adam. He didn’t wait for an answer, glancing anxiously at his watch. ‘That’s probably enough for now. I’ll settle up so we can get going.’
As soon as he was out of earshot, I grabbed Rachel’s arm. ‘It was Mike,’ I said, breathless. ‘Mike did it, I know he did.’
She sank in her seat, shaking her head. ‘You’ve got to let this go…’
‘No, listen – I know Mike is hiding something and I can prove it. But I need your help.’
I looked over Rachel’s shoulder to the bar, where Adam had been sidetracked into a conversation with Gina and a man in fishing overalls. Rachel twisted around to check that he wasn’t listening, and leaned in towards me.
‘What’s happened now? I thought you said you would leave it up to the police?’
‘Yes, yes. I know. But Mike lied about cheating on Amy, and then he lied about who he was cheating with, and I’ve thought of a way to find out who it was! And if we know that, then we can start to piece the rest together.’
She looked over her shoulder again, and I saw the desperate hope in her eyes for Adam to come back and talk some sense into me. ‘I just think…’ she began.
‘Rachel!’ I hissed. ‘You have got to help me. If I get this wrong again, he’ll cut me off from the kids for good. I just need to do this one thing and then I’ll hand everything to the police, I swear. Just cover for me while I make a phone call. Tell Adam I’m talking to Jake or something.’
She bit her lip and gave a resigned sigh. ‘All right. But keep it quick. I’m rubbish at lying.’
I slid out of the booth and slipped out of the pub’s side door into the street. It was a warm spring evening by Northumberland standards, but my teeth were chattering. I paced from foot to foot and wrapped my arms around myself as I dialled Jennifer Wheeler’s number.
She was surprised to hear from me, but she listened patiently as I explained the stalled investigation into Amy’s death. It didn’t take much to convince her how important it was to find out who Mike had stayed at the hotel with. She promised to head over to the hotel right away and call me as soon as she had checked the records.
We walked along the road in the direction of Amy’s. Adam kept checking his watch, and I realised he had probably coordinated with Auntie Sue to make sure that everyone arrived at the same time. For him this was
