“That’s not fair,” said Maddy. “We visited his parents often enough for me to learn about Alan from a baby to a teenager. They had loads of photos of Alan in his uniform, and from places that he’d visited on various trips.”
“Did he discuss his trips?” asked Lydia.
“He couldn’t,” said Maddy, “they were hush-hush.”
“We’ll ask Bob and Elizabeth later, perhaps they knew what ships he served on,” said Gus. “One last question for today, Mrs Telfer. Was there anyone that you came into contact with after you arrived here in Chippenham that could have had a reason to harm Alan Duncan?”
“No way,” said Maddy. “Everything I did when I reached here kept me safe. No relationships meant no chance of getting hurt. I’d had more than enough trouble over the previous three years. When I met Alan, I let myself believe I could love someone again. We were happy, and then after four years, someone tore him away from me. I was back where I started.”
“You found love again though, Maddy,” said Lydia, pointing to a family photo of her with Chris and the two kids.
Maddy gave a wry smile.
“Chris adores the children and me. I gave him what he always wanted. He gave me financial security. Love didn’t come into it.”
“If you could supply my colleague with those details for Kyle, Mrs Telfer,” said Gus. “We may need to speak with you again, but for now, thank you for your time.”
Gus left Lydia in the lounge with Maddy Telfer and returned to the car. He checked his watch. They had time to return to the office for a debrief before heading to Corsham. His initial feeling had proved correct. This case had more twists than a corkscrew, and no doubt there were several more surprise revelations to come before they discovered the whole truth.
CHAPTER 5
Lydia found Gus stood on the pavement by his car.
“What do you reckon these homes fetch?” he asked.
“Four hundred thousand, minimum,” said Lydia, “were you thinking of up sizing?”
“Heavens, no,” said Gus. “Did you get the gentleman’s details?”
Lydia waited until they were inside the Focus before speaking. A nosy neighbour was walking past with a puppy. Lydia thought she had bigger purses.
“Kyle Ellison, formerly from Marsden, West Yorkshire. The village is a forty-five-minute drive from Leeds and has around three-and-a-half-thousand inhabitants. The current whereabouts of the forty-five-year-old Kyle are thankfully a mystery to Mrs Telfer.”
“Check whether Ellison has a record when we get back to the office,” said Gus. “Get Blessing to search for him on social media. I’m not happy that Mrs Telfer has told us the whole truth yet. Did she offer any additional names and addresses?”
“No, guv,” said Lydia. “I guessed you left me alone with Maddy, hoping she might open up to me about her family. I pressed her for her birth name, but nothing doing. She wanted the past to stay in the past. What do you suggest?”
“We find Ellison, get proof of his whereabouts in the weeks leading up to the murder, and if he’s clean, then we forget him. Do we need to contact her family?”
“Maddy sends Christmas cards with no return address,” said Lydia. “That’s sad, isn’t it?”
“Her excuse was that it stops them worrying,” said Gus. “They know she’s alive and well. I assume her parents are still alive. If not, her brother can’t write back to tell Maddy to save the stamp. Oh, I don’t know, Maddy, or whoever she is, didn’t kill Alan Duncan. Kyle Ellison may have had a motive, but how could he hope to locate the victim? As for the rest of her West Yorkshire family, there might have been the traditional teenage squabbles, but pursuing her half the length of the country to murder her partner seems unlikely.”
Gus parked the Focus outside the Old Police station, and he and Lydia travelled up in the lift.
“What did you make of Maddy’s last comment, guv?” asked Lydia.
“That she married for convenience rather than love? She wouldn’t be the first, Lydia.”
“That’s cynical, guv,” she replied.
“Perhaps, but there’s more to come out yet. Ever since adopting the Maddy Mills persona, that woman has played a role. I’m not sure she can distinguish fact from fiction after twenty-five years.”
“You’ve got me there, guv. What did I miss?”
The lift doors opened.
“Let’s tell the others what we learned,” said Gus. “Get those details checked out, and update our copies of the digital files.”
Twenty minutes later, Blessing Umeh was digging on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Luke Sherman was asking the Hub if they had any information on Kyle Ellison.
Neil Davis searched census records for Marsden, West Yorkshire, for a family of two adults, with two children, where the eldest boy was called Darren. Neil knew he could search for some time. Somebody had to have the short straw.
“Let me in to the secret then, guv,” said Lydia.
“What was your first impression of Madeleine Telfer?” said Gus.
“A beautiful, smartly dressed, confident woman who looked younger than her forty-three years, guv.”
“When she was fifteen, her teachers said she could progress to university,” said Gus.
“Yes, then the good-looking-but-thick-boyfriend, Kyle, put paid to that,” said Lydia.
“Where did she work after she left school?” asked Gus.
“Three failed businesses, working for peanuts,” said Lydia.
“No, she worked for three start-up firms that didn’t make it. Maybe the right product at the wrong time. I wonder where those entrepreneurs are today? I wouldn’t mind betting that at least one of them has retired with a shed load of money. Why did they give the young school leaver a job? Because they recognised potential, someone with a sharp mind. Maddy didn’t say she did menial work, did she? I’d like
