When the police had interviewed her, she had apparently tried to implicate me. Eventually, it had been a handwriting analyst, as well as internet provider address checks that had exonerated my involvement in the fraud.
With Turner not responding to any contact attempts from Rob, Mum had become angrier and was suspecting Rob of having duped her. He had told her, like he had told me, that it was a done deal – a deal which should have been done a week before.
“I’ve been wracking my brains all night, and I never got a hint of what was going on.” I tell DI Green. “But I have remembered one thing.”
“Go on.”
“My mum arrived the night before Rob died, and they were having words in the garden. I was in the house and couldn’t hear what they were saying. But something was off.”
“She seemed quite normal the next morning, though me and her had disagreed strongly over how she was treating my dad. But she took Jack to school.” I feel sick to the stomach for ever trusting her with my son.
“Rob, as we know, called in at his ex-wife’s house. According to Denise’s neighbour, who was around there, he gave her some maintenance money and was apologising for getting mixed up with the arrangements at the weekend.”
That’s not what Denise told me. “At least she can’t blacken his name anymore.”
“Rob then met your mother at the farmhouse shop café. We eventually got footage of their meeting off their antiquated security camera system.” PC Robinson leans back in his chair and yawns. “I’m sorry. It was a late one yesterday.”
“The café is about a mile before the site of his accident,” I say.
“Which explains the time of it.” DI Green adds. “Your mum didn’t believe Turner had simply disappeared. She wanted what she believed she was owed, before setting off to Devon. On the day she left, she apparently had no intention of returning.”
“Poor Dad,” I stare down at the table.
DI Green takes a sip from her paper cup. “She was angry. Not only was she not getting her cut of the money from Rob, but she said Rob had threatened her at the café with telling your Dad about her affair.”
“She was desperate for my dad not to find out. I thought it was mostly because of his depression.”
PC Robinson rubs his eye. “It seems to have more to do with what she stood to lose. She is very bitter.”
DI Green looks at her watch. “Your mum wanted everything on her terms, and to let your Dad find out, or not find out, whenever and however it was best for her.”
“It’s very noble of Rob to have wanted to put a stop to my mum’s affair, but I don’t see how he could come over all high and mighty with anyone, not after his relationship with Bryony.”
“Bryony has told us it was strictly a platonic friendship, albeit a deep one,” says DI Green, with an expression like she is trying to make me feel better. “From what I’ve heard from you all, your husband’s anger towards your mother was mainly due to how she was treating you.” She flicks her fringe from her eyes. “Making you lie, whilst pretending she was spending time with you and your son.”
“It was this threat of the money being scuppered, and your Dad finding out before she was ready for him to know – that’s what seems to have tipped her over the edge.”
“What do you mean? Tipped her over the edge.”
“Fiona.” She pauses for a couple of seconds. I know what she’s going to tell me, and I do not want her to say the words. But she does anyway. “It’s your mother who killed your husband. Though she claims to have set out to only injure him. To give him a warning. Obviously, she didn’t bank on him landing on his neck and severing his spine.”
I rub at my head again. The room feels like it is tilting. “And then she brazenly drove on to Devon?”
She nods. “After, it would seem, she pretended to be you, having her blown out tyre fixed.”
It’s all falling into place. She’s looked nothing like her age. “But – they had my registration number.”
“She gave it to them. We’ve been back again first thing this morning and checked. They did the tyre replacement outside and then went into the office to fill in the paperwork. The young mechanic couldn’t be bothered checking on the exact registration of the car he had fixed. He said he had no reason to suspect your mother was giving him a different registration. I think she’d been very flattering towards him and had promised to come to him for more repairs”
I can’t help feeling aghast at my mother being so brazen. “The young lad was only about twenty-two.”
“Don’t worry. He’s in plenty of trouble with his boss,” PC Robinson adds.
“I was thinking it was Denise who’d killed Rob. She’s got damage to her car too.”
“Coincidence, it would seem. She made no secret of her disdain for Rob when we spoke to her, but you were our main suspect.”
“It was the information from the garage that went against you.” A dark look crosses PC Robinson’s face. “We got it wrong. Sometimes we do.”
“And what did Shane have to do with it all? Other than having an affair?”
“We have charged him with perverting the course of justice. If he’d come forward earlier, he could have saved a lot of heartache.”
“How?”
PC Robinson looks at DI Green as if to check how much he’s allowed to tell me.
She nods at him.
“When your mother arrived in Devon that Monday, Shane had already decided he was going to return to his wife and two sons.”
“I already knew that. She showed up at mine in a right state. Got drunk
