school, all that nonsense. But if we have a press conference and everyone gets their photographs and our quotes then they won’t bother us.’
Sandra frowned and ran a hand through her hair. ‘Do you believe that?’
‘I think we’ll still have paparazzi around but what she says about the quid pro quo is fair. We do owe them, especially the TV people.’
They arrived at the ground floor and walked to the canteen.
‘What did she say, your mum?’
‘You won’t believe it,’ said Sandra. ‘Mum and Dad did have another daughter, but she died at birth. They’d never mentioned it. To anyone.’
Will stopped and stared at her open-mouthed.
‘I know. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? She never said anything, all these years.’
‘And the baby was called Eadie?’
Sandra nodded. ‘It was a family name.’
‘How the hell did Bella know?’
‘I wish I knew,’ she said. ‘Have you talked to your dad? About his father?’
‘He’s not answering his phone. You know what he’s like. Let’s get our coffee and I’ll try again.’
They joined the queue at the counter, picked up coffee and muffins, and took them to a free table. They sat down, and Will took out his mobile phone and phoned his father. This time his father answered. ‘Is everything okay?’ asked his father immediately. ‘Is Bella okay?’
‘She’s fine, Dad.’
‘I’m coming to the hospital tomorrow.’
‘There’s no need, Dad. She’ll be home soon. Really, she’s fine. Look, I have a quick question for you. What was your dad’s name?’ Will’s grandfather had died not long after his father had been born, felled by a major stroke after twenty years of smoking two packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day.
‘Arthur,’ said Will’s father. ‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Somebody was asking, that’s all. Look, I’ve got to go, I’ll let you know as soon as Bella’s home.’ He ended the call and stared at his wife in astonishment. ‘Bella was right,’ he said. ‘Grandpa Arthur. How could she know?’
‘Maybe your dad mentioned it sometime?’
‘Why would he?’
‘I don’t know, Will. He spends a lot of time with her. Maybe they talked about him.’
‘I don’t see why. Dad was just a kid when his dad passed away. And how do you explain the Eadie thing? Grandpa Arthur and Auntie Eadie, that’s what Bella said.’
‘What are you saying, Will? That she went to Heaven and met dead relatives that we didn’t know about?’ She laughed and shook her head. ‘That’s impossible.’
‘Is it?’ said Will. ‘You believe in Heaven, don’t you?’
‘Of course. But Bella didn’t die. She might have been unconscious for a few minutes but that’s not the same as dead, is it?’
‘I don’t know. I’m just trying to understand what happened.’
‘Does it matter?’ said Sandra. ‘We’ve got her back. That’s all I care about. Nothing else matters.’
Will smiled and nodded. ‘No arguments from me there,’ he said.
Sandra reached over and held his hand. ‘We should just count our blessings.’
47
Nightingale was wondering whether to light a cigarette or head down to the pub for a lunchtime drink when Jenny opened the door to his office. He looked up from his copy of the
‘Why would I knock? You’ve got no secrets from me.’
‘I could be in an embarrassing situation.’
‘I don’t consider struggling with the
Nightingale looked at the lab’s report. ‘That’s interesting.’
‘Well, it means that as you sure as hell didn’t set up the altar, it can only have been McBride.’ She dropped down onto the chair opposite him. ‘What do you think?’
Nightingale ran a hand through his hair. ‘I think that Jimmy McBride framed himself as a Satanist. Or at least was party to it. But why would he do that?’
‘Maybe he was disturbed. Schizophrenic, maybe. Perhaps he believed he was doing the work of the Devil.’
‘But nothing else about him points to that, does it? And while he might have set up the altar, he couldn’t have downloaded the Satanic stuff onto his computer. He didn’t have wi-fi.’
‘He could have taken the computer to somewhere that did have an internet connection.’
Nightingale shook his head. ‘It wasn’t a laptop,’ he said. ‘Someone else must have loaded the stuff onto his hard drive.’
‘But it was the cops who took it from his farmhouse.’
‘Exactly.’
‘So the cops helped frame him as a devil-worshipper? Is that what you’re saying?’
‘The cops. Or a cop. But here’s the thing, Jenny. He went out and killed eight kids and a teacher. Why does him being a Satanist make it more acceptable?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The whole world will know that he’s a child killer. Why bother to make it look like his motivation was tied in to devil-worship?’
Jenny shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea.’
‘There’s only one reason to do that, and that’s to distract from his real motivation. The Satanism thing is a distraction. He wanted us to think that’s why he killed those children.’
‘So you think he had another reason?’
‘I do. And I think that it all comes down to the children that he killed. There has to be some connection, some reason that he chose them. And whatever that reason was, he wanted to hide it. He didn’t want anyone to know the real reason he was killing them.’
‘This is pretty heavy stuff, Jack.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘What do you want to do?’
‘To be honest, I don’t know. I really don’t know.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Maybe a drink will help me think.’
‘Yeah, because alcohol is known to increase your IQ exponentially, right?’
Nightingale’s eyes narrowed. ‘Sarcasm?’
‘Barely concealed contempt, actually.’
‘So you don’t want to come to the pub with me?’
Jenny grinned. ‘I didn’t say that.’
48
Nightingale paid the barman and raised his bottle of Corona. Jenny clinked her glass of white wine against his bottle. ‘Here’s to a clear head,’ she said.
Nightingale chuckled and drank. ‘So here’s what I’m thinking,’ he said. ‘It started out looking as if McBride was a lone madman who was involved in black magic and Satanism. A nutter who just went crazy with a shotgun.
