‘What I don’t understand is why you didn’t kill Ella instead of your father,’ Geraldine said. ‘With Ella out of the way, you would have been able to persuade your father not to tell anyone that you killed your husband. Your father would have done anything for you.’

Jessica shook her head. ‘I couldn’t kill Ella,’ she replied. ‘She told me she had her boyfriend locked in her cellar, and she said she was going to put me down there with him if I tried to take Daisy back.’ She shuddered. ‘I was afraid of what he would do to me down there. Ella frightened me.’

‘Pete isn’t going to do anything to anyone ever again,’ Ian told her.

‘Nor is Ella,’ Geraldine added.

She did not explain that Ella was going to spend the rest of her life behind bars, probably in a secure mental institution. Nor did she add that a similar fate might await Jessica.

‘So you killed your father?’ Ian repeated.

Jessica burst into tears. ‘No, no. Don’t keep saying that. He was my father. How could I kill him? Do you think I’m a monster?’

Geraldine saw her own surprise reflected in Ian’s face, but neither of them made any attempt to reply to Jessica’s question.

54

54

‘She did seem shocked to hear that her father was murdered,’ Geraldine said.

‘Or was she shocked that we discovered he was murdered?’ Eileen replied. ‘Jessica might have done it and thought she had got away with making it appear her father had died from natural causes.’

Ian nodded and looked at Geraldine. ‘Did you see how agitated Jessica became when you talked about David’s murder?’

‘Yes,’ Geraldine agreed. ‘She appeared genuinely shocked on hearing her father was murdered, and we don’t know she killed him. There are other possibilities.’

‘If Ella told David that Jessica had murdered her husband, he might have threatened to tell other people. Jessica’s liberty could have been at risk,’ Eileen said.

‘I’m still not convinced Jessica killed him,’ Geraldine insisted.

‘Who else could have been so concerned to keep it quiet they would have been prepared to kill David to protect Jessica from discovery?’

‘Her mother?’ Geraldine replied quietly. ‘Isn’t it at least possible that David confided to his wife what Ella had told him?’

‘You really think Anne could have killed her husband?’ Eileen asked.

‘To protect her daughter?’ Ian said. ‘That would be a horrible repetition of Jessica’s crime, if she killed her husband to protect her own daughter.’

‘This all sounds a bit fanciful,’ Eileen said. ‘Let’s speak to both women again before we speculate any further.’

Geraldine and Ian went to see Anne Armstrong.

‘What is this about?’ she asked when she opened the door, scowling at them.

‘Can we come in?’

‘What do you want?’