‘Actually, why don’t you take your mum in, make sure she’s all right and come back to Bulleigh Barton with me now? We could have lunch in the garden. Save you coming out again later?’ Lizzie suggested. Maybe she, too, was becoming impatient with Muriel’s behaviour.

‘If you can wait here for five, I’ll come back and let you know.’ Anna ducked her head back inside the car and gave Muriel’s arm a gentle tug. She finally, but slowly, climbed out of the back seat.

‘What has got into you, Mum?’ Anna hissed as she opened the front door and did a quick check of the floor to make sure there’d been no other deliveries.

‘I don’t trust her.’ Muriel jabbed a finger towards the waiting car.

‘I know.’ Anna ushered Muriel further inside. ‘Look, you might be right not to trust her. She just drove straight to your door without asking for directions. I mean, I know Mapledon is pretty small, and she did walk this way with me on Saturday, but we were still a few roads away. How did she know exactly where you lived?’

‘Because she’s been here before,’ Muriel said, her eyes fixed on a point beyond Anna.

‘Exactly. So maybe she is the one hammering dolls’ heads to doors. When she was a child, she was always tearing those dolls to bits. It makes sense it’s her doing it now.’

‘And you want to go and have lunch with her?’

‘I thought it would be a good opportunity to dig a bit deeper.’

‘I don’t really like the idea of being left here alone, Anna.’

‘Pop next door and have a catch-up with Sandie. It would be a perfect opportunity to ask her if she’s had anything strange happen, seen anything or anyone unusual. And anyway, if we’re right, nothing will happen while I’m with Lizzie, will it?’

‘Fine. Be careful, though, Anna,’ Muriel said, her eyebrows raised. ‘Sometimes when you go digging you unearth things you’re not looking for.’

Chapter Forty-Four

2019

Lizzie

The short drive to Bulleigh Barton passed in relative silence, Lizzie struggling to gauge how Anna was taking the news of her being Billy’s daughter, Eliza Cawley. She’d spent a lifetime pretending she was someone else – who would want to be the daughter of a child killer? Why couldn’t her dad have been like the other kids’ dads? Someone who blended in, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb. But no. He’d lost his way in life; lost his ability to work. Had turned instead to some dark side that Lizzie couldn’t, and didn’t want to understand. How do supposedly normal people carry out such hideous crimes? How do they hide their real selves from everyone else? But then, she had kept a part of herself hidden for most of her life. Maybe that’s just what her dad had done too.

She couldn’t remember living with him, either before her mother had died or afterwards. Her brain had done a good job blocking the unwanted childhood memories. Which is why she needed help now to unblock them. To finally move forwards, she had to cleanse herself. She had to exorcise William Cawley once and for all. She’d got Rob onside, although he might well back off once he found out she’d lied, and she had Anna. Together they might be able to piece the jigsaw together.