‘With a name that starts with E,’ Sellers finished Gibbs’ sentence. ‘Like Edna St. Vincent Millay and the other two.’

‘Right. She died in December 2013 – heart failure, according to Wikipedia.’

‘Then she’s not Billy,’ Sellers stated the obvious. ‘His murders didn’t start till September 2014.’

‘Oh, did I forget to say?’ Gibbs grinned. ‘Before she died – long before – Elise got married and had a family. Guess who she married?’

‘I can’t. Tell me.’

‘A man called Norman Sturridge.’

‘Sturridge? Then …?’

‘Yep. Liam and Isobel Sturridge are Elise Rudolphy’s children. And that’s not all I’ve got. The fake mobile number Faith Kendell gave Lane Baillie? I’ve just heard back from O2. That very same number, until 2013, belonged to guess who?’

‘Isobel Sturridge?’ Too easy, surely.

‘Got it in one,’ said Gibbs.

Chapter 16

16

from Origami by Kim Tribbeck

Should I tell Charlie what I suspected: that Simon knew the truth about Liv and Gibbs? I kept asking myself the question and coming to the same conclusion: no, I shouldn’t. Unless you’re wise, don’t interfere – that’s my motto, and wisdom isn’t a quality I’ve ever possessed. I’ve met sticks of chalk that are capable of forming better judgements than I can. Instead, I told Charlie my theory about bad liars.

The worst liars imagine a lie must be the literal opposite of the truth. Like (forgive the comedy reference – I am a comedian, after all) in Blackadder Goes Forth, when Blackadder is on trial for his life, accused of shooting Speckled Jim, a carrier pigeon, and the thick soldier played by Hugh Laurie says in an attempt to defend him, ‘We didn’t receive any messages and Captain Blackadder definitely didn’t shoot that delicious, plump-breasted pigeon,’ in a way that makes it apparent to anyone with a brain that he did precisely that.

What if Liv and Gibbs had told a childlike, literal-opposite lie?

I’d done it myself, I realised: told Liam that I couldn’t see him any more because Gabe and I were renewing our vows, when in fact I’d dumped Gabe that same day and ordered him to move out.

What was the opposite of breaking up? Surely it was not breaking up. But that was the situation before Liv and Gibbs’ lie. That was the boring old status quo; everyone apart from the two deceived spouses had known about the affair for years, so why suddenly announce a change?

Leaving their respective marriages and moving in together: that could be another opposite to splitting up – but then everyone would find out in due course, so why bother with an elaborate hoax to put people off the scent?