Page 134 of The Mercy Chair

‘She was dead, Sergeant Poe. There was nothing either of us could do about that. And despite what he was forced to do to her, she loved Aaron. I don’t think she’d have minded taking the blame for Mum and Dad’s murders. After all, she hated them the most.’

There was a certain twisted logic to this. Poe thought Bethany probablywouldhave enjoyed people thinking she had killed her tormentors.

‘I assume Aaron has one of Cornelius’s tattoos?’ Poe said.

‘On the sole of his right foot.’

Poe nodded then wished he hadn’t. ‘People know I’m here, Eve,’ he said. He ignored the biting pain and twisted his wrists as far as he could. Tried to force some give in his bindings. They moved slightly but nowhere near enough to get a hand free. ‘I’m not going to insult your intelligence by telling you I won’t immediately arrest you if you let me go, but you’re about to move from killer to cop killer. That isn’t a badge you wear lightly.’

‘They’ll know where youwere, Sergeant Poe.’

‘They’ll come with dogs and search teams and they’ll nevereverdrop it.’

‘I won’t deny that you came to see us, Sergeant Poe. Why would I deny something so easily proved? No, you called, got what you came for and left. That’s all Thomas and I know.’

‘You mean that’s all you andAaronknow.’

She smiled. ‘It’s a lovely name, isn’t it? I do so wish I could use it when we are out in public.’ She shook the thought away. ‘Anyway, by the time they arrive, you and your car will be long gone. You came here to warn us about the risk Aaron posed. Your colleagues will assume you stumbled into that very risk yourself.’

‘You’re going to blame Aaron?’ Poe said.

‘Of course.’

It would work too, he thought. They would think Poe had come off worse in an altercation with Aaron. What elsecouldthey think? He thought about Bradshaw and what his disappearance would do to her. He wasn’t sure she would be able to cope. Doyle too. The pair of them would never stop looking. It would ruin what was left of their lives. Flynn would be more pragmatic, as would Superintendent Nightingale, but it would crush Bradshaw and Doyle.

‘Why didn’t you just tell me you don’t have any photographs of Aaron?’ he said. ‘Why risk all this?’

‘It would have been delaying the inevitable, Sergeant Poe. Sooner or later you, or someone like you, would have started wonderingwhyI didn’t have any photographs of him. No, better to nip this in the bud now. A stitch in time and all that.’

‘Howwillyou explain not having photographs of him?’ Poe asked. ‘Yes, people will get distracted looking for me, but there’s still an ongoing murder investigation and Aaron is the police’s number-one suspect. Sooner or later someoneisgoing to ask you for a photograph.’

‘I won’t have to explain not having any photographs of Aaron,’ she replied. ‘I’ll simply say that you took them all with you.’

‘And what if they don’t believe you, Eve? What if someone wants to look a bit deeper into my visit here?’

‘Like you said, Sergeant Poe: I’m a good liar. I’llmakethem believe me.’

‘You have it all worked out, don’t you?’

‘There’s nothing I won’t do to protect the life we have, Sergeant Poe. Nothing.’ She picked up the mallet and stood in front of him. ‘Now, unless there’s anything else, I think we should do this now. I promise you, I’ll make it as humane as possible.’

‘Cornelius Green,’ Poe said.

‘What about him?’

‘Why did you kill him?’

Eve frowned.

‘You got away with murdering your parents,’ Poe continued. ‘You moved back to Cumbria with your brother. He’s now a thirty-one-year-old man and doesn’t look anything like the scared twenty-year-old he was on the night you killed your parents. And, just to be careful, you move to the middle of nowhere and he keeps himself to himself. Doesn’t even take a job locally. So why kill Cornelius? Why risk all this attention? You must have known we’d end up on your doorstep eventually.’

Eve picked up the mallet. ‘We didn’t kill Cornelius Green, Sergeant Poe.’

‘You didn’t?’ Poe said, puzzled. ‘But you must have. It’s the only thing that makes sense.’

‘It wasn’t us.’

‘Then who?’

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