Page 142 of The Mercy Chair

‘To stop them?’

‘A prevented abortion is a soul saved, he told me. He sought them out. Exposed them when he could. Disrupted them when he couldn’t.’

‘He knew doctors then,’ Poe said. ‘Doctors who wouldn’t ask too many questions?’

‘Yes, Daddy was quite the hypocrite. He begged help from those he’d previously tried to destroy.’

‘He had you patched up?’

‘And spirited abroad to recuperate. As well as families who would see girls through their secret abortions, there was also a well-established network of families who would take on the babies of the girls who couldn’t go through with, or just plain refused to have, an abortion. Some of these families were abroad. The family I ended up with were good people. They showed me the love I’d never had before and that’s all I’ll say on this matter.’

‘You got better.’

‘And I made a life for myself.’

‘But sixteen years later you came back to murder Cornelius Green. Why put yourself through all this again?’

‘Some things can never be forgiven, Sergeant Poe.’

‘I get that,’ Poe said. ‘I really do. But why now?’

Bethany frowned. ‘I don’t . . . I can’t be sure. I remember seeing something on the news, something that reminded me of what Cornelius had planned to do with me. That he wanted to bury me underneath someone else’s coffin. I think I must have snapped. To be honest, Sergeant Poe, it’s all been a bit of a blur. I can’t remember parts of the last sixteen years. I imagine I’ve found a way to block out the worst memories.’

‘But the news article brought it all back?’

She nodded. ‘I returned to Cumbria and sent a note to Cornelius saying I was a mother who needed advice about her gay son. I asked if we could meet at an out of the way place.’

‘The Lightning Tree?’

She nodded again. ‘I used to go there with Alice. She would pinch a can of her dad’s cider and we would pretend we were drunk.’ She smiled at the memory. ‘Cornelius couldn’t resist that, of course. He didn’t recognise me, even when I stunned him and tied him to the tree. It wasn’t until I showed him the scar on my neck that he realised the peril he was in.’

‘You stoned him to death.’

‘As he had wanted Aaron to do to me. Except I didn’t beg for mercy. He did. He cried for his “momma” at the end. Kept crying for her right up until I crushed his skull with a rock the size of a melon.’

Poe resisted sayingGood for you. Instead, he said, ‘And you spared Israel because he’d saved your life sixteen years earlier?’

‘Oh no,’ she said, smiling grimly. ‘I’ll be making time for dear Papa. He might think he’s found redemption, but I have a long memory and a short temper. He’ll get out of prison eventually and when he does, I’ll be waiting for him.’

‘Israel Cobb will never be released,’ Poe said quietly.

‘I think you underestimate his knack for self-preservation, Sergeant Poe. He’ll have information on some of these extremists. He ran with them in his activist days, and some will still be making a nuisance of themselves. He’s bound to know something the authorities will find useful. He’ll do a deal and get a much-reduced sentence.’

‘Israel Cobb will never be released,’ Poe said again.

‘How can you be so—’

‘Because he’s dead, Bethany.’

Chapter 123

‘I don’t understand,’ Bethany said. ‘You said you’d just been with him. Was that a lie to get me talking?’ She picked up the mallet. ‘Because if it was, that makes you a bad biscuit and now isnotthe time to be a bad biscuit, Sergeant Poe!’

She screamed the last part. Poe felt her warm breath on his face, her spittle on his cheek.

But Poe wasn’t lying. It was what Superintendent Nightingale had called about. Despite being classed as an exceptional risk of suicide, Israel Cobb had found a way to make sure he wasn’t forced or tricked into revealing anything about his daughter. If he hadn’t been such an evil bastard, his self-sacrifice might have been heroic.

‘He killed himself a couple of hours ago, Bethany. If you check my call log, you’ll see it happened when I was on my way here.’

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