Page 144 of Worse Than Murder
‘Of course. I had to discredit him so that anything he might say would be seen as a lie, and it worked. He’s kept his mouth shut for thirty years. Good old Lionel.’ He winks.
‘Why did you take only Celia and Jennifer? Alison was with them on that day. Why didn’t you take her, too?’
‘If you take everything away from someone, they have nothing left to live for. Like you right now, Matilda,’ he says, calm and concise. ‘But leave them something, just one thing– in this case, Alison– and you can see the pain and torment painted on their faces. I saw it in Jack. He really was on the cusp of suicide after Celia and Jennifer disappeared, but he was sticking around for Alison. He loved her so much. But it wasn’t him I wanted to hurt. It was Lynne. She was the only woman I ever said ‘I love you’ to. And she said it back. I thought she was the one. Then I told her I couldn’t have children. Within a week, we’d split up. How can you do that to someone? And then, to rub salt in the wound, she turned to my brother. What kind of a woman does that? She had to suffer, I mean, really fucking suffer.
‘It turned out Lynne was stronger than I thought. She was even planning on going back to work. So, I had to come up with something else. I told her I’d caught Jack wanking over a kiddie-porn mag. I convinced her we had to kill him to save Alison. There was no way Lynne was going to lose another child, so she went along with it. She was there when I killed him. She brought him to the stables. She lured him in, and I struck the final blow.
‘Lynne hit rock bottom then. Give her her due, it took some doing, but she finally hit the floor. Then, I was able to mould and shape her into the Lynne I wanted her to be. She gave up her job at the hospital, she worked with me at the stables, and it wasn’t long before we were sharing a bed. Job done.’
I can feel the rage boiling up inside me.
‘You’re evil,’ I croak.
‘I’m not. I’m really not. I’m what happens when you’re cast aside, abandoned and used. I was fine to go out with for a few months and have fun, but as soon as I said I couldn’t have kids, I was dumped like my feelings didn’t matter. I was fine to work on the farm and do the drudge work. Jack was allowed to get a job and bring in a steady income, because he had a wife and three kids to support. And when things became too much, Dad brings in outside help in the form of young, good-looking Travis fucking Montgomery who every slag in the village swooned over. Once again, I’m in the background. You can only take the hurt, the pain and the torment for so long until you snap.’
He grabs me by the throat and slams me against the fridge. I can feel his rough, calloused hands around my neck, and he squeezes. He squeezes hard, and I can see the murder in his eyes.
I bring my knee up and kick him in the crotch. He screams out in pain, releases his grip and bends double, hands between his legs. I grab for the frying pan and smack him over the head with it again to take him completely down.
‘That’s me snapping.’
I loom over him. He’s dazed but still conscious.
‘Right then, Iain, it’s about time you learned what happens when you fuck with the wrong woman.’
Iain opens his eyes.
He looks around him and sees that he’s in the living room of his farmhouse. He hasn’t been unconscious for long. He tries to move, but he can’t. He’s sitting on a kitchen chair, his hands tied behind him.
I walk in front of him. ‘You’re awake.’
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he asks. His voice is muffled. He lost a few teeth when I hit him with the frying pan.
‘You’re resisting arrest. I’m making sure you’re nice and secure before Inspector Forsyth gets here.’
‘Like she’s going to do anything. She’ll want to protect her father. And herself. I’m guessing he’s confided in her what I told him. She’s never liked me. I’ve seen the way she looks at me. Pure venom. When the police from Liverpool came round looking for Travis, I went over to see Lionel. I sat in his living room, and I told him that Merseyside Police would never find Travis because I’d buried him somewhere isolated and deep. Lionel didn’t say a word. He couldn’t. One: nobody would believe a man who’d stolen money from a dead man. And two: where was the evidence?’
I shake my head almost in disbelief. I’ve met some disturbed people in my time, but Iain Pemberton takes the biscuit.
‘Jesus, you’re sick, do you know that?’
‘If I’m sick, then it’s because my father, my brother, and Lynne made me sick.’
‘Of course. You’re blaming everyone else. I thought so. It’s never your fault, is it? There’s always someone else who’s to blame.’
‘Absolutely. Just like you’re to blame for the murder of your mother and your nephews.’
That hurt.
‘Just like you’re to blame for the shooting back in 2019 that killed so many of your colleagues. And you’re also to blame for what’s about to happen next because you’re so fucking shit at tying knots.’
Iain jumps to his feet and lunges for me again. He body slams me to the floor. With all his weight on top of me, I can’t move. He grabs a handful of my hair and cracks my head hard on the floorboards.
I knee him between the legs again. It’s all I’ve got. He cries out and I manage to push him off me. He rolls over and I jump on top of him. I sit on his chest and punch him hard in the face. He’s laughing, grinning at me. I punch him harder and harder with everything I’ve got. I can see the skin breaking on my knuckles as I hit his teeth and cheek bones. It hurts, but I can’t stop. The rage, the anger, the hatred, the pain I feel for that fucker who killed my family needs to be released.
I’m about to throw another punch when he catches my fist. He pulls me towards him and head-butts me.
I can hear a ringing in my ears. I’m dazed. My vision blurs. I stagger backwards and fall. I can feel a kick to my stomach, and another. I roll over. I try to protect my head, but the blows keep on coming. I roll onto my front, my other side, onto my back. I look up and I can see Iain, standing tall, looming over me. He raises his foot. He’s going to stamp down hard onto my chest. I can see the underside of his boot coming towards me. He’ll break my ribs. They’ll pierce my lungs. I’ll choke to death on my own blood.
