Her Deadly Secret: A gripping psychological thriller with twists that will take your breath away

He gestured to a chair, but she looked towards Philips. ‘This is Pastor Jerome, Constable. Constable Loretta Peterson, sir.’ He paused while they nodded at each other, Loretta very aware of the pastor’s eyes sizing her up.

‘Sit down, Constable, this concerns you too.’ The edge on Philips’s voice told her she needed to be wary.

Although he was a huge man, the pastor didn’t stretch his legs or splay them out, invading her space the way some guys did. She was very aware of his breathing and the heat of him, but forced herself to focus on Philips.

‘The pastor has come in about the Lily Marsden case. Apparently, Mr Marsden visited The Children of Light’s headquarters yesterday, asking questions. He was quite aggressive. Seems he found out Lily had been there and—’

‘I gather Joe had been told about Lily’s connection with us by you,’ the pastor said and his chair creaked as he turned to her, but she kept her eyes on Philips: he hated to be interrupted. But Jerome was clearly used to taking charge of a conversation. ‘And, Loretta,’ his use of her first name startled her into meeting his eyes, ‘I hope you don’t mind me calling you that, but we don’t much care for formalities in our group. When Lily joined us she was adamant that her family shouldn’t be told.’ His smile flashed like a blade.

‘That’s hardly relevant now, sir? And a 14-year-old shouldn’t be encouraged to keep secrets like that. Joining a sect is a serious business.’

The pastor pulled his feet back under his chair, and his fingers twitched as if resisting the urge to clench into fists. Philips was needling him and getting the upper hand. Loretta might have enjoyed it, but she was all too aware that as soon as Jerome left she could be in the firing line. Oh well, might as well go for it.

‘What we’d like to know, sir, is about her boyfriend, Samuel Barnes, who is part of your group. Can you tell us where to find him? I’m sure you realize he could be a vital witness – to her state of mind and so on.’

‘I’m afraid you’ve been misled. Samuel may have met Lily, but that’s all. We don’t encourage anything more than respectful fellowship between the sexes. Our unmarried members remain celibate and youngsters are always chaperoned.’ This was addressed not to her but to Philips, their eyes still locked together.

‘Lily’s friends are sure Samuel was her boyfriend.’

Jerome turned to her, making a show of the fact that she had his complete attention. ‘Well, Loretta, have you thought that maybe Lily used Samuel as a way to explain her joining our group? It can be difficult for our young converts to admit an attraction to something so different from the normal teenage interests.’

Philips was getting impatient. ‘What do you know about Lily’s biological father? We gather she was born when her mother, Hannah, was one of your group.’

‘Yes, Hannah Leigh, as she was then, was pregnant when she arrived and never spoke about the father. We certainly didn’t press her on the subject.’

‘Still, we will need to talk to this …’ Philips looked down at a piece of paper on his desk. ‘Samuel Barnes. And to interview anyone who knew Hannah, or Lily, at your organization.’

The pastor smiled. ‘Of course, we’ll cooperate. As far as our rules allow, that is.’ Philips let that one go. ‘But, Samuel, I’m afraid, is no longer with us.’

‘No longer at your farm, or no longer one of your members? Perhaps living at one of your other houses?’ Loretta asked.

Jerome swivelled to face her again, still with that superior smile. ‘Now there you have me. I’ll need to check on that.’

* * *

‘Not so fast, Constable.’ Loretta had hoped to get out as soon as the pastor left, but Philips obviously wasn’t finished with her. ‘What were you up to, telling the father about the girl’s links with that lot?’

‘I thought he would know about the boyfriend already.’

‘Well, next time think a bit more carefully, will you. He’s still the most likely doer, so it’s down to you to get information out of him, not to let him pump you.’

‘OK, sir. Sorry.’

‘Right, just watch it. The Children of Light is a powerful organization and the pastor has the money and the contacts to make our life difficult.’ Loretta nodded and he continued. ‘You need to focus on the parents. Get the name of the real father out of the mother for a start. I’ll bet it was one of those characters the blessed Jerome is so adamant are celibate. So, stop farting about and get her talking.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Best to say as little as possible when he was in this kind of mood.

‘And really work on the husband too. There’s fibres and DNA all over her clothes, so someone was up close and personal. Let’s hope we can match them to Joe Marsden. Unless, of course, she tracked down the real father. If he is one of The Children of Light and she found him and threatened to expose him as not quite so celibate after all, that would put the frighteners on him well and truly.’

‘The dad, Joe, was in Cumbria doing a land survey for the three days before the murder, though.’

‘Working on his own in the middle of a field. Yeah – great alibi. And he’s self-employed so there’s no boss we can check with. If you and forensics would just pull your fingers out, we could have this sorted in no time. Get on with it, will you?’

Joe

The only place he could relax a bit these days was in the shower, and as he stripped off, Joe thought he’d never been so clean. In here, with the warm water hissing over him, he could think and even allow himself to feel. And he needed to do that right now. The FLO had been with them all day, trying to get Hannah to tell her who Lily’s real dad was. He’d tried to eavesdrop, but Loretta took Hannah into the living room and closed the door.

Hannah stayed in there when Loretta came out, just staring at the wall, as far as he could see. Loretta asked him to make them all some tea, then started on at him. Going over the same old stuff; asking the same things in different ways. Always with a casual smile, so you couldn’t let your guard down for a minute.

How did he and Hannah get together?

He saw her walking down a country road in the pouring rain with a baby in a buggy and gave her a lift.

Why didn’t they have more kids?

It never happened and Lily was enough for both of them.

How did he feel about Lily getting a boyfriend?

Like he said before, he didn’t know, but he would have been OK with it.

And on and on until they both became aware of a phone ringing inside her bag. She grabbed the bag, scrabbled to get the phone just as it stopped, took a quick look, and said, ‘Sorry about that, Joe.’ But it gave him the chance to get up and open the fridge, making it clear he had things to do.

She sighed. ‘Well, I’ll leave you to it.’ Then grabbed her coat, her bag and waved her phone at him as she dashed out. ‘Call me if you think of anything more, or if Hannah needs me.’

They thought it was him. However concerned Loretta pretended to be, however many times the Chief Inspector or Detective Sergeant Davis told him the questions, and the DNA tests, the searches of his computer, his bank statements and whatnot, were just to eliminate them from our enquiries, it was obvious they wanted to catch him out.

The sobs came then. And he stood with the water gushing over his face, washing his tears down the drain, which was where they belonged, for all the good they did. And that was the worst of it: the helplessness. It was all right for them. If they locked him up, put him away, they could say they’d got a result and could forget about Lily too.

He switched off the shower, sitting, still wet, on the edge of the bath – ‘Oh, Lily’ – his hands clenched on the cool enamel as he swayed back and forth. He’d lost Hannah too, lost the woman he loved. Because the bastard who killed their lovely girl had destroyed them. Killed everything that mattered to them.

He stood and pulled a big towel round him. Thinking like this was no use. He rubbed his hair and face. The towel didn’t smell too good; he’d have to do some more washing. Had to look after Hannah.

He never wanted to come out of the bathroom when he’d finished. But then he would get into a panic, thinking Hannah might have done something desperate while he wasn’t there to keep an eye on her. But when he opened the door this time she was just outside, holding his towelling dressing gown.

‘Hannah, love, you gave me a shock.’ Please, don’t walk away. Talk to me.

She was looking at the carpet, but she gave him the dressing gown. ‘Here, you need this.’ Her voice was barely there, but at least she was speaking to him and, as he shoved his arms into the sleeves, she stayed where she was. When he tied the belt, and let the towel slip to the floor, she picked it up. ‘Towel needs a wash. I’ve been leaving it all to you. I’m sorry, Joe.’

‘It doesn’t matter, sweetheart. I’m just so scared when you won’t talk to me.’ He swallowed. ‘Hannah, you don’t think I had anything to do with it, do you?’

Her eyes met his, her hand at her mouth. ‘Is that what you’ve been thinking? Oh, no, of course I don’t. Oh, Joe …’ And there, in the little hallway, with the bathroom door handle pressing into his back, she came into his arms and rested her head, where it fitted so naturally, into the hollow under his shoulder.

Rosie

As her mum pulled into the car park of the modern block of seafront flats in Bexhill, Rosie came back from her memories. This was where she’d lived with Marion in the years after it happened as they’d tried to make some kind of life and forget all about Rosie’s father. Marion said that was the only thing they could do. Remember Alice and forget her killer.

But a few months ago, she’d announced she’d been to visit her ex-husband in jail, that he was getting out and that – unbelievably – he was coming to live with her. ‘Because, after talking to him, I realize he didn’t do it and now we’ve got the chance to make amends.’