Lulu felt suddenly very conscious of the wet material of her jeans leaching the warmth from her shins, her calves.
‘Andy,’ she said slowly. ‘Obviously, I didn’t know Nick then, but I know him now. I know he could never have done what you think he did. He must have been winding you up. Nick admits himself that he was a real wind-up merchant as a teenager. Like the prank with the severed arm at the farm? It’s pretty sick, but he was obviously pretending that he’d killed this boy and seeing if he could get you to believe him.’
‘He did kill Dean. And he killed Duncan and Maggie and Isla. And now probably Yvonne. Yvonne was onto him. She never liked him. Maybe he was worried she might know too much? Maybe he decided to take the opportunity to eliminate that risk while he was up here.’
Lulu’s heart sank. This wasn’t just mild Asperger’s – this was some sort of paranoid disorder. Maybe with an element of delusion. Far beyond what she was qualified to deal with. Had Andy ever seen a psychiatrist? Surely his family, his mother and father, must have realised something was wrong and got help for him?
How much of what he’d told her about Nick claiming to have murdered that boy was even true? After the police had questioned Andy, had Andy constructed a whole scenario in which Nick sped about the town on his bike with murderous intent? And Andy had been at Sunnyside a few weeks later when they’d discovered that Nick’s family had gone. Had that triggered a fresh bout of delusion? And now Yvonne’s disappearance had churned it all up again?
‘You’re in danger too,’ said Andy.
There was no point in trying to challenge any of this now. She needed to speak to Carol. How much did Carol know about what was going on with her son? Often the family were the last to realise something was amiss or downplayed the extent of the issue.
‘I can see that you’re very concerned about Nick,’ she said carefully. ‘And worried about me. Thank you for that. I really appreciate it. I –’
‘You need to be very, very careful.’
‘I will be.’
‘Okay, I’m going now,’ said Andy. ‘You obviously shouldn’t tell Nick you talked to me.’
And without saying goodbye, he walked out of the room.
20
Maggie - October 1997
Maggie, clutching Isla, stood in the bay window of the drawing room and watched Michael’s Land Rover roll to a halt. The passenger door flew open, and Nick jumped down and went striding to where Duncan stood, giving it, ‘How could you do it, Dad? How could you shop me to the cops? When I’ve done nothing wrong?’
No.
Oh, no. This wasn’t happening. She wasn’t going to let him get in Duncan’s head, plant a seed of doubt, make Duncan start to think he’d got it all wrong after all.
She hurried outside.
‘She left Isla alone!’ Nick was raging. He pointed a shaking finger at Maggie. ‘Oh yes, I put the cops straight about what happened. I told them all about you, Mags. All about how you’ve had the baby blues and haven’t been coping. You left her alone –’
‘Because you triggered the fire alarm by leaving a pan on the hob and I had to stop the fucking house burning down! I wasn’t going to take Isla into a fucking inferno, was I?’
‘I didn’t leave anything on the hob! Really, Dad, I didn’t! I found Isla all alone, and she was crying, so I pushed her round the house in the pram, talking to her, trying to get her to calm down. Then on the drive, I tripped . . . I let go the pram . . .’ His lips wobbled as he stared at his father. ‘I let go the pram! I feel terrible about it, but it was an accident! I can’t understand how you could think I would do it deliberately! I love Isla! I would never hurt her! She’s my little sister!’
‘Of course it was deliberate!’ Maggie growled, pulling at the soft yellow blanket to shield Isla’s face. She didn’t even want him looking at her.
‘The cops believe me, so why can’t you?’ Nick was crying now, arms dangling, not trying to stop the tears, standing pathetically in front of Duncan like he was waiting to be hugged.
Duncan didn’t move towards him. ‘Because I saw you do it. I saw you push the pram. That was no accident.’
‘It was!’ Nick clutched at Duncan’s arm, but Duncan shook him off.
‘Tell the truth for once!’ Duncan suddenly shouted at him.
Nick covered his face with his hands, and the three of them stood like they were frozen there, with Michael in the background skulking by the Land Rover, obviously not wanting to intrude but not feeling he could just leave either.