Buried Secrets: The Freeman Files Series: Book 11 by Ted Tayler (highly recommended books txt) 📗

“I didn’t run away,” said Maddy, her voice raised. “That’s not what I said. I told you I decided to leave. I wanted to go it alone, and I did.”

“There must have been a few disappointed young men here in town,” said Gus. “You’re an attractive woman, Maddy. Was there a particular reason you turned them down?”

“I don’t remember,” said Maddy.

Gus knew she was lying. He’d carried out a thousand interviews like this one.

Maddy Telfer didn’t kill Alan Duncan. He was sure of that, and despite the passage of time, people remembered all manner of details. A good copper knows when they’re telling the truth. A sure sign that they’re lying is when they say they don’t know, or can’t remember.

“We’ll return to that, Maddy,” said Gus. “What did you do when Alan went running on Wednesday evenings?”

“I did the housework, watched TV shows Alan didn’t enjoy. It was only for a couple of hours.”

“You never left the house? Why not drive into Chippenham or Corsham?”

“Why? There was nothing I needed. My social life was with Alan.”

“Was that the same on Saturdays when Wayne Phillips came over to Biddestone to take Alan away for the afternoon? Did that not concern you?”

“Not you too,” said Maddy. “The papers hinted Alan was gay, just because he used to be in the Navy. It’s not compulsory, you know.”

“I didn’t give it a second thought, Maddy,” said Gus. “I just wondered whether you suspected Alan and Wayne were seeing other women.”

“Anna would have known, so would I. Neither of them could cheat like that. It was the cycling they enjoyed. I was happy that they got on. Anna and I were already friends. It was a relief that our partners had become good mates.”

“How long did Wayne and Alan know one another before you met?” asked Lydia.

“Several months, I believe. You would need to ask Wayne. Alan never told me a date. He just said they met through a love of cycling.”

“Was Alan ever a member of a local cycling club?” asked Gus. “Perhaps that’s where they met.”

“Alan never mentioned it, why?” asked Maddy.

“The detectives on the original investigation found no one who might have wanted to murder your partner,” said Gus. “They questioned his parents, his workmates, and your neighbours. Nobody had an unkind word to say, yet someone followed Alan often enough to become familiar with the routes he took on his weekly runs.”

“The police asked which routes he took,” said Maddy, “and whether I ever noticed anyone outside in the lane when Alan left home. I didn’t see a thing. It was a terrible shock to discover that someone wanted him dead. I could never understand it.”

“Where was Alan living when you met?” asked Lydia.

“In Corsham,” said Maddy. “When he left the Navy, Alan came home and moved back in with his parents, Bob and Elizabeth.”

“If Alan had known Wayne Phillips for several months before you met it suggests that Alan was cycling almost as soon as he settled in,” said Lydia. “What about the weekly runs? Were they something he started after you moved in together, or was the Wednesday and Saturday exercise a pattern he’d already established?”

“Alan told me he needed to maintain the high level of fitness he’d had while in the Navy. There wasn’t a particular goal in sight. It was purely for his well-being.”

“How did you feel about that?” asked Gus.

“If it made him happy, it was fine by me,” said Maddy. “Why does it matter if he had already established a routine before we met, anyway?”

“We’ll ask his parents this afternoon,” said Gus, “but if Alan ran through several parts of Corsham every Wednesday evening, then that provides occasions where he could come into contact with a person of interest. The murderer didn’t appear out of thin air. They knew Alan’s habits well enough to know where he would be at a specific time. They weren’t waiting for him next to that remote field on Ham Lane by chance. They planned it to the minute.”

“That’s horrible,” said Maddy.

“I agree,” said Gus. “So, let’s return to the matter of your lack of a relationship in the three years before you met Alan Duncan. This time, I want the truth. If there was someone, you remember their name and why you preferred not to disclose their details earlier. If there was no one in your life throughout that period, then the answer lies in Leeds or the village you lived in before moving here. Which is it?”

“I left home because of a difficult relationship,” said Maddy. “I started seeing a boy at school when I was fifteen. Kyle was seventeen and had left school that summer. There weren’t many jobs around even then, and he was on the dole. My parents wanted me to concentrate on my studies, I was good enough to go to university according to my teachers, but Kyle had nothing to occupy his time. I thought I loved him, so I cut school to be with him. My exams the following summer were a disaster, and I left school with only a handful of average grades. I found work, but only for peanuts with start-up firms that didn’t survive because of the recession. I argued with my parents because of how things had turned out. I argued with Kyle because he wasn’t making any effort to find a job. We broke up after eighteen months. That’s when it started. He wouldn’t accept it was over. Kyle tormented me for the next two months. He’d wait for me outside work. I had to change my phone number so he couldn’t text me a hundred times a day. I stopped going out in the evenings. In the end, I gave in and let