Murder On Bwytheney by Elizabeth. Newby (phonics story books TXT) 📗

to Manchester and digging into old records, I was pretty sure I had pieced it together. It turns out my hunch was right. You see, after the baby was adopted, he was given a new name. Peter Langley. The second murder victim. There was the connection I had been looking for. Melissa was Peter’s biological mum.

For a while, though, I followed a wrong lead. I believed the murderer was motivated by greed, and in following that, I did uncover some other Bwytheney secrets. This post is not about those, however. You’ll have to wait a little longer to discover the story of how one person wants to destroy the island of Bwytheney as we know it.

But back to Melissa and Peter. Because it was one of you, my wonderful readers, that helped me crack this case. I was flicking through the photos you all kindly send me when I saw one of the castle ruins at Brynness. It was a beautiful panoramic, but it had also captured tourists visiting the site. Except, not all of them were tourists. There, in the photo, were Melissa and Matthew embracing. I now know that this was the moment that Melissa told Matthew that he was Pete’s father. Matthew and his wife Bronwen had never managed to have children, and here he was discovering that he had been a father all along and had just never known. Distraught, he had become upset, and Melissa had placed her arms around him, trying to comfort him, while being eaten up by the guilt of keeping this secret so long.

Matthew and Melissa were not alone, however. Also, in the photo, a little way off was Bronwen watching her husband in the arms of a woman. The woman he was rumoured to have had an affair with so many years ago. Jealousy was the real motive. Bronwen felt a fool and tortured herself, wondering whether this had been going on for decades. She wasn’t going to confront her husband this time until she had proof. That’s why Bronwen followed him when she heard him sneak out of the French doors of his office. Yet again, she saw her husband with Melissa. She couldn't hear all their conversation but caught snippets, “it was time to tell everyone”, “it couldn’t remain a secret”. She also caught Pete’s name being mentioned but didn’t think anything of it. Why would she?

Consumed with rage and jealousy, she waited for her husband to depart before picking up a spade that lay nearby and clouting Melissa over the head. Wiping the spade clean of her prints, she quietly returned to her farmhouse, sneaking in through the back door and back up to the bedroom where she’d been watching TV. It was half an hour later when Bronwen heard her husband trying to quietly return. Matthew had gone for a walk, trying to clear his head and pluck up the courage to confess to his wife. But he simply returned to his work.

It was a week later that Bronwen realised the truth and the mistake she had made. It was at Melissa’s funeral that she overheard Melissa’s friend telling me about the baby. Within seconds her world shattered. There was only one time that Melissa had left the island long enough to hide a baby. And there was only one person who could be the father. A few days earlier, she had read my blog post about Pete, revealing that he was adopted. Bronwen now knew the real reason Melissa and Matthew were meeting and why Pete’s name was mentioned.

Not being able to have a child had nearly destroyed Bronwen. It had torn her into tiny pieces, and she never really put them back together properly. The thing that held her together and enabled her to continue living was that Matthew was in this with her. She was going to lose him to Pete. He would have a child, and it would be just her left on her own.

Right after she overheard our conversation, she returned home with a cupcake or two in her bag. Left alone with her thoughts and insecurities, Bronwen made the fateful and calculated decision to lace one of the cupcakes with poison and deliver it to Pete. With Melissa and Pete out the way, Matthew was hers alone.

It is a tragic story, and with Bronwen admitting guilt, there won't be a long, drawn-out trial for Matthew or anyone else to endure. But it’s a reminder that no one leads a perfect life. Not even on the Nord Isles.

It’s easy to apportion blame. Melissa shouldn’t have kept the baby a secret. Matthew shouldn’t have had an affair. I shouldn’t have shared that Pete was adopted or asked Melissa’s friend about the baby. It also shouldn’t have taken that photo for me to realise. I already knew about Melissa and Matthew’s history. That should’ve been enough for me to work it out. But sometimes, you don’t see things until they’re staring right back at you.

I’m also going to hold my hands up and admit that I once suspected Pete of Melissa’s murder. Now, I can see why he was acting so strange whenever I mentioned her. Pete had lost a mother for a second time. We’ll never know whether he discovered the identity of his father before he died, but I like to think he did. He was certainly on the right track.

But here’s the thing, rather than dishing out blame, we should instead seek to acknowledge our own wrongdoings and accept that there is no such thing as a perfect person. If we were more accepting of others and their mistakes, who knows how much better a world we could be living in.

This blog post is being published with Matthew's permission – a man who recognises where he went wrong. But a man who is also dealing with the death of a friend, his only child who he only recently discovered existed, and the loss of his life partner who will likely