Death on the Lake by Jo Allen (early reader books TXT) 📗

the junior. ‘Yes. Unbelievably. I became very tense. I won’t say I was nervous. I’m too strong to be nervous. But I became aware of people around me. I noticed every stranger. I assessed every approach, every smile, every place for a potential threat.’

‘And in Martindale?’

‘I felt safer here than anywhere else. Not wholly safe, because people can always get you and I wasn’t hiding. I would go out and wonder where they’d come for me from.’ She bowed her head. ‘And then one day something happened.’

There was a pause.

‘Summer?’ Ashleigh prompted.

Miranda nodded. ‘She messaged me and asked to speak to me about Beth, and about the trial. I didn’t know what to do. The boys must have given her my number. I wasn’t afraid of the girl, or not at first. But I knew whoever came to kill me could be anybody. And it struck me that pretending to talk about Elizabeth would have been an elegant approach for an assassin.’

‘Summer’s interest was genuine,’ observed Jude from the sidelines.

‘Was it?’ Miranda continued to address herself to Ashleigh. ‘I wasn’t sure, but even if it was, I didn’t want the matter resurrected. If people had forgotten who I was, I didn’t want them reminded. The afternoon she disappeared I knew the boys had invited her here, so I made sure I was out. But I couldn’t settle, so I came back early. I decided I’d speak to her and get it over with, just do it, meet the challenge head on.’

Ashleigh folded both hands in front of her. Her sympathy was obvious. ‘That isn’t what you told the police.’

‘No.’

‘Did anyone see you?’

‘Luke Helmsley. I didn’t realise that until he threatened me, on the day he died, but I didn’t kill him.’ She paused. ‘I didn’t kill Summer, either.’

‘Then what happened to her?’

Miranda’s look was agonised. ‘God forgive me. I didn’t do anything. Anything at all. When I got back I saw them fooling around on the Seven of Swords, her and Ollie and Will. They were obviously out of their minds on something and I didn’t want to know what. I went back into the house, wondering what I’d say to Summer if she spoke to me, and when I looked out again a while later I saw her. Just her. The boys must have crashed out by then. She was stumbling about on the boat and she tripped and went over the side.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘I didn’t do anything. I was so scared. I thought Fate was intervening to save me. Years ago, a fortune teller warned me I’d be in danger but the Seven of Swords would protect me, and that was what I thought of. That it was meant to be. Because that was why I’d named the boat.’ Her hands shook. ‘I must have gone a little mad.’

‘And then?’ Ashleigh, Jude could tell, was fighting to keep her tone nonjudgemental, but surely she must be thinking the same as he was, imagining poor Summer floundering in the cold waters of Ullswater, struggling to reach the shore or the safety of the boat and giving up, too soon.

‘It was done. The boys woke up and found her dead and Ollie suggested they hide the body, so they did.’

‘They confessed?’

‘We struck a deal. We agreed that none of us saw anything. I saw nothing on the boat and they never saw I was back early. And it’s true Summer’s death was an accident. No-one killed her.’

Summer could have been saved, and the extended police operation had caused distress and used up resources that could have been deployed elsewhere. Her parents could have been spared those hours wondering what had become of their daughter. Opening his mouth to make that point, Jude saw Ashleigh’s fierce frown in his direction and let her carry on. ‘What happened after that, Mrs Neilson?’

‘I was still very shaken.’ Miranda looked at her, imploringly. ‘When I found poor Luke dead, I didn’t know what to do, or think.’ She looked at Jude, reproachfully. ‘You asked me why I’d assumed he’d been killed. Now you know. I was sure there was a killer in the dale and if I was right I knew I’d be the target.’

‘You let Summer die—’ Jude began.

‘Because I was afraid. Because standing up in court to save my friend from prison had brought me threats, and she was dead, and suddenly this whole thing was on my doorstep. I did not let Summer die, as you put it. I just didn’t do anything to save her, because I was paralysed with fear.’

No doubt that would be the line the defence counsel would take, and there was a reasonable chance that, with a sympathetic jury, it might come off. ‘All right. Carry on.’

‘I guessed Luke had stumbled upon something he shouldn’t have seen. That’s when I told Robert about it, and he promised he’d look after me.’ She looked beyond them, through the open door of the kitchen to where Robert must be sitting in his office with the expressionless, and possibly complicit, Aida. ‘I relaxed after that. I knew he’d have people watching me. I knew I’d be safe. But then I did the stupidest, stupidest thing. I trusted my good nature.’ She shivered. ‘I’ll never do that again.’

‘You get on well with your stepsons, don’t you?’ asked Jude.

‘You know about the phone calls, then. You must do. How?’

‘We heard you talking to Ollie about his phone.’

‘Yes. He lost it. Now, of course, I see it must have been stolen and someone had used it to text me.’

Jude thought again of Aida, on the spot. Surely now Faye would let him haul her in for questioning. ‘You didn’t suspect?’

She shook her head. ‘Not at all. I worry about them. Such bright boys, but no sense of restraint, and they have Robert’s energy. They’re always in trouble and what happened to Summer shook them. When I got a message from Ollie asking me to meet them