‘Today, Zannah should have been at home revising. Instead, she was sticking her nose into other people’s business and getting drunk. That can’t happen again, Beth.’
‘I agree. It was a one-off.’
‘Yeah, well, it should have been a none-off.’ He sounds slightly mollified.
‘I’ve made a decision. I need one more day, and then I’ll stop. At that point I’ll have done all I can. I’ve already rescheduled all the clients I cancelled. They’re all fine about it. Zannah’s got some revision sessions coming up at school, which she’ll go to. Our lives aren’t falling apart, Dom. We’re all fine.’
‘Right, and we’re going to stay fine – by accepting that other people’s lives are their business and their problem. I don’t agree that you need one more day.’
I don’t care.
‘What will this extra day involve?’
‘I’m going to go to Huntingdon and try and talk to the police there.’
‘What?’ Dom laughs. ‘Beth, no crime has been committed.’
‘I agree, there’s no proof of any crime.’
‘But you think there is one?’
‘I’ve no way of knowing, and no power to find out. I strongly suspect something is really horribly wrong. For all I know, it involves an element of crime. Generally, people don’t go to such extreme lengths to hide whatever they’re hiding unless it’s criminal. One person alone might be desperate to hide a shameful personal secret, but four? Lewis, Flora, Kevin Cater and the woman who told us she was Jeanette?’
‘Yeah, they’re four liars who all know each other. It’s hardly a huge underground network. And there’s absolutely no reason to suspect a criminal conspiracy. But … you’re not going to take my word for it, so let’s go and see the police. Maybe if you hear them say, “We don’t think there’s anything for us to investigate here”, it’ll put your mind at rest.’
‘It won’t stop me wondering what’s going on. I don’t think anything could, apart from finding out the answer. But I need to know that I’ve done everything I possibly could to help Flora and … whoever those two kids were that I saw outside her house. And the two in Florida. All of them.’
‘You said the two kids you saw outside the Wyddial Lane house last Saturday looked normal and healthy,’ says Dom.
‘They did.’
‘And it’s clear from Lewis’s Instagram that Thomas and Emily are doing great. So there’s no evidence that anyone’s harming any kids, is there?’
‘Dom, for God’s sake.’
‘What? What did I say?’
I sit up and wash off the face mask. Once it’s all gone, I say, ‘How sure are you that those four children are fine – the two in England and the two in America? Really think about it, Dom. I heard Flora call the two little ones Thomas and Emily. They were outside Kevin Cater’s house, and Lou Munday at Kimbolton Prep School told me that those are the Cater kids’ names: Thomas and Emily. That means it’s likely to be them that I saw.’
‘I know all this.’
‘The two kids I saw were absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt Flora’s children. Like teenage Thomas and Emily when they were little, they bore a strikingly strong resemblance to Flora. There’s no way they aren’t hers. So. Think about what that means.’
Dom stands up. He walks over to the bathroom mirror and stares at himself. Eventually he says, ‘Flora had three children. One died. Then she had two more and called them the same names as the two children she already had.’
‘Except no one does that,’ I say.
‘Butshehas.’ Dom turns to face me. He looks confused. ‘If everything you’ve just said is true, that the younger two must be Flora’s, then that must be what happened.’
‘Must it? We’ve only seen pictures of teenage Thomas and Emily on the internet. The people in those pictures could be actors hired by Lewis.’
Dom snorts. ‘Beth. Come on, get a grip.’
‘What? You think that’s implausible? He pretended Flora was in Florida when she was in Cambridgeshire. He told me Georgina’s twelve. She’s not twelve – she’s dead.’
‘Is she? If Lewis can lie so easily, maybe Georgina’s alive. Maybe she’s Chimpy, and you heard Flora talking to her on Saturday.’
‘Maybe I did.’ I’ve been thinking this myself. ‘All the options we’ve considered, all the ones we can possibly think of, are worrying, aren’t they? Let’s say all five kids are alive, but Lewis and Flora are telling Georgina’s grandparents that she’s dead. Or Georgina’s two younger siblings have the same Christian names as her two older ones, and meanwhile their parents are telling weird lies and enlisting their friends to do the same. Does any of that sound to you like a family in which the kids definitely aren’t at risk from the adults? Because it sure as fuck doesn’t to me. I want to say all this to the police. I think there’s something sinister going on that needs looking into.’
