Chapter 114

As Poe led Eve and Thomas through the events of the last twenty-four hours, their resistance weakened and their resolve hardened.

‘That little bastard!' Eve hissed after Poe had given them the PG-rated version of Bethany's murder. He spared them the details he hadn't been able to spare himself. No one needed to be inside his head right now.

‘Steady, Eve,' Thomas said. ‘Sergeant Poe said Aaron was under duress and it sounds like he didn't have a choice. And he was a child.'

‘He had a choice about stealing her underwear though!' she snapped. ‘And don't give me that "he was a child" crap; Aaron knew Mum and Dad hated Bethany. He should have known they'd completely overreact.'

‘If it wasn't Bethany who killed Eve's family, Sergeant Poe, who was it?' Thomas asked.

‘We now think it was Aaron,' Poe said. ‘We think he waited until Eve was out of the house and he killed them for what they had forced him to do. Our working theory is that he faked his own death after leaving behind evidence suggesting it was Bethany the police should be looking for.'

‘Her clasp knife?'

Poe nodded. ‘The police had it on record that she had run away five years earlier and the only people who knew otherwise had a vested interest in keeping quiet.'

‘I never actually saw Aaron and Bethany rowing after he returned from that course,' Eve admitted. ‘Mum and Dad told me it had happened and there was no reason for me not to believe them.'

‘The police got it the wrong way round?' Thomas said. ‘They put their resources into looking for the dead person they thought was alive and didn't consider the living person they thought was dead?'

‘That's about the long and short of it,' Poe said. ‘And although I wasn't involved in the case back then, I know I'd have reached the same conclusion.'

‘And Cornelius Green?' Eve said, her eyes red and fierce. ‘Did my darling brother kill him too?'

‘We think so.'

‘At least he did something right then.'

Poe said nothing.

‘Why did he wait so long?' Thomas asked.

‘We're in conjecture territory here, obviously,' Poe said, ‘but we believe it's possible that an event in a Shap graveyard a few months ago triggered this second bout of violence. A badger dug up a body that shouldn't have been there and it was news all over the world.'

‘I remember seeing that,' Eve said. ‘Sky News tried to interview the police officer who'd found the body. He gave them short shrift.'

‘Yes, indeed,' Poe said, reddening slightly. ‘Anyway, the extra body was one of Cornelius Green and Israel Cobb's victims. It's how they disposed of the bodies of the men they had killed. They used pre-dug graves as deposition sites.'

‘Bethany is in one of these graves too?' Thomas asked, shocked. ‘I assume you're exhuming them? I think Eve and I would like to give her a proper burial.'

Eve wiped away a tear and nodded. ‘That would be nice,' she said.

‘I'm afraid that won't be possible,' Poe said. ‘Not yet anyway.'

‘Why ever not? I understand there'll be some police things you have to do first, but surely her body will be released to her family?'

‘For reasons we don't yet understand, Israel Cobb hid Bethany's body. He refused to use the grave Cornelius Green had earmarked for her.'

‘And he wouldn't say where?'

Poe shook his head. ‘Point-blank refused. The most he would say was that it was on the side of a sunny hill, somewhere peaceful with a nice view.'

‘But surely it's not for him to make that decision?'

‘He made it anyway,' Poe said softly. He finished his coffee, stood and reached for his wallet. He picked out a tattered business card and placed it on the table, careful to avoid the coffee Eve had spilled. ‘You'll be assigned a family liaison officer later today, but if you ever feel that you're being left out of the loop, please, don't hesitate to give me a call.'

‘Do you think Aaron poses a risk to Eve?' Thomas asked, getting to his feet as well.

‘I don't,' Poe replied. ‘I think Aaron killed Noah and Grace because of what they forced him to do to his little sister, and he came back for Cornelius, almost certainly because that grave in Shap was disturbed. I can see no reason at all why Aaron would hold Eve responsible for anything.'

‘Why did he leave Israel Cobb alive though? Surely, in Aaron's eyes, he deserves to die as well.'

‘Undoubtedly,' Poe agreed. ‘But we think Aaron ran into the same problem everyone else has had.'

‘Which was?'

‘He couldn't find him. Israel wasn't exactly hiding, but he wasn't on any publicly available databases. Alice Symonds had looked for over fifteen years without success. That said, Superintendent Nightingale won't be taking any risks – the FLO she assigns will stay on site until Aaron has been arrested.'

‘Thank you, Sergeant Poe,' Eve sniffed. ‘That's reassuring.'

Poe shook their hands. He was about to leave when he remembered Nightingale's request. ‘Before I go, could you let me have a photograph of Aaron, please?'

Eve's eyes narrowed. ‘Why?'

‘It's for my colleague's age-progression software. Unless he's had extensive cosmetic surgery, we have the ability to get an incredibly accurate likeness of what Aaron will now look like. We'll make this age-progressed picture public and, in the words of Superintendent Nightingale, start flushing him out.'

Eve and Thomas exchanged a glance.

‘Is there a problem?' Poe asked.

Eve hesitated before answering. ‘I don't know if I want Aaron caught, Sergeant Poe.'

Which wasn't what Poe had expected at all. ‘Oh,' he said.

‘He's my baby brother,' she explained. ‘And yes, he did something awful, but as Thomas said, he was a child and you made it sound like he had no choice whatsoever. It seems my parents deserved everything they got, and I will not shed a single tear for Cornelius Green.'

‘We still need that photograph, Eve,' Poe said gently. He cast his eyes over the frames on the kitchen shelf but they were all of Eve and Thomas. Some of her parents. None of Bethany, which was understandable; up until twenty minutes ago Eve believed Bethany had murdered her entire family. She'd kept Bethany's photographs in the farmhouse basement. But why weren't there any photographs of her little brother?

Eve saw him frown. She glanced at Thomas and shrugged.

‘Have it your way, Sergeant Poe,' she sighed. ‘If you follow me into the basement you can root through the filing cabinet and take what you need.'

‘Thank you.'

Unlike the Children of Job's, Eve's basement was a high-ceilinged room. It had four posts to support the floor above. They reminded Poe of the posts First World War deserters were staked to before being shot at dawn. The basement was warm, like a proving oven. It was being used the way families in modern homes use their lofts: as a place to store junk, unsightly but valuable furniture and Christmas decorations. Shelves with boxes, some labelled, some not. The camping equipment Thomas was checking the last time Poe had been there was neatly laid out on a foldout table.

‘Which part of the Lakes are you and Thomas heading to?' Poe asked.

Eve walked over to the table and picked up the tent-peg mallet. It looked like a smaller, wooden version of Mj?lnir, Thor's war hammer. Sometimes Poe missed the pre-Bradshaw days, when he hadn't known useless shit like that. Eve turned the mallet in her hands, as though she was examining it for woodworm.

‘Weekend in Buttermere,' she replied. She leaned against the table and studied Poe carefully. ‘But that's not important right now.'

‘It isn't?'

She shook her head.

‘What's going on, Eve?' Poe said, rubbing the back of his neck. It felt clammy.

‘Nothing's going on, Sergeant Poe.'

‘Then why are we really down here? Is there something you want to tell me, something you don't want Thomas to hear?'

Eve said nothing.

‘I asked you a question, Eve.'

‘You really are the most bothersome man, Sergeant Poe,' she said before taking three steps forward and smashing the mallet into the side of his head.