Chapter 36
I stared at the sheet of paper, with Holly and Miranda both looking over my shoulder, Holly shining her phone light to illuminate it.
It had been folded numerous times and was almost falling apart.
I assumed Samir must have had it in his pocket when he was brought to this place, that it wasn’t something he’d written while he was here.
Surely if he’d had a pen he would have written something more direct.
This was the best information he’d been able to leave behind.
Holly seemed even more shell-shocked and uncomprehending than I felt. ‘You don’t think Lewis brought him here, do you? Why would he do that? I don’t understand.’
‘Give that to me.’ Miranda snatched the sheet of paper from my hand, frown lines appearing on her forehead. She took a few steps away from us. Actually, it was more of a stagger. Seeing her brother’s name appeared to have stunned her.
I seized the opportunity, leading Holly to the other side of the room, into a dark corner, and dropping my voice to a whisper.
‘I was sure this would lead us to Zack. Not Lewis.’
‘Zack? Why?’
As succinctly as I could, I told her about going with Morag to the bothy, the shooting, Susan showing up, the crash … She listened to it all with her jaw hanging open.
‘Morag’s dead?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’re saying Zack shot her?’
I nodded.
‘And you’re … a fugitive? Why the hell didn’t you tell me any of this?’
‘Why do you think?’ I shot a glance at Miranda, who was still staring at Samir’s note.
Something happened in that moment that chilled me. Holly looked at me like she didn’t know me, backing away, a look of genuine fear and disbelief in her eyes.
‘You’re really saying Zack – Miranda’s Zack – shot Morag dead? But why?’
I narrowed the gap between us. ‘Please, keep your voice down. I don’t want her to alert Zack.’
‘Answer the question.’
‘Why did Zack kill Morag? Because I think she saw Samir with Zack but was too scared to speak up.’
‘Why?’
‘Because she was reliant on the company’s money. I think Zack saw an opportunity: get rid of the person who had seen him and Samir, and frame me for it at the same time. He obviously knew no one would believe me if I was standing there holding the gun.’
She stared at me, mouth agape.
‘You believe me, don’t you?’
Her hesitation was a moment too long for my liking.
‘Holly?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Holly, please. You must know this is something I wouldn’t do.’
‘But you escaped from the police. That’s …’
‘I know. It’s fucking crazy. But I have to find Jasmine. She can vouch that I wasn’t involved in what happened in the cave. Susan thinks I did that, too. That I killed Lewis. Holly, I swear, I never did any of this.’
Maybe it was because she heard the desperation in my voice, but she nodded, finally seeming to believe me.
‘We can’t tell Miranda,’ I whispered, just as Miranda began to make her way back over to us.
She was still dazed, allowing me to take the note back.
‘Do you really think Lewis had something to do with that ghastly app?’
‘I can’t see any other explanation.’
‘I want to go home,’ she said. She didn’t seem to want to face the possibility that Lewis was connected to Samir’s death.
We made our way out of the library and back towards the exit, then trudged through the snow to the car. Miranda got into the back seat first, and I gestured to Holly, letting her know I needed to talk to her alone again.
‘I need to take this note to the police,’ I said. ‘It proves—’
‘What? It doesn’t prove anything, does it?
It doesn’t even have Zack’s name on it. If anything, it implicates Lewis, who, being dead and unable to argue, would be an even more useful scapegoat for Zack than you.
’ She was upright again now. ‘If you go to the police, they’ll throw more charges at you.
Evading arrest, is that a thing? Jesus Christ, leaving a police officer injured, fleeing the scene. They’re going to lock you up for ever.’
‘This is not making me feel better, Holly.’
She ignored that. ‘You said Morag had seen Samir in Applecross, right? Presumably with Zack, seeing as he turned up to ensure she kept quiet. Maybe she told someone else about it.’
‘Brenda?’
She shook her head. ‘Brenda hates us, remember. There’s no way she would keep quiet if she thought she had information that could harm my family. She’s much more likely to have told her daughter. Avril would keep quiet, and not just because of their reliance on our money.’
‘Of course. If Morag saw Samir with Lewis, Avril would want to protect him. Her dad.’
Could it really be Lewis who had brought Samir here? If so, why would Zack kill Morag? I tried to figure out the timing. Samir had been found on 4 January, almost a year ago.
‘Was Lewis here with you last Hogmanay?’ I asked Holly.
‘Yes, of course. We were all here.’
‘What day did you go home?’
She thought about it. ‘The second.’
‘All of you?’
A nod.
We got into the car and I drove, eventually reaching the main road that led towards the cluster of houses where, according to Holly, Morag had lived.
I wasn’t even sure Avril would be there.
She’d be just as likely to be at the pub.
Or out there, searching for her mum. What if she went to the bothy and found the body?
I kept expecting to see Susan’s car in my rear-view mirror, but the roads were empty and silent.
I had another worry to add to my list. A long time had passed since the car had skidded off the road.
What if she’d been more badly injured than I’d thought.
If Avril didn’t have information for us, I should go back to the scene of the crash. Hand myself in.
I drove on. There were still so many questions unresolved.
I tried to think of it as I would a documentary, laying out all the threads to intrigue the viewer before tying it all together.
There was Samir’s death, the app, Lewis’s death at the caves, Jasmine’s disappearance, Zack shooting Morag.
All connected somehow. One answer, one inciting incident at the centre of all this. What was it?
I remembered the phrase Lewis had said again. All the truths we could have told.