Aftermath

“What sort of power?”

Mackenzie stood back, raised both his arms high in the air, behind his head, and clasped his hands, then he brought them down as if wielding an imaginary hammer with all his might on to the head of an imaginary victim. “Like that,” he said. “And there was no resistance.”

A

Elizabeth Bell, the social worker in charge of the Alderthorpe Seven investigation, hadn’t retired, but she had changed jobs and relocated to York, which made it easy for Je

Elizabeth answered the door as quickly as if she had been standing right behind it, though Je

“You must be Dr. Fuller,” Elizabeth said.

“That’s me. But call me Je

Elizabeth led Je

“Excuse the mess,” she said. “It’s such a tiny house, but they’re so expensive around here and we do so love the location.”

“Why did you move from Hull?”

“We’d been looking to move for a while, then Roger – that’s my husband – got a promotion. He’s a civil servant. Well, hardly all that civil, if you catch my drift.”

“What about you. Job, I mean?”

“Still the social. Only now I work down the benefits office. Do you mind if I carry on ironing while we talk? Only I’ve got to get it all done.”

“No. Not at all.” Je

“Only two. William and Pauline.” She nodded toward a photograph of two children that stood on the mantelpiece: smiling in a playground. “Anyway, I’m intrigued. Why are you here? You didn’t tell me very much over the telephone.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t meaning to be mysterious, honestly. I’m here about the Alderthorpe Seven. I understand you were involved?”

“How could I forget. Why do you want to know? It was all over ten years ago.”

“Nothing’s ever ‘all over’ in my line of work,” said Je

“Can you keep a secret?” she asked.

Elizabeth looked up from the shirt she was ironing. “If I have to. I have done before.”

“The person I’m interested in is Lucy Payne.”

“Lucy Payne?”

“Yes.”

“That name is familiar, but I’m afraid you’ll have to jog my memory.”

“It’s been in the news a lot recently. She was married to Terence Payne, the schoolteacher the police believe was responsible for the murder of six young girls.”

“Of course. Yes, I did see a mention in the paper, but I must admit that I don’t follow such things.”

“Understandable. Anyway, Lucy’s parents, Clive and Hilary Liversedge, turn out to be foster parents. Lucy was one of the Alderthorpe Seven. You’d probably remember her as Linda Godwin.”

“Good heavens.” Elizabeth paused, holding the iron in midair, as if traveling back in her memory. “Little Linda Godwin. The poor wee thing.”

“Perhaps now you can see why I asked you about keeping secrets?”

“The press would have a field day.”

“Indeed they would. Probably will, eventually.”

“They won’t find out anything from me.”

A worthwhile risk, then. “Good,” said Je

“I think I’d better sit down.” Elizabeth propped the iron on its end and sat opposite Je

“Whatever you can tell me. How did it all begin, for a start?”

“It was a local schoolteacher who tipped us off,” said Elizabeth. “Maureen Nesbitt. She’d been suspicious about the state of some of the children for some time, and some of the things they said when they thought no one could overhear them. Then, when young Kathleen didn’t show up for school for a week and nobody had a reasonable explanation-”

“That would be Kathleen Murray?”

“You know about her?”

“I just did a bit of background research among old newspapers at the library. I know that Kathleen Murray was the one who died.”

“Was murdered. Should have been the Alderthorpe Six, as one of them was already dead by the time the whole thing blew up.”

“Where did Kathleen fit in?”

“There were two families involved: Oliver and Geraldine Murray, and Michael and Pamela Godwin. The Murrays had four children, ranging from Keith, age eleven, to Susan, age eight. The two in the middle were Dia

“Good Lord, it sounds complicated.”

Elizabeth gri

“Not yet.”

“You should. Just to get the feel of the place. It’s creepy.”

“I intend to. Were they true, then? The allegations.”

“The police would be able to tell you more about that. I was mostly responsible for separating the children and making sure they were cared for, getting them examined, and for fostering them, too, of course.”

“All of them?”

“I didn’t do it all on my own, but I was in overall charge, yes.”

“Did any of them ever go back to their parents?”

“No. Oliver and Geraldine Murray were charged with Kathleen’s murder and are still in jail, as far as I know. Michael Godwin committed suicide two days before the trial and his wife was declared unfit to stand trial. I believe she’s still in care. A mental institution, I mean.”

“There’s no doubt about who did what, then?”

“As I said, the police would know more about that than me, but… If ever I’ve come face-to-face with evil in my life, it was there, that morning.”

“What happened?”