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.
37
‘That’s Morag’s place,’ Holly said, pointing at a building in the near distance. It was a little stone house not far from Susan’s, among the clusters of houses about a mile past the pub. There were groups of revellers staggering up the road towards the village hall, which was hosting a ceilidh. Traditional Scottish music drifted out on to the road as we went by, several heads turning to watch us.
But as we got closer, another car approached from the opposite direction, slowing down and pulling up outside Morag and Avril’s house.
Susan’s car.
I stepped on the brakes, hard, coming to a halt by the side of the road.
From the back of the car, Miranda said, ‘What the hell?’
‘What are you going to do?’ Holly asked.
I had killed the lights, not wanting Susan to see me. At least she was okay. I saw her get out of her car and approach the house. The door opened– Avril, presumably– and Susan went inside. To deliver the bad news.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I need to think.’
‘Maybe we should go back to the house, talk to Dad. He knows a lot of lawyers. Good ones.’
‘I can’t go to the house,’ I hissed. ‘You know who is probably there.’ Zack.
‘What’s happening? What are you whispering about?’ Miranda asked from the back. To my horror, I saw she was looking at her phone.
‘Did you just text Zack?’ I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.
‘What of it? He’s sent me about a million messages, asking where I am. He wanted to know if I’d seen you.’
So the word was probably out about my escape from custody. I guessed the police must have gone to the Grants’ house to see if I was there.
‘Don’t tell him,’ Holly said.
