Chapter 54

I’m reeling from the verbal assault but Lou-Lou must be used to it. She hasn’t even flinched.

“Did you hear that, Tiggy? She thought she told me nothing but she said my birth mother is dead!” Her eyes are wet but she keeps going. “And she thinks after speaking to me like that, we’re going to do mother-and-daughter again. I’ve never been more glad she’s not my real parent.”

I push my horror aside and try to think. “She has to be in a panic. It’s the only thing that makes sense. She’s the only one left standing. After Alex died, they did something. Something so illegal, she risks being arrested if she tells you.”

“Like what? Bought me on the Black Market. Used an illegal surrogate? Stole me as a newborn from a hospital?”

“Some couples do desperate things to have a child.”

And then the fairy tale gets tested when the child hits their teens and asks for answers.

“Who else can we ask now?” she asks. “If I’m related to your family, your family must be related to mine.”

“I’ll ask my parents,” I say. “But we don’t know your real name.”

Gagner: to win. After hearing Clemence’s extreme proprietorial attitude just now, the choice of this surname is niggling at me. I remember the word Fletch used: trophy.

I send a message to my parents with as much as we know.

I’ve met a forensic scientist in Exeter. Dr Helena Loxton. She took my DNA and said I’m the cousin of another woman. But she’s adopted and doesn’t know her origins. Can you help?

I’m expecting to hear from my mother but the answer comes back from Dad. It knocks us over.

I have Loxtons in my family tree. I was visiting Great Uncle Terence Loxton in Devon when I met your mother in the 1960s.

And there it is.

“I’m a Loxton!” I say. Electra wasn’t my doppelganger. She was my … cousin? “That means you are too.”

It’s the lead we’ve been looking for but I’m worried about Lou-Lou’s emotional state. I’m excited to have an extended family to discover but I already know who I am. This revelation goes to the heart of who Lou-Lou is, after not knowing for so long.

But when I scan her face I see the steel in her eyes. She’s beyond being emotional about this. That will come later. She’s on a mission to find answers and she won’t be waylaid by feelings.

“So was my adopted dad my real father?” she asks. “He might have used an illegal surrogate. Or … was Helena my mother and Clemence and Ambrose adopted me? Or I’m descended from Great Great Uncle Terence by someone else who’s also dead.”

It’s possible Helena had a child and didn’t want her to interfere with her career. And would that explain her behaviour towards Lou-Lou? But Helena stepped in to parent Electra when her mother died.

I tell Lou-Lou why I don’t think her mother was Helena.

“We need to ask ourselves: why would Clemence adopt Ambrose’s child? If she got pregnant when they took off to France, you would be their natural daughter.”

But Clemence couldn’t have children. If Tremayne was telling the truth.

Then I remember I have Calista’s number. She might still be using it until she can fully let go of her London life. Have they heard that Helena is dead? I decide not to tell her.

Calista, I hope you had a good trip! Helena has told Lou-Lou Gagner that she’s my cousin. What does TT know about this?

I don’t think he’ll tell you anything, she replies, but he’s in a good mood now that we’re here. I’ll ask him.

Then soon after: He knows nothing about you, Tiggy. But he’s now told me everything – thank you for asking the question – and he’s letting me give you a clue. Everything he told you about the child in the werewolf suit was true. Except the part …

New message: about the child dying.

Alex didn’t die. In an avalanche of understanding all the clues fall into place. I risk one more question.

Did that child go to France?

Her reply tells me something else.

I can’t say but I’ll tell you this. The father knew his wife was preparing to kidnap the child herself. And take Alex to Australia? So he planned his own abduction. Ambrose took him to France instead. When the child fell, the concussion hatched the fake death idea.

Alex Loxton didn’t die, but the concussion from the fall off the balcony assisted their smuggling operation. Back then, a sleeping child could slip past border checks under a blanket in a picnic basket in the back of the car.

Lou-Lou is frowning at me. I reread Calista’s message aloud.

“What does it mean?” she asks. “Little Alex is all grown up? How does that help? And I saw a death certificate.”

“What sex did it say Alex was? Do you remember?”

“A girl, but all the newspapers said a boy. I thought I was going crazy. Or the death certificate had a typo.”

“The death certificate must be correct,” I say. “Alex Loxton was a girl. It was a newspaper sub-editor who made the typo, typing he instead of she and it was repeated over and over as the story was shared in every newspaper around the country – probably because it fit their attitudes back then that boys dress up as werewolves – adding an extra layer of deception to their plan.”

Now I tell Lou-Lou everything Tremayne told me about the way they faked Alex Loxton’s abduction and murder. Helena must have planted some traces of Alex’s DNA in the dog’s grave (instead of her corpse) beside the fluff from Milton Faulk’s coat lining.

“They smuggled you out of England,” I say, “because they thought your mother was getting ready to take you to Australia. They changed your name. And Clemence changed her name to adopt you …”

“I can’t get my head around it. I’m suddenly a boy called Alex. And they chose my names for the reasons I guessed: Loup is a wolf. And Gagner because they won. I can just see them laughing about it over a bottle of wine. My future!”

The power of the word ripples around the room and the implications start to dawn on us.

“They did it all,” she says, “to steal me from my mother and stop her finding me.”

Now I can tell her that her mother was washed into the sea in Sydney, in almost a mirror of Helena’s death.

“I’ll never get to meet her,” she sobs. “I don’t even … know her name.”

There’ll be a marriage certificate between her and Ambrose somewhere but right now it all catches up with Lou-Lou and she cries on my shoulder until there are no tears left.

We’re sitting in Hayden’s office surrounded by boxes. He’s all packed up and ready to move to the boathouse. He’s taken aback by our revelations about Alex. If Lou-Lou wasn’t sitting beside me, I’m sure he’d say it reads like one of my mysteries. What did Tremayne call them? Tawdry. A term he knows from personal experience.

“Alex Loxton is officially dead,” Hayden says to Lou-Lou. “Bringing you back to life is going to be tricky with all your blood relatives dead too.”

And witnesses like Tremayne Templeton holed up in Brazil.

“Although Tiggy’s DNA will give us a start. And Helena didn’t list Alex Loxton in her report of past cases the police might want to investigate. She must have decided to leave it to you two cousins to unravel it together without the publicity. And she transferred a sizable sum to my trust account just before she died. I discovered it … afterwards. It will cover my expenses in sorting this for you.”

“Acting DCI Conrad Kisner might be persuaded to help?” I ask.

“I doubt it. He’s in enough trouble over his grandson’s actions – and the DNA mix-up at the burglary – not to mention the evidence lists that Paul Pigford stole from Helena. The acting DCI is keeping his head down and playing everything by the book.”

“My mother’s family might still be around,” Lou-Lou says, “if we can find out her name. And before you ask, my adopted mother won’t co-operate.”

“For the same reasons as Conrad,” Hayden says. “Leave it with me.”