After talking to Beth, Leanne returned to her laptop intending to make another stab at her article. The world needed to know that the woman who had stood onstage in Victoria Park demanding the world’s sympathy had been no hero, but the words wouldn’t come. Whilst Leanne was quite clear about what lies Claudia had told, she wasn’t entirely sure she could explain her motives.
Beth thought Claudia might have raced into the burning building to add some authenticity to the story she would later tell her husband, but Claudia had been pregnant. Had she really been so desperate to conceal her affair that she would risk her life and that of her baby’s simply to embellish her cover story? And why claim to have gone back for Amelia? Wasn’t that a lie too far? Or was there something much bigger that Claudia was hiding?
Telling herself she needed space, Leanne slipped on her leather jacket and a pair of boots with a growing sense of urgency. It was only when she was on dry land that she acknowledged her mission. Beth had said Karin was taking a walk along the canal. Perhaps they could clear their heads together.
The sun shone in a clear blue sky, but it had yet to defeat the hoar frost covering the landscape. To keep warm, Leanne kept to a brisk pace as she circled the marina and joined the towpath. Chances were that Karin had returned home from her walk by now, or she had chosen a different route, but if their paths did cross, Leanne hoped Karin could help with some of the remaining questions, if not about Claudia, then about her brother.
What had Declan been doing up in the circle? He would have seen that the fire was in the roof as he approached the theatre. He would have known it was sheer madness to head upstairs, and yet he had done just that. Had Claudia been following him inside? Did one or both of them have a death wish?