Chapter 5

On Wednesday morning, Maddy and I met Peggy at her solicitor’s office in the centre of town. We gathered in a small meeting room, around an oval table that was stacked at one end with a pile of paperwork.

After we were served a very nice Brazilian coffee, the solicitor introduced himself as Giles Palmer, but we were to call him Giles, as this wasn’t a courtroom.

We introduced ourselves, Peggy was accompanied by a small, neat woman by the name of Freya. She told us she was here only here as a friendly face for Peggy and wouldn’t take part in the proceedings.

“OK, there’s three items of business today,” Giles started.

“Three?” Maddy asked, surprised, “there’s the kids, the house, what’s the third?”

“We’ll come to the third later,” Giles replied, “the first item is, as you say, the kids.”

He pulled four documents from his stack, he placed the top two before Peggy, then the other two besides the first pair.

“I’ve spoken to Children’s Services, carried out a few online checks, and I’ve spoken to your mother, Maddy...”

“You’ve spoken to Sheila?” Maddy asked, surprised once more.

“Oh yes, we go way back,” Giles smiled, “Sheila is a wonderful woman. Anyway, the opinion is that Willow and Zac will be safe in your custody, your mum was particularly effusive about how much you loved them. If you could sign all four documents where indicated, Peggy, then if Maddy and Jim could sign below yours, that would be brilliant.”

“Mmm, they’re still called White,” Peggy pointed out as she read through the documents.

“Willow said she wanted to keep your name,” Maddy replied, “and Zac agreed.”

“Oh my, that’s unexpected,” Peggy whispered as she signed all four documents before passing them across the table to Maddy.

Once Peggy, Maddy and I had signed all four documents, Giles signed below our signatures and placed them on a side table before pushing a thicker stack of papers forward.

“These documents are to add Zac and Willow to the house deeds. Peggy’s name is still on the deeds for tax reasons, it’s all explained in the document. I’ll get some more coffee while you read, I’ve highlighted the important passages.”

“Willow was wondering if she would rent the house to a friend,” Maddy asked as Giles rose from the table.

“That’s part of the third item of business, we’ll cover it after more coffee.”

“It’s like he knows about Jess,” Maddy whispered after Giles had left the room, “how could he?”

“I’ve no idea,” I replied.

Peggy signed the deeds then slid them across to Maddy, “just because my name is on the deeds, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop Willow if she wants to sell the house. I can’t imagine she has many happy memories of the place.”

“Oh no,” Maddy replied, “Willow wouldn’t sell the house ... at least she’s not mentioned selling it. It’s just, she’s met someone at the party at the weekend, they may need to move soon, so the house has become available at the perfect time.”

“Is this the girl she was talking to? I so enjoyed watching them together, as she doesn’t make friends easily.”

“Yes, Charlee and her step-mum, Jess, may be homeless soon, and Jess has got two little ones as well.”

“Oh dear, well, I’m sure they’ll be happy in Willow’s house, it’s got 4 bedrooms, and they could turn the attic into a playroom for the little ones.”

“Any questions about the deeds?” Giles asked as he returned with more coffee and cake.

“Just one question,” Freya started, speaking for the first time, “I see Tony is still on the deeds.”

“Ahh, I need his permission to remove them,” Giles replied.

“That would be difficult, as he’s no longer around,” Peggy replied.

“No longer around, does this mean missing, or deceased?”

“Well ... we’re sure he’s dead, but there’s no ... mmm ... evidence.”

“When did you last see him?”

“About five years ago.”

“Did he say where he was going?”

“Not really, one day he was there, the next he was gone.”

“Did you report him missing?”

“Ahh ... no ... we were kind of glad he was gone.”

“I see, not an uncommon attitude. His name will have to stay on the deeds for now. I suggest you file a police report, tell them I’m working on your behalf, and we’ll take it from there. In a few years we can have him declared legally dead.”

Giles looked up from his notes and turned to Peggy, “I assume he is dead.”

“Very dead,” Peggy replied.

“I see, is there anywhere I can point the police?”

“Maybe he went for a swim, to the Isle of Man.”

“I see, five years down the line, there won’t be much left. I’ll suggest they open and close their enquiries.”

“OK, onto the third matter, this concerns Maddy and Jim only, so if you have urgent business elsewhere, Peggy, you’re free to leave.”

“Mmm, the cost for your time with Maddy, please add it to my bill.”

“Thank you, but there’s no need, Peggy. Maddy’s solicitor is working pro bono on this, so I will be as well.”

Maddy looked at me, then Giles, “my solicitor? I don’t have one.”

“It appears you do,” Giles replied, smiling, “I spoke to Xenia Nikolaou yesterday.”

“But ... I’ve not spoken to her yet!”

“Sheila spoke to her on Monday.”

“Oh wow, I only spoke to mum for a few minutes on Sunday night.”

“And I think she sprang into action immediately. Xenia has done some digging and she saw I’d done some work for one of Dan’s ex-wives.”

“Small world...” Maddy gasped.

“Indeed. I did her second divorce, after Dan. She didn’t live around here when she was married to him, so I only caught his name in passing, but I kept it on file, as he interested me. After I’d finished Katie’s divorce, I looked into Dan and discovered he’d been married several times, I found four marriages, but with the number of gaps I think there must have been more. What intrigued me most, he never once ended up paying maintenance, even when children were involved.”

“How on earth did he manage that?”

“My only thought is the women were glad to get out of the marriage.”

“Did he ... beat them?”

“Not that I’m aware of. Anyway, Xenia has a couple of investigators digging into his background, and I’m going to help where I can, although I don’t have Xenia’s resources.”

“OK,” Maddy said after a moment’s pause to collect her thoughts, “as you probably gathered, our plan was for Jess and the kids to move into Peggy’s house.”

“I understand she has two children with Dan, and one of Dan’s earlier children lives with them.”

“Yes, Charlee is friends with Willow, that’s how we found out about Dan and his many marriages.”

“Mmm, I’m sure Xenia won’t mind me telling you one thing she’s found out already. Sometimes, she’s found two occasions so far, Dan didn’t wait for a divorce before he cut and ran. His marriage to Jess definitely isn’t legal.”

“Oh wow!” Maddy gasped, “so we don’t even need to start divorce proceedings.”

“We?” Giles asked.

“Well ... Jess has no money, so Jim and I would probably have been helping.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, Xenia would almost certainly have handled it for free. She harbours a very special hatred for men like Dan.”

“So, where do you come in, if Xenia has discovered the bigamy?”

“Xenia spoke to me because I have a little knowledge about Dan. So I’m doing some digging, trying to find out why he never has to pay maintenance. From there, we’ll see if we can make him pay compensation to previous wives. On that note, Sheila mentioned Plan A was to seize his house for Jess.”

“That’s the ideal,” Maddy confirmed.

“I have bad news there, that house will be sold by the courts and the money raised used for compensation.”

“So, Plan B it is then,” Maddy replied cheerfully.

There was a loud knock then the door swung open, “Hey Xenia,” Giles said as a tall, statuesque woman dressed all in black entered the room.

“Maddy!” Xenia cried as she stepped across the room, “it’s so good to see you again!”

Maddy stood and hugged Xenia, “and it’s good to see you again. Thank you for helping out here.”

“Think nothing of it, I spoke to your mother at length on Monday. What she told me was shocking. I immediately called in a couple of my investigators to look into his background. In the process, they found Giles had already done some of the work for them, so we joined forces.”

“I think we’ll leave now,” Peggy told them as she and Freya stepped around Maddy and Xenia.

Maddy released Xenia and hugged a surprised Peggy, “thank you Peggy, all I want is for Willow and Zac to be happy.”

“You wanted a family,” Peggy replied, kissing Maddy’s forehead tenderly, “you’ve got one now. I spoke to their school yesterday; they were very impressed with you. I’m happy to leave Willow and Zac in your care, you’re a strong woman, much stronger than I ever was.”

“But ... Tony ... what you did.”

“That wasn’t strength, dear. If I was as strong as you, he’d never have got that far.”

“Ahh...”

“All that pain and suffering, those damaged children, it’s all down to me. I made sure he never touched my children ... your children ... but everything else, it’s all down to me for not killing him sooner.”

Maddy gasped then looked from Peggy to Xenia and Giles.

“It’s OK,” Peggy assured her as she pulled the door open, “I’m ready to take my punishment, in this life or the next.”

“I didn’t hear that,” Giles said as the door closed behind Peggy and Freya.

“I did,” Xenia replied, “what was she talking about?”

“Her husband, Willow and Zac’s birth father, he was a paedophile,” Maddy replied.

“Was?” Xenia asked, “there’s no cure for paedophilia.”

“There’s one cure.”

“She killed him?”

“Yes, not early enough, but yes, she killed him,” Maddy sighed, “are you going to report it?”

Xenia walked to the side table and poured herself a glass of iced water, she drank it slowly, thinking.

“No, I’m not going to report her, because she did the right thing eventually. I will, however, speak to her, not today, we have more pressing matters, but I need to know about his victims and their families; they need help.”

“The commune where she lives, that’s a can of worms that probably needs to be opened sooner, rather than later. Apparently, they’ve put processes in place to stop the abuse, but there’s some horrors happened in the past, I think.”

Xenia poured another glass of iced water and sat down at the meeting table, she had a drink of her water then pulled out a leather-bound meeting folder and a gold Cross fountain pen.

“I think we’ll digress for a moment whilst this is fresh, tell me everything you know about this commune.”

Xenia took notes as Maddy filled her in with everything she knew about the commune, which is more than I knew, as she’d lived in the area her whole life.

At some point Giles must as slipped out; as Maddy was finishing off, he returned with more coffee and a plate of sandwiches.

Maddy reached across and plucked a few sandwiches from the tray, handing me a couple of chicken mayo and a fresh mug of coffee.

Xenia meanwhile had her phone out, she didn’t look happy, “Ahh, Max...”

“That’s her husband,” Maddy whispered to me.

“What do we know about the Golden Spring commune?” she listened for a while, “I see, if Spencer knows about them, can you have him come see me this evening? Yes, it’s quite urgent, and maybe you could get Martin to pop round as well...”

“That’s Sir Martin Calder, he’s the chief constable...” Maddy gasped, “what have I started?”

Xenia must have heard her, because Xenia gave her a reassuring smile as she listened to her call, “I’ll be finished here in about an hour, then I have a meeting in Kendal, I’ll be home about six. Spencer is vegetarian, I think, have Sophie cook a suitable meal, just in case he is.”

Her call ended, she casually dropped her phone in her handbag and turned to face Maddy, “what you’ve started is a process where we will rescue children and punish offenders. I’m sure you know about my work, or you wouldn’t have thought of calling me in to help Jess and Charlee.”

“I know you help women in abusive relationships,” Maddy replied quietly.

“There is no worse abuse than child abuse. I was abused, it’s why my mother fled our home in Greece. I often lie awake at night, thinking back to those days and wishing we’d stayed and fought that bastard, because he just carried on with a new family of victims. Max’s family helped my mother, they put me through university, and when I graduated, I started work at their law firm. I worked hard and became a partner, and I caught Max’s eye and we married. A fairy tale, but a fairy tale built on tragedy and hard work. After I had a child, I’m sure you remember Oliver, Maddy...”