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‘Come off it,’ said Abigail. ‘’Er sister an’ bruvver would’ve known she wasn’ Becca! ’Er muvver would’ve known! People don’t change that much. They’d never ’ave got away wiv that!’
‘You don’t think people can be so brainwashed, they’ll go along with what the church elders tell them? Even if the counter-evidence is staring them in the face?’
‘It would’ve come out,’ insisted Abigail. ‘Daiyu would on’y’ve been – what? – ten when she got back? I’ll tell you this for free: Daiyu would never’ve kept ’er mouth shut about ’oo she really was. Pretend to be some ordinary kid, instead of Papa J an’ Mama Mazu’s daughter? No way.’
‘But that’s the thing,’ said Strike. ‘Becca wasn’t treated like an ordinary kid when she came back – far from it. She was fast-tracked to the heights of the church while the rest of her family were kept as dogsbodies at Chapman Farm. She’s the youngest Principal the church has ever had. Your father’s also made her a spirit wife.’
‘Well, there you bloody are, then!’ said Abigail. ‘’E’d be committing fuckin’ incest if ’e—’
‘Ah,’ said Strike, ‘but here’s where it gets interesting. Becca seems to have become a spirit wife around the time your half-brother Taio started showing a sexual interest in her. Robin’s also got it on good authority that Becca’s still a virgin.
‘Now,’ said Strike, to the clearly incredulous Abigail, ‘I don’t know about you, but I don’t buy the story that your father picked out Becca as a future church leader when she was only eleven, so four separate theories occur to me, to account for why she was treated so differently from everyone else.
‘One reason could be that your father’s a paedophile, and separating Becca from her family was his way of ensuring he could have sexual access to her.’
‘’E’s not a paedo,’ said Abigail. ‘Not… not a proper one.’
‘What d’you mean by that?’
‘’E’s not too fussy about age of consent, as long as they’re – you know – well developed, like that Rosie. Long as they look like women. But not eleven-year-olds,’ said Abigail, ‘no way. Anyway, Becca wouldn’t still be a virgin if ’e was fucking ’er, would she?’
‘I agree,’ said Strike. ‘That explanation doesn’t cut it for me, either. So if your father’s interest in Becca wasn’t sexual, we’re left with three possibilities.
‘Firstly: Becca’s really Daiyu. That can only be proved, obviously, if we get a DNA sample from Mazu. But there are objections to that theory, as you point out.
‘So we move on to the next possibility. Becca’s not Daiyu, but she is your father’s biological daughter, and with Daiyu gone, she was trained up to take her place.’
‘’Ang on,’ said Abigail, scowling. ‘No, ’ang on. Louise already ’ad kids, she brought ’em to the farm wiv ’er. Becca wasn’ born there.’
‘That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not your half-sister. Nor, come to that, does Daiyu being born before you and your father went to live at the farm mean Daiyu wasn’t his child, either. You told me last time we met that your father moved around a lot when your mother was alive, and he’s done a lot of roaming around since going to live at the farm, as well. I think it’s naive to imagine that the only place your father has sex with other women is at Chapman—’
‘Daiyu wasn’ my fuckin’ sister. She was Graves an’ Mazu’s kid!’
‘Look,’ said Strike calmly. ‘I know you want to believe your father sincerely loved your mother—’
‘He fuckin’ did, all righ’?’ said Abigail, now growing pink again.
‘—but even men who love their wives have been known to be unfaithful. Were you and your parents on holiday in Cromer when your mother died, or were you living in the vicinity?’
‘Living,’ said Abigail reluctantly.
‘Don’t you think it’s possible your father and Mazu had already met, and started an affair, before your mother drowned? Isn’t it plausible he took you off to live at Chapman Farm so he could be with his mistress and have both his kids under the same roof? He’d hardly admit as much to his grieving daughter, would he?’
Abigail’s face had reddened. She looked angry.
‘The same applies to Louise,’ said Strike. ‘He could have fathered all her kids, for all you know. Business trips, interviewing for jobs, delivering luxury cars, overnight stays in different cities… I know you’d rather think your father’s promiscuity and infidelity started at Chapman Farm, but I’m trying to find out why Becca was singled out in a way no other eleven-year-old has been, before or since, and one very obvious explanation is that Jonathan Wace fathered her. He seems to value his own bloodline.’
‘You could’ve fooled me,’ snapped Abigail.
‘When I say “value”, I’m not suggesting this is a case of ordinary love. His aim seems to be to propagate the church with his own offspring. If one or two leave he probably thinks of it as a sustainable loss, given that the classroom at Chapman Farm is full of his descendants.
‘But there’s a simple way to prove all of this, or rule it out. I’ve got no authority to force DNA samples out of your father, Mazu or any of the Pirbrights, but if you were prepared—’
Abigail stood up abruptly, looking distressed, and walked out of the room.
Confident she’d return, Strike remained where he was. Taking out his phone, he checked for texts. One of them would have pleased him immensely, had he not read the second, and felt anger mixed with panic.
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