Chapter 97

In the candlelit chapel at St Michael’s, Elizabeth sits inches from Matthew Mackie in the confessional. Elizabeth has locked and bolted the chapel door, making the conversation private and inescapable.

Elizabeth begins with what sounds like a full confession: she says that, decades earlier, a man attacked her in her digs in Fairhaven and she killed him by shooting him in the leg. Elizabeth describes his death, her fear that no one would believe her, and her decision to wrap the body in a curtain and hide it in the boot of her car.

Elizabeth continues the story by saying she drove to St Michael’s, where she claimed to have worked, and buried the body in the Garden of Eternal Rest, inside the grave of one of the Sisters. Elizabeth gives precise details about the route, the grave, and the burial, then says no one ever came for her and that she has been haunted by the absence of consequences.

Matthew Mackie listens, then tells Elizabeth he does not believe her. Matthew points out that Elizabeth did not work at St Michael’s in 1970, but acknowledges that he did. Elizabeth uses his reaction to press harder, noting that he jumped when she mentioned the Garden of Eternal Rest.

Matthew admits he has always wanted to talk and invites Elizabeth to show her real hand. Elizabeth shifts from the invented confession to her true purpose: she asks whether they should begin with Ian Ventham, and then directly asks Matthew why he killed Ian.