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evenings out.’ 24 She didn’t realise that her version of events already differed from the one given by Ian; he told police that they’d spent the entire evening in Manchester prior to meeting Edward.
    Campion didn’t mention the discrepancy. ‘Would you care to tell me what happened at your house last night?’
    ‘All I’m saying is that I didn’t do it and Ian didn’t do it,’ Myra responded. ‘We are involved in something we didn’t do. We never left each other. We never do. What happened last night was an accident. It should never have happened.’
    ‘An accident? If what you say is true, it’s in your interests to tell the truth of what did happen.’
    Myra shook her head, ‘No. Ask Ian. His story is the same as mine. We never left each other. Ian can’t drive and that’s that.’ Then she asked urgently, ‘What are they going to do with Ian, because what he has done I have done.’
    Campion paused, then asked, ‘Do you realise how serious this matter is?’
    ‘Yes,’ Myra shot back. ‘And I also know David Smith told you all this and he’s a liar.’
    ‘David Smith alleges you cleaned up the mess in the living room after the murder of this man.’
    ‘Yes, and I suppose he told you he sat on the chair benevolently looking on while I cleaned up.’
    ‘Is it true that you went to David Smith’s house last night and he walked home with you?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘What time did you go there?’
    ‘I’m not saying. All this happened because there was an argument and that’s that.’
    ‘How did this man get to your house? Who brought him there?’
    ‘I’m not saying how he got there or when. I’ve told you before, I’m not saying anything.’ 25
    The interview was terminated. Myra would repeat the same words – ‘I didn’t do it, Ian didn’t do it, ask David Smith’ – like a mantra in the weeks ahead. Ian occasionally made a few minor blunders, but Myra refused to be drawn. She came close to blurting something out when the police suggested that she was a prostitute and Edward was killed because he’d refused to pay up, but she recovered herself.
    Various people came and went that day. Dave and Maureen remained cloistered in one of the rooms, away from Myra. Nellie arrived, ferried in by the police with Myra’s Uncle Bert, and pleaded with her daughter: ‘Myra, they say you’re in a lot of trouble because you won’t talk to them. They’re talking about bodies being buried on the moors.’ 26 At this, Myra became upset. Nellie told her that Gran was staying with the Hills for the time being, but no one believed the story they’d concocted about Myra causing an accident by dangerous driving. At four o’clock, Nellie and Bert left, promising to return that evening.
    Half an hour later, a small, stooped woman in spectacles and a pillbox hat arrived at the station. She was shown into a building across the yard. Alex Carr stood watching Myra as the sound of loud sobbing filtered through the window. Myra went on sipping her tea as Edward’s mother, Edith, identified the savagely wounded body of her eldest son in the mortuary. Carr formed an opinion of Myra that didn’t waver until his own death decades later: ‘She was totally lacking in emotion. She never showed any remorse at any time when I spoke to her. She was hard and evil.’ 27
    At half past six, Benfield returned to Hattersley for another poke around the house. Lights were on in almost every window across the estate, with families settling down for tea and telly. He walked down to where Myra’s car was parked at the foot of the slope and found a dog-eared brown wallet on the dashboard. He felt inside and pulled out three sheets of paper.

    He knew immediately that he was holding in his hands a blueprint for murder. Some of the abbreviations were immediately obvious – GN for gun, HAT for hatchet and so on – but others were more obscure. He tucked the papers into his pocket. At eight o’clock, he slid the notes across the