Love Him to Death (10 page)

There’s not much to add, really. Tessa clearly
had
had ambitions to become the third Mrs Strummer. When Graham and I returned to the villa with Angelica, dripping wet and with a long story for the police, she was None Too Pleased. We gave our statements, a bemused Sally standing by as the Responsible Adult, her eyes growing wider by the second. “I am never, ever taking you two anywhere again,” she told us afterwards – which I didn’t think was very fair. It wasn’t us who’d committed all those murders. “What on earth will your mother say? No – don’t tell me. I can imagine. You’ll be lucky if she ever lets you out of her sight in future.”

After paying Sally an enormous wad of cash in tight-lipped silence, Tessa despatched us off the island as fast as she could. Somehow I suspected she wouldn’t get in touch with her old college friend a second time.

When the news got out about Josie’s murder she was elevated to heights of fame that she could only have dreamt about while she was still alive. She became the embodiment of tragically doomed youth and beauty – standing somewhere between Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana. It can’t have been much compensation for being murdered by the man she’d had a crush on since she was seven.

Overnight, Bill went from being rock-star-superhero-who-does-so-much-for-charity to murdering-scum-of-the-earth-who-deserved-everything-he-got. While his reputation nosedived, Angelica’s rocketed into the stratosphere.

She seemed to develop a new lease of life. With our evidence backing her version of events, her story was accepted not only by the police but by the public at large. Everyone wanted to know her side of things and she suddenly found herself invited to chat shows all over the world.

Mick’s dog, Dinkum, was freed from the canine equivalent of death row, where he’d been languishing since Mick’s so-called accident, and was rehomed with Angelica. It was good to know that one innocent life had been spared.

The fact that Angelica had steered a speedboat over her ex-husband didn’t seem to bother anyone unduly. She claimed it was an accident and everybody believed her. Well, almost everybody. Graham and I weren’t convinced. I mean, she’d managed to handle the boat well enough when she rescued us. We didn’t say anything, though. We couldn’t exactly blame her after everything she’d been through. And if
she
hadn’t killed
him
,
we’d
both have drowned. Bill suffering death by misadventure seemed like poetic justice.

The rock star had left his entire fortune to Angelica but she didn’t want to touch a penny of it – she gave everything away to good causes. A large chunk went to the children’s home where Josie had been brought up and they erected a really nice memorial to her in the garden.

Meanwhile, Angelica made her own fortune by writing her autobiography.
Please Believe Me
became an international bestseller. It was dedicated to Mick. And to me and Graham.

Tanya Landman is the author of many books for children, including
Waking Merlin
and
Merlin’s Apprentice, The World’s Bellybutton
and
The Kraken Snores,
and three stories featuring the characters Flotsam and Jetsam. Of
Love Him to Death
, the eighth title in her popular murder mystery series, Tanya says, “I love celebrity weddings – the more ludicrously flamboyant, the better! I was reading about a particularly tacky one when it occurred to me that it would make a great backdrop for a murder mystery.”

Tanya is also the author of two novels for teenagers:
Apache
, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Booktrust Teenage Fiction Prize, and
The Goldsmith’s Daughter
, which was nominated for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Since 1992, Tanya has also been part of Storybox Theatre. She lives with her family in Devon.

You can find out more about Tanya Landman and her books by visiting her website at

www.tanyalandman.com