by Adam Melrose
‘We will be in touch once we have checked things out.’
Bella chased up behind him and gave him a hug.
‘Be safe,’ she whispered.
‘We will.’
Bella stood back as both cars drove around the fountain, across the courtyard, then under the archway and headed out into Fleet Street. In a moment they were gone, merging into the traffic.
Suddenly she felt alone. Bella followed the car’s direction, under the archway and out into the London throng as the large gold and black vehicle access gates closed behind her. Their sheer size meant they had a gong like sound as they locked against their fastenings.
‘For whom the bell tolls.’ Bella could not help thinking there was something symbolic there. This was probably her last chance to find out what really happened to her husband. Suddenly she had a dreadful sense of foreboding.
Chapter 4
The two cars headed along the M4 motorway away from London and towards the Cotswolds; an area encompassing parts of several counties including Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.
The Range Rover with Matt at the wheel and Joe and Max aboard was in front. Following closely behind was the Audi, with Ava at the wheel and Bruno and Norton for passengers. A proprietary system from Refract Speech had been fitted to each car, that included an AI computer system designed to offer help where it could; and an advanced and encrypted communications system that allowed the occupants in both cars to talk and hear each other as clearly as if they were all in the same vehicle without the signal breaking up.
As they headed towards the junction with Chieveley Motorway services, it was agreed they would pull off and grab some coffee to go with the doughnuts. Whilst Ava and Matt went in with the drinks order, the others milled around the cars making small talk.
After a few moments, talk turned to the case; Norton looked at the ground and kicked the tarmac with his toe.
‘Would we really take this case on if Bella weren’t a friend of Max’s?’
No one really wanted to have this conversation for the sake of Max’s feelings, so it took a while for an answer to come.
Joe spoke up first, ‘No, in truth probably not, but when we find nothing odd, we can be the ones to break it to Bella as gently as possible and help her find closure. It seems to me like my brother, and now all of us are doing the decent thing here. This particular case is more about helping a friend out than anything else. We can afford to make an exception to our criteria for selecting cases as far as Bella is concerned.’
Norton was quick with his reply.
‘I actually think the opposite; I think we are going to find something, and I think there’s going to be a nasty surprise waiting; that’s why I am asking.’
Max spoke next, looking straight at Norton, ‘What do you mean something? What do you think we’re going to find.’
‘I don’t know Max, but something’s off with her story. That rushed bit at the end of the meeting, the bit about him not being able to swim. That’s what caught my attention. Why blurt all that out. It just doesn’t fit with the rest of the story. She told it in a different way. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but something’s off.’
Without looking at anyone in particular Max spoke again.
‘Does anyone else agree with him?’
Bruno was next to talk.
‘I have to say I got the same feeling when she came back into the room at the end of the meeting. I just didn’t buy that part of her story, and I’m a bit confused over the tattoo business, but I did buy the rest of it. I think she’s a very sad woman, desperate to find reason in something totally unreasonable. I don’t mean I think there’s something sinister going on; I just think she will say anything to get us to look into this. I think she was simply having a last throw of the dice and possibly she was just trying to entice us with a small white lie. I don’t hold that against her; she’s desperate, and desperate people do desperate things. You, and by extension now us, are doing the right thing by her Max.’
Bruno turned to look directly at Norton, ‘We have taken the case Norton. Get over it.’
Max lowered his head and seemed to be thinking deeply.
Norton broke the silence.
‘Yeah but all I was doing was gauging how you guys felt; I’m not for a second saying this isn’t worth checking out or anything. I was just saying I think, well… I’m not sure what I think. Forget I said anything.’ Norton noticed Ava and Matt coming back with the drinks. He lent in through the open window of the car, grabbed the box of doughnuts and began walking towards the grass area. The others followed. Norton felt that perhaps he should not have said anything.
He decided to brighten things up and back track to support his team.
‘Look I shouldn’t have said anything; we have taken this case, and I for one am delighted to dig out the truth - whatever, just like we always would; and treat this just like any other case and investigate thoroughly.’
Norton put his free arm around Max’s shoulders and gave him a one-armed bear hug, then let go. His effort paid off, the awkwardness evaporated, and the usual break-time chat ensued for the next twenty minutes.
Soon they were back on the M4 heading west towards their destination; a disused and flooded quarry. That quarry was one of two things. It was either, as the majority of those familiar with the case believed; the setting for a deeply tragic accident that took the life of a newly married man; or it was the site of a deliberate and wilful drowning that had a solitary advocate.
Less than an hour’s drive further on, and the two cars pulled up at the gates to the quarry. It was time to try and find out what had happened here for once and for all.
Chapter 5
Everyone got out of the cars. Ava walked over to meet a very cheery looking man who clearly worked outdoors. He had a beard and was wearing a baseball cap. Ava guessed he was in his late fifties. The man was removing a large metal chain and padlock that had been holding the gates shut. As she got closer, he began to swing one of the tall green metal gates open.
‘Mr Collins...? Mr Ralph Collins?’
‘Morning, yes that’s me, you must be Ava?’
‘That’s correct, Ava Scott from Scott and Munro. Thank you for opening up for us.’
Mr Collins made some small talk with Ava for a few moments, about how the gates used to be left open, but with increasing volume of traffic from opportunist visitors; the boss had decided they should now stay permanently closed. There was a pause before Mr Collins scratched his arm and continued chatting.
‘Of course there was the coincidence that we actually had two problems happen on the same day that the body was discovered.’
Ava looked at him in such a way that Mr Collins was in no doubt that he had her full attention and should continue.
‘Well it was just that when I came to open the gates that morning, the lock was jammed shut on the padlock, and I couldn’t get the key in. Nothing could get the little hatch open in order to insert the key. In the end I just cut the padlock off and fitted a spare new one. I was sure someone had glued the key latch shut, but why would anyone do that? I gave up thinking about it and, as I said, I fitted the spare.’
Mr Collins could tell Ava was giving what he had said some serious thought. He was enjoying the attention considering he spent most of his working days alone.
By now everyone had come over to join Ava.
‘These are my colleagues Mr Collins.’
Various versions of ‘good morning’ were given back and forth.
Mr Collins looked at his watch, ‘Right, do you want to drive up to the quarry or walk. No one else is due, so you can leave your vehicles here by the gates if that suits.’
Ava spoke up, ‘There was no vehicle found in relation to the body being discovered was there?’
Mr Collins shook his head, ‘No.’
‘Then I think if it’s OK with you, we will walk in on foot and assume that’s what the victim must have done too. Do most peop
le come in through this way if they’re on foot, or is there another route in?’
‘We leave the chain locked but slack on these gates, so that those determined to get in on foot, come this way and therefore don’t damage the high-security fence that surrounds the site. So to answer your question directly, this is the only way in without cutting the fence.’
‘And the fence had not been cut around the time of the discovery of the body?’
‘No.’
Everyone had their electronic tablets out and had begun orientating themselves with the site. They were looking at the map Bella had drawn up from what the police had told her.
Joe spoke next, ‘Did you find the body then?’
Mr Collins swung round to make eye contact with this new voice.
‘No young man, I am glad to be able to say I did not. It was the environmental guys that I had let in that morning that found the body. I had let them in at the gate, but didn’t come up with them. They come here every four weeks to poke about and measure things like water quality. I just left them to it as normal.’
‘I was only just back at the office on the outskirts of Cirencester when my phone rang and one of them sounded deeply distressed, gabbling away about a body. I could tell they were terrified so I just headed straight back here. I assumed I had misheard when they said body, I thought they meant body of water. I wasn’t really listening; I was looking forward to my cup of tea. As I say, it was the tone of terror I could hear in his voice; you just know something is very wrong.’
‘Well, as I say, I came straight back expecting to find one of them floating in the water, or their rubber boat having sunk; but their boat was back on shore, and they were both dry, yet seriously agitated. They told me that they had found a bloated and severely damaged looking body, that they were quite sure was that of a man. They had already called the police by the time I got back here. The police were not a long time behind me.’
Joe spoke again, ‘Sorry to be morbid, but did they give you any description in relation to the corpse or say anything that you thought odd or out of place?’
Mr Collins took a good few moments to think, ‘Oh, you mean like missing tattoos?’
Everyone stopped what they were doing that instant, and looked at each other briefly, before attempting to disguise their surprise, so as not to tip off Mr Collins that tattoos were exactly what Joe was referring to. It had been an instinctive long shot and Joe had certainly not expected such an instant and positive response.
‘Yeah, or anything else that struck you as odd.’ Joe decided to play it very cool.
‘No, nothing, they were so shocked at finding a body in the first place. All I asked was if they were OK and if they were sure the man was definitely dead. They said that although for both of them it was their first dead human, the state of the body left them in no doubt he was long dead. I caught a glimpse of the body when they brought him ashore, God rest his soul, I saw what they meant. I have never seen anything so… so grotesque I think is probably the word.’ Mr Collins shuddered.
Joe spoke again as he wanted to be crystal clear on this specific point.
‘Did you see either of his arms at all?’
‘I saw his arms, yes, but he was wearing a dark coloured top with the sleeves rolled down. No skin or tattoo was visible to me or anyone else unless they tried to roll up a soaking wet sleeve.’
Joe gave Mr Collins a moment before continuing.
‘What made you mention missing tattoos just now?’
Mr Collins gave a knowing smile. He seemed to be enjoying his involvement with the investigation.
‘Well, that’s what you meant isn’t it. That’s what she kept going on about.’
Joe and Max both spoke at the same moment; their voices sounded equally unnerved.
‘She?’
Mr Collins smiled again.
‘Yes, the woman with the red hair. She’s his wife isn’t she?’
Now it was Norton’s turn to speak.
‘His wife has been here, asking about missing tattoos?’
Something in Norton’s voice resulted in Mr Collins smiling a little less.
‘Yes. She has been up here a lot since the body was found, and then later she tracked me down and was asking all sorts of questions like, “Was I sure I had not seen his arms?” I’m afraid I lied to her and said I hadn’t seen anything of the corpse at all.’
Bruno looked up from his tablet.
‘Why did you lie to her?’
‘I lied to her because as I have just explained, the state of the body was horrendous. She didn’t need to hear about that from me. If she was to see her husband’s body in a Chapel of Rest or some such place, then fine, but it certainly wasn’t my place to tell her how horrendous her husband looked; especially as I only witnessed the bloated corpse just as it was being removed from the water.’
Bruno was still looking directly at Mr Collins.
‘Yes, I would have done the same thing.’
Joe leant towards his brother Max and spoke in a hushed voice.
‘I thought Bella said she had never been up here?’
Max closed his eyes and drew in a breath, then breathed out long and slow. His out breath was longer than normal and more pronounced.
Matt was the next to speak to Mr Collins, ‘Could you take us up to the quarry now?’
Mr Collins nodded and began to walk on with them all following.
Joe looked down at the hard-core road they were walking on.
‘I don’t suppose you remember what the weather was like on that day, or had been like in the week or two leading up to the discovery of the body?’
Mr Collins slowed his pace a little as they wound around a slight bend in the road. There were tall grasses and elder trees, whose sweet scent filled the air. These were interspersed with some stunning buddleja plants; their purple flowers nodding in the warm summer breeze.
‘I do as it happens. It had been massively dry for several weeks. This track was the same then as it is now.’
‘So, it wouldn’t be possible to tell if any illicit traffic had been up and down this road?’
Mr Collins came to a complete stop.
‘Not a chance of being able to tell for sure. I remember the police asking me that at the time. The padlock on the gates was locked when I let the environment guys in, so there couldn’t have been any traffic in before us. The key latch on the padlock was jammed; and as mentioned to Ms Scott, I had to cut it off, but the gates were closed and locked.’
‘Thanks.’
Joe made some more notes on his tablet.
Mr Collins moved off again and everyone began to follow. A few moments later they came to a halt on the water’s edge. In front of them lay a body of water that seemed to take a shape more fitting to a natural lake than a flooded quarry. It was beautiful. From their stand point the team could see pretty much the whole quarry site. Some of the banking was grass, there were three separate reed beds complete with tall rushes, and at one point a stunning weeping willow hung over the water’s edge. Then there was the cliff face. It seemed to be trying to cast a shadow over as much of this beautiful place as it could.
Bruno was the first to speak. ‘Wow, what a stunning place.’
Mr Collins nodded.
‘Isn’t it, especially the willow. That was there when this was just a field and luckily it stayed.’
Ava pointed to the reed bed closest to them.
‘Is this the reed bed that they found the body in?’
Mr Collins was taking in the lake as if it was the first time he had seen it. He did not take his eyes off it as he answered.
‘That’s correct, the one closest to the cliff face.’
Ava scrolled through something on her tablet, ‘And the boat the guys used, that was theirs and they brought it with them?’
‘That’s correct.’
Matt was looking at the cliff face. ‘That’s an odd feature; it doesn’t seem to fit with the landscape.’
&n
bsp; Mr Collins nodded, ‘No, it doesn’t. It’s where the rock changed type, so they stopped quarrying and just left it there when they landscaped the quarry at the end of its working life.’
‘And that is where they think Peter Stone fell from – those cliffs, what are they twenty or thirty feet from top to bottom.’
‘Apparently. They think he fell, died and then rolled into the water.’
Now everyone was looking around. There was no way there was going to be anything left for them to examine that the police and authorities had not already looked into. More than a year had passed, so they did not expect to find anything but until they saw for themselves, they couldn’t have been sure. Everyone had made the same assessment and had decided it was time to walk back. It was Norton who was the first to stop in his tracks.
‘Hang on, I’ve just been looking through the copy of the autopsy report from Dr Brett that Bella sent us. It mentions finding concrete of some description in the head wound that was deemed to be the cause of death; but I can’t see any concrete structure here. If that’s the case, then why did the police accept this as the location of the death? That doesn’t track; they wouldn’t have done that if the concrete couldn’t be explained, and that looks like dirt, not concrete at the foot of the cliff.’
‘I can actually answer this for you.’
They all turned to look at Mr Collins once more. He waited until he was sure everyone was paying attention. He rarely got to be part of something like this, and was going to make it last as long as possible. These guys would soon be gone and he would be back to working on his own.
‘What I doubt you have in any of your paperwork is that there has been a break in here; one that happened a good few days after the body had been found. We couldn’t believe it; the theft happened about a day or so after the police had packed up and left.’
Bruno followed quickly on the end of Mr Collins’s sentence.
‘OK. You think this is relevant?’