‘And the date of the Kinder walk was changed to mark the anniversary of Magnus’s death.’
‘Yes.’
‘So it’s some kind of memorial to his brother,’ said Villiers. ‘Perhaps they were very close.’
‘I think there’s more to it than that,’ said Irvine. ‘It was Magnus who quickly built up the business. As the older son, he took it over when their father died. By all accounts, he made a big success of it. That was when the money really started to roll in.’
‘But when Magnus was killed—’
‘Darius inherited.’
‘Yes, but it seems Darius wasn’t as good a businessman as his brother. He’s drained the companies of profit. There’s a massive mortgage on Trespass Lodge too, which he would have been defaulting on very soon.’
Cooper nodded. That made sense. Darius had failed to live up to his brother. And he lost all the money trying. The company he inherited had declined rapidly under Darius’s leadership. He’d made bad decisions, poor investments, trusted the wrong people, all while spending extravagantly on vanity projects.
He’d ruined the business Magnus and their father had built up, wrecked the Roth empire. He must have been glad that Magnus wasn’t around to see it.
Diane Fry called that afternoon. Ben Cooper wasn’t as surprised as he might have been at any other time. She’d wanted something from him, after all.
‘They’ve called off the disciplinary hearing,’ she said without any preamble or small talk.
Cooper breathed a sigh of relief. It had been weighing on his mind ever since his visit to Ripley.
‘Good,’ he said. ‘I’m pleased to hear it.’
‘They must have found out something that undermined the case they thought they had against me.’
‘Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s what happened,’ said Cooper.
‘I know you did something. But maybe I shouldn’t ask what it was.’
He laughed. ‘Well, whatever it was, I’m glad it helped.’
‘You know, I think they were watching me,’ said Fry. ‘They had me under surveillance. Can you believe it?’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I’ve seen them,’ she said. ‘Sitting in a black BMW watching for me to use my InPost locker at the service station by Clifton Bridge. They must know I use that terminal regularly to receive packages.’
‘Do you think they sent something to your locker and were waiting for you to pick it up?’
‘Yes. Something incriminating, I imagine. I bet they planned to catch me opening the locker and taking delivery.’
‘But you never went to your locker?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Angie warned me not to.’
‘I guess she was the one who saved your bacon, then.’
‘Maybe.’
‘You said you receive regular packages at the InPost terminal,’ said Cooper. ‘Were they . . . ?’ He left the question hanging.
Then it was Fry’s turn to begin laughing.
‘I order Whole Earth organic no-caffeine coffee alternative and vegetarian tofu ragout from Holland and Barrett,’ she said. ‘And occasionally some moringa powder and cacao nibs.’
Cooper laughed too. And it wasn’t just relief. It seemed so out of character with the Diane Fry he knew.
‘Well, I just never get time to go into Nottingham to visit their store,’ she said defensively.
‘I thought you were more of a chocolate and wine woman. What’s with all the healthy foodstuffs?’
‘They give me energy. That’s better than cocaine any day, Ben.’
Cooper was trying to readjust his mental image of Diane Fry to some kind of health-food fanatic. It wasn’t really working.
‘So nothing suspicious,’ he said.
‘People can see anything as suspicious,’ said Fry. ‘It depends on your perspective. It depends what you want to believe – or what you want others to believe.’
There was another important question on Ben Cooper’s mind. He called his brother as soon as he got home that night. He had just had one question to ask him after the previous evening.
‘So what do you reckon, Matt?’ he said.
Matt breathed noisily down the line for a moment. Ben pictured him looking round at Kate, seeking her approval or agreement. There was no doubt they would have discussed the subject at length after Ben and Chloe had left Bridge End Farm last night.
‘All right, we reckon,’ said Matt finally.
Ben breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good.’
There was another pause, longer this time, then a deep breath from Matt.
‘And I think Mum would have approved too.’
35
Friday
Next morning, Ben Cooper had a copy of the post-mortem report on his desk. Chloe Young and her colleagues at the mortuary had worked overnight to conduct the examination so that he had the results in his hands first thing. And he was grateful for it. He must remember to tell her that. He suspected DCI Mackenzie wouldn’t.
Cooper looked through the report. It was pretty much as he’d expected. Roth had died from head injuries sustained in the fall. Much like Faith Matthew, in fact.
Then one apparently irrelevant detail caught his eye.
He picked up the phone. ‘Carol? Are you free? Can you pop in?’
Villiers pushed open the door a moment later. ‘What is it? I’m just on my way to Meadow Park Hospital.’
‘Do you remember what Elsa said was wrong with him?’ asked Cooper.
‘Sorry?’
‘Darius Roth. Why he was being treated at Meadow Park?’
‘She said he had appendicitis.’
‘Right. An appendectomy, then? That’s what they would have done, isn’t it?’
‘Of course. Why?’
Cooper tapped the post-mortem report on Roth.
‘This body in the mortuary. Dr Young says the dead man had an enlarged appendix.’
‘Interesting.’
‘It’s more than interesting. It makes all the difference. If this body was Darius Roth’s, he shouldn’t have an appendix at all.’
Elsa Roth was sitting in her enormous sitting room, a tiny figure in the midst of all that space and expensive furniture.
‘Mrs Roth, you told me your husband went into hospital for appendicitis,’ said Cooper.
‘What? What does that have to do—’
‘Bear with me, please. It was just before your marriage, wasn’t it? You had to postpone the wedding for six months.’
‘That’s right. I told you.’
‘Yes, you did tell me that. But it can’t be true. Mr Roth has never had an appendectomy. He never had appendicitis.’
‘How do you know something like that? Oh, I see. A post-mortem.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Cooper. ‘I know it’s distressing. But the fact is, I think Darius went into Meadow Park Hospital for an entirely different reason. It doesn’t take six months to recover from an appendectomy anyway. I should have seen that straight away.’
‘I have no idea about these things,’ said Elsa. ‘Why should I have?’
‘No reason,’ said Cooper, ‘if you’re prepared to accept everything you’re told.’
‘I had no cause to doubt Darius,’ she said loyally.
But Cooper could see she was wondering now. What else could her future husband have gone into hospital for? If he left her wondering for long enough, what interpretation might she come up with? How much imagination did Elsa Roth have?
Finally, Cooper took pity on her.
‘Did you know that Meadow Park also has a rehabilitation unit?’ he said.
‘Rehabilitation?’
‘Drugs,’ said Cooper. ‘Alcohol too. But I think your husband was a drug addict. Probably cocaine. It’s not unusual among businessmen, I’m told. It’s the pressure of the work. I remember your husband talking about how hard his father worked.’
‘What you’re saying can’t be true.’
‘We can establish it for definite. But if it helps, I think Mr Roth decided to get clean before your wedding.’
As Cooper watched her face, he saw her put two and two together, then snatch them apart again just as quickly. Sometimes people didn’t want to believe what was right in front of their noses.
Elsa stared at him. ‘I’m going to miss him so much,’ she said.
Cooper was sure that was true, at least.
‘Unfortunately, Mrs Roth,’ he said, ‘it gives your husband a motive for the murder of Faith Matthew. Faith worked at Meadow Park Hospital as a nurse at the time Darius was admitted. I wonder if she threatened to tell what she knew. Did Darius do something to her that made her threaten him? Or that made him threaten her? Would he take the trouble to write a note telling her to “fall down dead”?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Or,’ said Cooper, ‘was that you, Mrs Roth? You were always very defensive of your husband. I think if you believed Faith was a threat, you’d do anything to frighten her off. Sending a note. Perhaps even pushing her off Dead Woman’s Drop.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t understand any of this,’ she said.
‘Jonathan Matthew certainly believes your husband killed his sister on Kinder Scout last Sunday. Somebody told him so.’
‘Darius was with me all the time,’ said Elsa.
‘Or you were with him.’
‘What’s the difference?’
‘Quite a bit. Are you sure he even noticed you were there?’
She flushed. She knew exactly what he meant. She must have put up with Darius’s lack of attention often enough that she took it for granted. But there was a difference.
Elsa was too loyal, though. She wouldn’t have told him what Darius did even if she’d seen it with her own eyes. She would have rationalised it to herself, figured that he must have had a good reason for it. And she would be willing to protect him even now he was dead. Perhaps especially now.
‘Are you aware of the state of Darius’s businesses?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Mrs Roth, there’s no money left. Darius would have been bankrupt within the next six months. He wouldn’t have been able to pay the mortgage on this house much longer.’
‘Mortgage?’
Cooper looked at her pityingly. Had she taken so little interest that she didn’t know there was a huge mortgage to pay on the lodge? Had she taken it for granted that Darius owned the property outright? She was in for a horrible shock.
He let the thought sink in for a moment.
‘You’ll have a lot of things to deal with, Mrs Roth,’ he said. ‘Contact me if you decide there’s anything you want to tell me.’
The French bulldogs were missing from the front lawn when they left the house. Whose job was it to care for them? he wondered. Elsa didn’t look up to it at the moment.
‘Jonathan Matthew was dead set on revenge,’ said Villiers as they got in the car. ‘He didn’t plan it very well, though. He would never have got away with it. He must have been too consumed with hatred.’
Cooper started the ignition and drove out of the gates towards Hayfield.
‘I understand why he would feel like that if Jonathan believed Darius Roth killed his sister,’ he said. ‘The trouble is, I don’t think Darius was a killer.’
When Diane Fry passed the service station that morning, she saw the BMW in position again. Had no one told them the disciplinary hearing was over? That would be normal. Lines of communication could be slow, especially through official channels. For a moment, she felt sorry for the two men sitting in the car. But the feeling didn’t last long.
She circled the roundabout and came back to the service station, pulling onto the forecourt. She imagined her watchers sitting up, suddenly alert.
Fry opened her glove compartment and opened a packet of latex gloves. Then she got out of her car and checked her phone for the email giving her a code for her InPost locker. She pulled on the gloves, keyed in the number and a door popped open. A yellow box sat innocently inside. She drew it out, closed the door and walked casually across the road.
As she walked up to the rear of the BMW, she thought she heard muffled cursing from inside. But what could they do? They weren’t even supposed to be here.
Fry tapped on the driver’s window. After a moment, the window slid down. She didn’t recognise either of the faces of the two men, but she knew them by their suspicious manner, their wary expressions.
The driver looked at her, saying nothing.
‘I think this is for you,’ she said.
‘I think you’ve—’
But he didn’t have time to finish the sentence. Fry tossed the box through the window onto the floor of the car and watched them scramble to avoid it, as if afraid it might contaminate them. A corner of the box split open and a puff of white dust hit the driver’s trouser leg.
‘Enjoy yourselves,’ she said.
She peeled off the gloves as she walked back across the road and couldn’t resist a satisfied smile at the sound of the cursing and the bouncing of the BMW on its springs. She contemplated making an anonymous call to Nottinghamshire Police reporting suspected drug dealers operating on the Trent River Walk. She pictured the arrival of the Armed Response Unit, the sniffer dogs, the lengthy awkward explanations that would follow.
But no. It was enough to imagine them fearing it. They would be back on the M1 headed south as fast as their BMW could go.
36
Sometimes a solution was all about knowing where you were, and where everyone else was too. Ben Cooper realised he had never known that in this case.
He went back to study the satellite view of the Kinder Scout plateau on Google Maps. The peat groughs feeding into the River Kinder showed as meandering reddish-brown streaks like rivulets of dried blood. Eroded tracks were visible in a way they wouldn’t have been for walkers on the ground, and the Mermaid’s Pool was no more than a dark blob on the greenish-brown of the western slopes.
But the Downfall stood out as an eruption of broken rock, twisted and spattered on the hillside, the abandoned shell of a reptile skin. It was shadowed by a darker outline, the deeper chasm where water blew over the edge, where Faith Matthew had fallen from Dead Woman’s Drop.
Cooper printed out a new copy of the image and laid it on his desk. Thoughtfully, he took a yellow marker and tried again to locate the position of each of the members of the New Trespassers Walking Club at the time Faith had died.
Several times he had to refer back to the statements made by the group. He marked some of the positions with queries, crossed them out and started again from scratch, trying to get all the conflicting accounts to make coherent sense. After a lot of trial and error, he ended up with eleven markers identifying specific walkers, and one he placed roughly in the area where the search dog Dolly had located Jonathan Matthew. Finally, he took a red pen and drew a cross on the location of Dead Woman’s Drop.
As he stared at his map, Cooper became aware of Carol Villiers looking over his shoulder. He wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there watching him at work. He could see from her face that she had something to tell him.
‘I’m just back from Meadow Park Hospital,’ she said.
‘Success?’
‘I knew there was no point in trying the official channels, so I sniffed around and found some staff who’ve worked there for a while and remember her. One or two of them were willing to talk. Hospitals are a hotbed of gossip.’
‘And?’
‘Well, the talk is that Faith had an affair with one of the junior hospital doctors. He was working there as part of his training – they get assigned to different hospitals and various specialties. The trouble was, this junior doctor was married, and when it all came out, it wrecked his marriage. Faith was asked to leave, and that was when she took up agency nursing work.’
‘Did you get the doctor’s name?’
‘Yes. Dr Jake G
ooding.’
Cooper wrote the name down and looked at it for a long moment. It meant something, didn’t it? There was a connection, he was sure of it.
‘Is this accurate?’ asked Villiers, looking at the map.
‘As near as I can make it, given the contradictions in the witness statements.’
‘If that’s where everyone was at the time, it only leaves one possibility,’ she said.
‘Yes, when you look at it this way, it seems obvious,’ said Cooper.
Yes, it was obvious. But perhaps too obvious? If you were planning to commit a murder, surely you would take more effort not to be the obvious suspect. Everything else had been planned. So why not this detail? It didn’t make sense. It was like presenting yourself on a plate as a prime suspect.
And yet he had rejected that obvious suspect.
And then he remembered. He heard Darius Roth’s smooth voice in his head, as clear as a bell. He was talking about Sophie Pullen bringing Nick Haslam to the walking group. She used to come with Jake. So who was Jake? Not just a previous boyfriend, as he’d assumed, but—
‘Sophie Pullen was married, wasn’t she?’ said Cooper. ‘It was in your summary, Carol.’
‘Yes, she divorced and reverted to her maiden name.’ Villiers looked at him with her mouth open. ‘So—’
Cooper held up his hand. ‘Let’s not be too hasty. We need to find out her ex-husband’s name first.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Villiers. ‘Just in case it’s a coincidence.’
But this wasn’t a coincidence, and he knew it.
The perfect murder. Cooper recalled Sophie Pullen telling him that story about Darius Roth. The idea had been in Darius’s mind for some time, and the opportunity had arisen on Kinder. He thought the fog would mean no witnesses. Had he really believed he could get away with it? It seemed such a risk for a man like Darius Roth to take.
But what actual evidence had there ever been that Darius killed Faith Matthew? It all came down to one confused witness account. One that Cooper himself had insisted must be mistaken. But one that he’d believed nevertheless.
He remembered what Diane Fry had said to him. That’s often where it all goes off the rails, isn’t it? Trusting the wrong person.
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