Silence.
‘Where are Hannah and Sophie?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know!’ he shouted. The uniform stepped forward, but Kelly indicated for him to stay where he was.
‘When was the last time you saw Freya? Because she obviously never made it back home to Humberside, and you knew that, didn’t you?’
Sentry looked at his shoes.
‘Have you got a bad temper, Jack?’ He swallowed hard and his eyes revealed that he was desperately searching for something to tell her. He was tall, athletic and broad-shouldered, and Kelly remembered what Johnny had said about the strength needed to haul bodies around the fells. Jack Sentry was a mountain man: just like Johnny, she thought.
He tapped his foot against the chair, and Kelly let him sweat a bit longer.
‘Did you enjoy dominating those girls, like you did Cheryl? But they fought back, is that it?’
‘I didn’t hurt Cheryl!’ But when he said it, he closed his eyes. He was lying. Kelly held his gaze, and he looked away first.
‘I’ll ask you again. Where did you last see Freya Hamilton?’
He put his head in his hands and let out a sob. Kelly felt on the verge of a confession. He looked up, floundering under her scrutiny. He had a strong brow and she pondered what those eyes liked to watch.
‘Place Fell.’
‘What did you say?’
‘Place Fell; we used to go up there. There’s this abandoned cottage; we used to go there to party.’ His head went back into his hands. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt her,’ he said.
Kelly was close; any minute now, she thought.
‘What happened, Jack?’ she asked.
He looked at his feet.
* * *
Next door, Rob turned on the charm.
‘You must feel very used, Cheryl. How on earth did he manage to convince you to hide him?’
‘I d-d-don’t know,’ she stuttered.
‘Drink some water. You’ve had a shock. No doubt you’re worried about what your parents will think. You’re not used to disappointing them, are you?’ Rob had read Kelly’s notes on Cheryl very carefully.
‘Yes, but why …’ The girl’s eyes widened.
‘Oh, I took the liberty of informing them, Cheryl. They’re waiting outside,’ he lied.
Her eyes widened further as panic set in, and she looked at the door.
‘They’ll wait as long as they have to. I just need you to start giving me some answers. When was the last time you saw Freya with Jack Sentry?’ he asked.
Cheryl was thrown by the question.
‘I can’t remember,’ she said.
‘Did you help him? Did you trick Hannah and Sophie into thinking he was a kind and innocent man?’ He’d started softly, but now the gloves were off.
‘What? He didn’t do it!’ Her body shook with the effort of her passion, and it was clear that she was willing it to be true.
‘Do what? Kill Freya? Or Abi? Who are you talking about? Or did you mean he didn’t abduct Hannah and Sophie?’
‘None of it! He promised … he …’ Her sentence fell short.
‘How did he convince you of that, Cheryl? Did he hurt you again?’
She spilled some water, and her face crumpled.
‘No, you don’t understand …’ she said.
‘Maybe you could enlighten me then. Jack Sentry likes depraved sex, is that right?’
She looked like a vulnerable fledgling, isolated from its mother and facing a hungry predator.
‘I don’t know,’ she whimpered.
‘Yes you do.’ He looked deep into her eyes. ‘Perhaps if you were to tell me the truth, we might be able to keep certain details out of the press and away from, say, your mother and father,’ he added.
She bent her head and buried it in her hands.
Rob sat back and looked at his watch. He felt wretched at turning the screw on the woman who was barely more than a girl, but she’d harboured a suspect. Their thirty minutes was almost up.
* * *
Next door, Kelly spread out four photos.
‘Pretty, young and blonde. What did you do there, Jack?’
‘Drugs, drink … and …’ He stopped. His forty-odd years were suddenly resonant on his face.
‘Sex?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ he said.
She spread out a map in front of him. ‘Show me,’ she said.
He looked at the map and traced his finger in circles around Place Fell. ‘We found it up here. It’s out of the way, hidden really well. You can’t see it from the path.’ She watched his finger.
‘You’re lying, Cheryl already told us about it and I’ve had it checked out.’
‘What?’ He looked genuinely perplexed.
‘Jack, if you’re to have any chance, we need to know the truth. In my eyes, you’re guilty as hell, and you running away doesn’t help. Give me something.’ Her patience was wearing thin.
Sentry inhaled and his hands shook.
‘I thought she wanted to fool around a bit. We were totally out of it on coke. She liked it … rough,’ he said.
God. Kelly hated hearing this from men. She liked it rough. What did it mean? It covered so many bases, and disguised so many sins. It was what rapists usually said in their defence.
‘You’re going to have to be specific, Jack. What did you and Freya do?’
Sentry struggled with his words.
‘I thought she’d like to try something new, but I hurt her … OK? I fucking hurt her.’ He was sobbing now.
‘OK, Jack. Let’s stick to facts. You hurt her how? Physically?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Sexually?’
‘Yes.’
‘Violently?’
‘No!’
‘So then what?’
‘I left. She told me to go, so I did.’ His shoulders shook and his face grew purple with the shame. Tears flowed freely down his face.
‘You left her in a ruin on Place Fell after you’d had sex that was too rough?’ Kelly was gobsmacked.
‘Yes!’ he screamed.
‘Charming,’ she said.
‘I went back. I swear I went back. But it was all locked up. I banged on the doors and shutters. I …’ He broke off.
Kelly thought for a second.
‘When was this, Jack?’
‘The next day,’ he said.
Kelly got up.
Jack Sentry looked at her and shook his head. He was fucked, and he knew it.
* * *
Kelly met Rob in the corridor.
‘Anything?’ she asked.
‘She’s terrified. She swears he didn’t do anything,’ Rob said.
‘He’s still banging on about the ruin up on Place Fell. I think we need to take a closer look.’
‘Now?’
‘They can stay put; we have them for twelve hours. Who’s upstairs?’
‘Emma.’
‘Get a patrol car. There’s no access directly, but we can get a car up the Boredale road.’
They went through the door at the end of the corridor and Rob left instructions with the uniforms. He followed Kelly to the lift and they travelled the three floors up to the incident room.
‘Can’t you chopper it?’ Emma asked when they told her.
‘I can’t justify it. Not at this stage.’
‘Is it on the photos we took?’
‘No.’
Emma turned to her desk and lifted her phone. She hooked the receiver under her chin and spoke to Kelly. ‘We can have two patrol cars up there in twenty minutes. Can I come?’
Kelly looked at Rob and back to Emma. ‘Come on then.’
Chapter 61
They hitched a lift with the patrol cars and Kelly spoke to HQ on the drive through Penrith. She always kept a walking bag in her office, and she’d grabbed it before heading downstairs to the waiting vehicles.
It irritated her that she was confined by a car, but she had to do it properly. She couldn’t go hik
ing up from Patterdale, where she felt most comfortable, because she was in the middle of an investigation. She would have been quicker on foot and on her own, and she fretted in the back seat of the patrol car.
‘Use blues,’ she instructed the driver.
She wished she’d gone up there herself with Johnny. He’d found it locked up too, and he’d said it was empty. Perhaps it wasn’t.
They drove in convoy through Penrith, traffic parting for them, and soon they were on their way along the B5320, through Pooley Bridge and then on to the south shore road, heading for Boredale. They passed the campsite, the turning for the Peak’s Bay, and Martindale church.
The road only went so far before they were forced to stop. A helicopter could have got them further but it couldn’t have landed easily. They’d changed into trainers and sweaters, and they set off with two uniforms, the other three waiting with the vehicles on a closed channel. They walked quickly and discussed their situation. Kelly had years on Rob and Emma, but she didn’t break into a sweat as they hiked towards the peak. After twenty minutes, the uniforms were trailing behind, wiping their brows. Their kit probably weighed a good twenty pounds: vest, radio, baton, cuffs and heavy polished shoes utterly unsuitable to the hike.
Kelly looked over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of Ullswater below. She could kick herself for not coming up here with Johnny to check, but she could have done little without backup. Nobody spoke as they neared the top. Kelly had the route scorched into her brain: Sentry had confirmed it and Johnny had showed her on a detailed OS map.
‘Guv?’ Kelly turned around to where the uniforms had stopped. ‘These are fresh vehicle tracks.’
She walked back and looked at the ground where the uniform pointed. He was right. A muddy puddle revealed a clear tyre track heading in the direction of the hill. Straight for where they were going.
‘How the hell has anyone got up here?’ The wind was her only answer; Rob and Emma stood with their hands on their hips, catching their breath.
‘Any farmland up here?’ Rob managed eventually.
‘Don’t think so. It’d take a tank to navigate these rocks.’
They carried on with caution.
The stone dwelling sat hidden between two rocky outcrops, quietly private and untouched for years. It surprised them all. It wasn’t quite a ruin – it still had doors and shutters, just like Sentry and Johnny had said – but it had definitely seen better days. It was quaint and pretty, and Kelly couldn’t help but admire it. She tried to remember if she and Johnny had spotted it from the helicopter, and she was sure they hadn’t. It was always a slightly invigorating moment when one discovered hidden gems in the Lake District, which had been tramped over by millions of boots before them.
They walked around the ancient dwelling and Kelly stopped at the sight of an old Land Rover. She’d never have thought it possible, but somehow it had got up here, its engine no doubt screaming and tyres sinking. The plate was pre-2000, covered in mud and battered around the edges, barely readable. Their group approached the vehicle and looked inside the windows; it was filthy. Kelly took a close up photo of the tyres.
She approached the door of the cottage.
‘Ma’am.’ A uniform moved in front of her and she had to remind herself of protocol. They’d have to go in first.
‘Did we bring anything with which to break in?’ she asked. One of the uniforms nodded and produced a hammer and a long screwdriver. She wondered where he’d hidden them.
He stepped forward and banged on the door. Kelly, Rob and Emma waited, then walked around the sides and tried the shutters.
Nothing.
They stood back. Perhaps Sentry had set them up all along and there was nothing here. Kelly felt a little foolish. She sighed: another wasted venture. She didn’t doubt that he had brought girls here, but he was obviously stalling for time, and she’d fallen for it.
Behind her, she heard a lock turning, and looked back at the cottage. The front door was opening and the two uniforms stood in front of the detectives, ready to handle whatever appeared. Not for the first time Kelly wished they weren’t so vulnerable, but at least the uniforms were strapping six-footers.
As she stood waiting, Kelly noticed one of the uniforms lower his radio. There in the doorway, with a viciously swollen eye, and sobbing lightly, stood Linda Cairns.
Chapter 62
‘Linda?’ Kelly said, stepping forward. ‘Are you all right? Zac’s been worried sick. What on earth are you doing up here?’ The last person she had expected to see up a mountainside was Linda Cairns, and it had thrown her somewhat. Maybe Linda owned this place and it was her little retreat. But that didn’t explain why Jack Sentry had been able to use it for so long undisturbed. It also didn’t explain her wounded eye.
Linda wiped her eyes. She looked different.
‘Linda? Are you alone?’
The uniforms caressed their radios and batons, looking around them for answers.
‘Linda?’ she asked again. The woman stepped back into the cottage, and Kelly nodded to one of the uniforms to follow.
They filed into the dwelling, leaving Rob and the other uniform outside.
‘Linda, are you all right? What happened to your eye? Who owns this place?’ Again Linda ignored her.
The uniform moved away to look around as Kelly and Emma took in the state of the place. It stank, and was dark and damp; it wasn’t somewhere Kelly would link to such a fastidious woman as Linda Cairns. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed rotting food, dirty dishes, stale water in the sink, and a littered table. The room was a kitchenette, as far as she could make out, but the detritus could’ve disguised anything; it could be a bedroom for all she knew.
‘Do you own this place, Linda? Who lives here?’ Kelly asked.
‘No, it belongs to – belonged to – Xavier. It’s been in the family for centuries, but it fell into disuse. I didn’t know he still used it until Brian told me.’
‘Who still used it? The earl?’ Kelly asked.
‘Yes,’ Linda said.
Kelly laughed. ‘Are you kidding me? He couldn’t have made it up here.’
Linda looked away and a shadow crossed her face. Kelly didn’t know what to make of her strange behaviour; she could’ve been speaking to the wall. Linda wrung her hands and sat down at the table. She didn’t seem to be aware of the smell.
‘Ma’am!’ The uniform shouted and Kelly and Emma rushed towards his voice. ‘In here!’
Kelly went along a dark corridor and Emma followed. A door was open and they approached it. Inside, the uniform knelt beside a bed and spoke into his radio, calling for medics.
‘Christ.’ Kelly stopped. On the bed lay two girls, huddled together under a blanket like lovers sheltering from Armageddon. ‘Emma, help me,’ she said. But she needn’t have spoken, because Emma was already searching for signs of life. They checked the girls’ wrists and nodded to one another. They were still alive.
The stench made Kelly retch. She bent over, and bile burned her throat. Her eyes watered and she coughed. Emma pulled the blanket away slowly.
‘Fucking hell,’ she whispered, recoiling.
All they could do was wait. They couldn’t be more remote, but at least there was partial access. If only the girls could hold on.
‘Sophie?’ Kelly said gently. The girl didn’t respond. ‘We’re police officers. You’re safe now. It’s over. Hannah?’ There was no response from the other girl either.
‘How long?’ Kelly asked the uniform.
He shrugged his shoulders. They all knew that getting medics up here might take an hour.
‘First aid, in the car!’
Kelly darted out, passing Linda.
‘Don’t move an inch,’ she barked, pointing at her as she ran out of the building.
Rob watched her as she sprinted past him back the way they’d come. She ran as fast as she could, her lungs burning and her thighs heavy as she gathered pace.
‘Help me,’ she shouted and he foll
owed, sprinting. They reached the car and Kelly went to the boot, grabbing the medical kit.
‘Get the water,’ she ordered Rob, then she turned and pounded towards the crag once more. Her heart beat through her chest and she tried to go faster, breathing in great heaves.
Back at the cottage, she rushed into the bedroom and opened the bag. Emma rolled up her sleeves and assisted the uniform.
‘Stay with us,’ she whispered to the girls, who were still unresponsive. Kelly left the room.
In the kitchen, Linda rocked back and forth on her chair.
‘Linda, what is going on?’ Kelly said. ‘Who did this?’
The housekeeper stared at her blankly.
‘He’s gone.’
‘Who?’
No answer.
‘Where?’
‘To get Zac.’
‘Who did this, Linda? Tell me!’ Kelly screamed. She was mad as hell, angry that she didn’t know how the pieces fitted together; how Zac was involved. Surely he hadn’t done this?
She remembered Freya Hamilton’s autopsy and ran back to the room.
‘Check for petechiae,’ she shouted. ‘Purple marks. It’s a sign of septicaemia.’
Emma nodded and examined the girls’ arms. Hannah began to wake and opened her mouth to scream. She struggled and Emma had to restrain her gently.
‘It’s all right. It’s all right! I’m a police officer. It’s all over, Hannah. You’re safe.’
Chapter 63
‘Hey, Zac.’
Zac turned around, wary. He recognised the voice. Dominic stood in the doorway.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Well technically I’m your uncle, bro. And technically that means that all this is mine.’
Samson growled and Zac soothed the large dog. The other Labrador cowered in her basket.
‘Get that fucking mutt out of my way,’ Dominic said.
‘You need to leave.’
Dominic laughed. ‘No I don’t; you do.’
‘What?’
Dominic curled the thumb and forefinger of one hand into a circle and pushed the forefinger of the other hand through it, in and out.
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