by Lee Weeks
‘Do you see Gareth outside work?’
‘Sometimes, we meet for a beer sometimes.’
‘Has Gareth got a partner? Is he the same sort of age as you?’
‘I don’t think he does have a partner at the moment. He’s a bit younger than me, I think.’
‘So you’re like his mentor.’
‘I don’t know about that.’
‘He looks up to you, I expect?’
‘Not really. We just get along.’
‘Have a laugh?’
‘Yes.’
‘What about Lauren?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Does she like Gareth?’
‘I haven’t bothered to introduce them. Lauren has her own social life. She works very hard, long hours. Luckily there is a crèche where she works. She isn’t much of a socialite. She goes to the gym in her spare time.’
‘But – do you think she’d like Gareth?’
‘I can’t see why not. I also can’t see what this has to do with anything.’
He looked betrayed, as if Jeanie had led him down a path he shouldn’t have taken.
‘I would be bad at my job if I didn’t ask questions, Toby, but I am on your side.’ She smiled. Toby smiled guardedly back.
‘What do you do together, you and Lauren, on a night out? Cinema? Meals out?’
‘Yes, occasionally.’
‘You used to play the saxophone, you said?’
‘Yes. I love all sorts of music. Lauren listens to the current affairs programmes on the radio. I usually put my earphones in and put on one of my playlists.’
‘If you don’t mind me asking: you and Lauren seem quite different?’
‘Yes, I suppose we are.’
‘What made you think – she’s the one for me?’
‘I’m not sure really.’
‘Come on – there must be one thing that comes straight into your mind when you think of when you realized you were in love with Lauren?’
‘I suppose I saw security in her.’
‘And Samuel?’
‘I never wanted kids. I wanted us to have years of travelling, of having fun together. I thought there was so much we had to learn about one another and I was looking forward to shutting ourselves off from the rest of the world and just being us. But then Samuel came along – only now that this has happened do I realize how much I’ve grown to love him.’
‘You will feel like it’s your fault—’
‘Lauren blames me completely and she’s right to.’
Jeanie looked across at Toby. ‘But, if someone was determined to take Samuel, they would have found a way.’
‘Not with Lauren, they wouldn’t have. Lauren’s the one with the balls. She’d kill anyone who tried to touch Samuel.’
Chapter 17
Carter and Willis watched the low circling helicopter above them as they waited to pull out of the layby. It flew away towards the cliffs. Movement in the side mirror caught Willis’s eye; she reached across to stop Carter from pulling out. ‘Guv, someone just crossed over the road behind us. They went through the gate opposite.’
‘Man or woman?’
‘I couldn’t tell, they were quick.’
‘Where does it lead?’
‘There’s a sign that says it leads to Garra Cove.’ Willis looked at her map. ‘It leads along the coastal path to the old mine.’
‘Let’s take a look.’
They left the car parked up behind the hedge in the layby and crossed the road. A narrow path had been cut through trees and shrubs left to grow wild and twisted in the Atlantic gales. After a few minutes the path opened up to scrubby heath and gorse bushes appeared as they neared the cliff edge. The path split in two as it descended towards the cove and carried on over the cliffs above it. They could hear the roar of the waves as the sea smashed into the cliff face below them, where a cavernous split in the rocks allowed water to funnel and rise. They felt spray from the waves. Below them the sea was a foaming cauldron.
‘You want to take a look along the cliff top, Eb?’ Carter battled against the noise. ‘I’ll take a look at the cove.’
Willis took off and had disappeared over the top of the grassy slope, strewn with granite boulders. He saw her buffeted by the wind as she hit the rise and disappeared over the other side.
Carter took a few steps towards the cliff edge and the start of the rocky steep descent towards the cove beneath. He looked back along the path and down towards the cliff edge and the rocky ledges below, where resilient shrubs clung to a minute amount of top soil, their bare roots woven into the rocks. As he stood watching, the sea grew and swelled and it roared angry and surged so high that he was knocked backwards with the energy and the spray. Just as he was finding his balance, he felt a huge push in his back. He felt his breath escape in a roar as his back banged against the hard rock and he was pushed over the edge.
Willis turned her head to listen again. She had heard a sound that she knew didn’t belong. The wind and the waves were as loud as jets screaming overhead. Over the roar of the ocean she thought she heard someone shout.
Carter felt his stomach lurch as he fell, then he felt the water hit his face and heard the sharp crack of a branch. He didn’t dare open his eyes for a few seconds. He stayed still, hardly daring to breathe, waiting to feel the pain hit him, waiting to die.
‘Guv, give me your hand.’
Willis lay on her stomach and reached down to him. Carter looked up at her and then back down at his feet as he felt the bush give beneath him. He was sitting half on and half off a straggly shrub, which had taken root in the cliff, on a shelf less than a foot wide. He looked further down towards the churning ocean throwing up fifteen-foot waves to come within a few inches of his feet.
‘Guv?’
He looked back up. Willis nodded at him as if to say – it’s now or never.
He got onto one foot and knee and then he reached up for her hand.
‘Go for it. I can take your weight,’ said Willis.
Carter looked at her face. He knew if there was one person who could do it, it was Willis. He knew she would come over the cliff with him rather than let him go. He felt the sea crash into him as the waves grew higher, gathering momentum as the tide rose, and he knew he had no choice.
‘You can do it, guv, climb over me.’
Carter looked above him at the cliff face between him and the edge. He looked back at the ocean, each set of waves higher than the last.
He nodded at Willis and she steeled herself. He grabbed hold of her hand and she tightened her fists around his wrists as a massive wave swelled up and covered them as it surged up and crashed over the cliff. He felt his knee give way and the bush crack and crumble beneath him.
He heard Willis yell but he couldn’t see her past the spray as he felt her tighten her grip on him. He dug a foot into the cliff face and pushed hard with the foot on the ledge as he reached higher and caught Willis by the back of her jacket – for a few seconds he lost his footing and dangled in the air until a second wave surged and pushed him upwards, and he jammed his toes into the cliff face again and reached blindly up with his left hand and felt it grip as Willis hauled him up and over before the pull of the wave could take him back out to sea.
Carter scrabbled across as they crawled up and away from the cliff edge. He lay on his back and looked at the weight of cloud above him and the few breaks in it where the blue sky showed through.
‘I’m getting too old for all this,’ he laughed with relief.
Willis hadn’t moved either but now she stood and walked back to look over the edge of the cliff where he’d fallen.
‘How did it happen, guv?’
‘I was pushed. A hundred per cent. Did you see anyone walking further on?’ Carter asked, sitting up and brushing himself down.
‘No, there was no one on the cliff path.’
‘Whoever it was must have seen us in the woods. They could have doubled back.’
Carter
took out his radio and called Pascoe.
‘Have a look along the coastal path around Garra for me. There seems to be some interest from the locals in this area.’
‘Will do,’ came the reply.
Willis was watching Carter closely. ‘You didn’t mention someone tried to kill you.’
Carter shook his head. ‘Let’s not confuse things.’
Willis and Carter stood watching the sunset as they saw the blinking of Pascoe’s helicopter come into view and then disappear across the farmland.
He came on the radio again: ‘I can see a man walking away from the old tin mine. Pretty sure that’s Raymonds’ car I saw parked at the old Simmons farm. There’s one of the jeeps registered to the Stokes farm, that’s on the lane near Garra Cove. What’s bothering you? There are some deserted barns nearby, we have detected several small heat sources in there. Do you want me to send in a search team?’
‘Yes,’ said Carter, ‘we’ll meet them there. Nothing’s bothering me, just interested.’
Carter and Willis walked back up to the road and Carter grabbed a towel from his travel bag in the back of the car. ‘Have you got the location of this barn, Eb?’
‘Got it, guv. It’s part of the Stokes farm. We go past the main lane for the farm and take the next turning, along for half a mile then we should see the barns.’
‘Okay, I see it.’ Carter turned a sharp right and onto a farm track.
The search team had just arrived and they were getting the dogs out of the back of the van.
They pulled over and got out. Pascoe was waiting for them.
‘We’re stopping the aerial search overnight now,’ he said. ‘I thought I’d come and join you.’
‘Are these barns in use?’ asked Carter.
‘No, these were from the original farm that belonged to Simmons.’
They opened up the barn doors. Bales of straw were stacked to the roof.
‘How long has this been in here?’ asked Carter. He waved the dust away from his face as the straw flew around them.
‘God knows, years, I don’t know. It’s been forgotten, by the look of it.’
Willis walked inside and patted her hand against the bales of straw. ‘It’s still solid.’
‘Yeah, it can last fifty years and longer if it’s kept dry. They’re building houses out of it now, aren’t they? This floor is concrete,’ Pascoe said as he gave a jump and landed with a solid thump. ‘That’s the way to keep it fresh. The system they used for stacking the bales at odds to one another gave it strength. It meant, when it was first created, someone could stand on the stack without it collapsing.’
Willis was working her way along the barn, looking at the bales.
The dogs were sniffing furiously at all the bales as they wagged their tails, springer-fashion.
‘There’s probably a whole host of creatures living in this barn, but no way could a child be hidden in it,’ said Pascoe.
‘What is it you saw from the helicopter?’
‘Pockets of heat. Could be the straw itself, it ferments and gives off enormous heat when it gets mouldy. There’s bound to be pockets of heat in this. It’s dangerous. We’d better tell Stokes to sort it before it starts a fire. We’ll call the dogs off and continue our search in the morning.’
Willis went outside with Carter and the dogs to look around the exterior.
‘Will the dogs be able to work with all these farm smells?’ Willis asked Pascoe.
‘Yes, they’re trained. Our only problem is that Samuel’s clothes were changed and he’s a small child. We don’t have a lot of scent to go on.’
‘What about the old mine, where you saw Raymonds?’
‘That’s just near here but there’s nothing to see.’
‘Can you get access to the mine?’
‘We searched it already. All we found was a dead sheep.’
‘Can you search it again?’ asked Carter.
‘No problem. Tomorrow, we won’t be able to see now.’
They walked back to their car and Pascoe accompanied them.
‘We’re expecting Lauren Forbes-Wright down this evening,’ said Carter. ‘Have you got a Family Liaison Officer we could use?’
‘I’ll ask for one to come across from Truro. Might take me a day to organize. Is she going to stay at the house?’
‘Yes, Detective Willis will stay with her. I’m going to keep to the plan and book into the hotel. If you’re around later come and find me.’
‘I don’t drink – I try and avoid bars. But I’ll be up in the helicopter first thing and I’ll be in touch then unless you need me before.’
‘We’re going to see Martin Stokes now, if you want to come?’
‘I need to get the helicopter back and examine the footage tonight, so I’ll say no for now. Ask him about the barn.’
‘Will do.’
Jeanie phoned. Her voice came over the car radio.
‘I had a breakthrough with Toby. Seems he left Samuel unattended for plenty long enough for someone to snatch him. I’m convinced he didn’t intend for it to happen. He was just too scared to admit he’d messed up – their marriage is definitely shaky. Anyway, Lauren should be pretty near you now. She left at just after one.’
‘Is there any subject I should stay away from?’ asked Willis.
‘No, just be yourself. Lauren likes you. I’d give her plenty to do. I’ve written up my report about my time with Toby today. Robbo’s working on confirming his story. You can read the rest of it when you log in. Good luck down there, Eb. Dan, is there anything I can do to help Cabrina here?’
‘Thanks, Jeanie. I’ll give her a ring and see if she’s okay. I’ll get back to you.’
Jeanie rang off and Carter handed Willis his phone.
‘Text Cabrina for me, Eb, and tell her I’ll phone her as soon as I can. And tell her she can ring Robbo for anything she needs.’
Chapter 18
Carter and Willis headed back down the road and down the next turning left, signposted for Stokes’ farm. After half a mile, past cottages on the left, fields to their right, there was a tin-clad roof over a barn straight ahead as they came to the end of the lane and pulled up onto a concrete standing. Behind that to the right was a farmhouse, Cornish stone, simple and with two storeys. There were outbuildings scattered to the left. Security lights came on. A collie dog came out barking as they got out of the car.
A man appeared, wiping his hands of oil on a cloth that didn’t look clean. The smell of manure hit them. The ground was swimming in murky puddles of cows’ urine and fresh cowpats. They were difficult to avoid in the semi-dark.
‘What can I do you for?’
‘Mr Stokes? Martin?’
‘Yes.’
They showed their badges.
‘Can we have a word? I believe you look after things at Kellis House, Jeremy Forbes-Wright’s place?’
‘I look after things when he’s not there. Or I did – not sure what’s happening now he’s passed away. Bloody shame.’
‘How did you come to be doing that for him?’
‘Ah . . . I don’t know, really – he asked us to, I suppose.’
‘Have you got many houses on your books that you look after for the owners?’ Carter asked, looking around. ‘It’s just that you seem to have a lot to do here, plenty, I would have thought?’
‘You’re right there. I don’t have any other houses. It was a favour, really. As you can see – I’m a farmer.’
‘You also have the farm shop down in Penhal?’ said Willis.
‘Yes. Supposed to be run by my son Towan, but that’s hit and miss these days.’
‘How does it work if people want to stay at Kellis House?’ asked Willis.
‘Oh, they can’t, not the general public, that is. They wouldn’t contact me directly unless they’ve been before; they always used to come through Jeremy. Just his friends, that’s all. If they know the place and want to come, they ring me and I clear it with Jeremy. I organize for one of
the girls to go in and clean it and whatnot. That was what I was writing to the young couple about – I need to know – there are some longstanding, year-after-year bookings which I want to know if I can accept. ‘Tis a bit tricky.’
‘You get a fee for doing that?’
‘Of course. He was always very grateful.’
‘Who do you have booked in at this time of year?’ asked Willis, ready with her pen and notebook.
Stokes looked shifty.
‘Well, I’d need to go and look up their names and this is feeding time and we’re settling the animals down for the night, so I’d appreciate it if you could wait for that answer.’
The sound of squealing and grunting came from beyond the wall to their right.
‘Mawgan, Mawgan . . . get that ruddy sow out of there when you’re seeing to the piglets,’ Stokes shouted. He turned back to them. ‘Stupid mare, she’ll get herself gored to pieces. Never go in there when a sow’s got her young. She’ll charge at you.’
‘So, Mr Forbes-Wright never made any money from letting out the house?’
‘Maybe, but I don’t see how. He may have charged his friends on the times he was here with them. As I said, he didn’t always rent it out.’
A woman came round from the other side of the wall, wiping her face with her sleeve. She stomped along, a tear in the top of her boot that flapped as she walked. She looked at Willis and stared hard at Carter. Stokes shouted at her as she passed: ‘You knows you shouldn’t go in there.’ He shook his head, annoyed. ‘Mawgan. Mawgan . . . come here.’
She kept on walking towards the stable block at the back of the house.
‘Next time she bites me, I’ll slit her throat, put her in the freezer,’ she said over her shoulder.
‘We’d like a word please, Mawgan,’ Carter called out.
She nodded as she turned away and kept walking.
‘Let me see to my leg.’
‘Well, get a move on,’ Stokes shouted after her, receiving a glare in return. He laughed it off.
‘She’s a good girl on the farm. She can do anything a man can do and do it just as well.’
‘You have a son too, don’t you, Mr Stokes?’