by Lee Weeks
‘You’d hate it, guv – a spiders’ heaven,’ said Willis. ‘And the thing is, you can’t see them either until you’ve nearly stepped on one because the floor is dark.’
Carter shivered. ‘Spiders and snakes . . . hate them. What do you feel about this house then, will you be happy to sell it?’
‘It’s not my decision. It will be Toby’s. But I would want to get rid of it. Although I don’t want to leave Penhal. I don’t know how Toby can stand it in the flat in Greenwich. I feel so much nearer to Samuel here. I feel like there is still hope here and, when we find him, I want mine to be the arms he runs into.’ She turned away to stop herself from crying. ‘I wish Toby would see that we have a fight on our hands and put on his boxing gloves and get down here. People think he’s a coward, along with everything else.’
‘Lauren, we’d like to order a proper search of this house,’ said Carter. ‘I’ve ordered our Crime Scene Manager in here this evening – that means you two will have to sleep in the guest house up the road. We’ve commandeered nearly all the holiday lets in the area for our police teams. I’ve made sure you two get the places with heating. You going to show me round, Eb?’
‘Sure.’ They walked into the room to their right with the veranda.
‘Okay. Nice room.’
Willis moved swiftly on into the front rooms.
‘So here is where Toby and the others were when they came off the beach?’ Carter lowered his voice. They could hear Lauren washing dishes in the kitchen.
‘Most of this stuff is bought within the last ten years. He seems to have enjoyed adding bits all the time. The floor is original, the wallpaper hasn’t been changed in twenty years. There’ve been numerous paint jobs but no major work except to the bathrooms and his room at the top.’
Carter followed her up the stairs and had a quick look into the four bedrooms on the first floor.
‘I can tell why you didn’t sleep in either of those,’ Carter said, coming out of the ornate rooms and into Willis’s and Lauren’s.
Willis pushed open the door to the bathroom.
‘Wow.’ Carter stepped inside and squatted down. He touched the tiled floor with his hand. ‘Heated.’
‘Yes, a lot of money spent here, and it’s all been spent since 2000. It has a date on the instructions for the extractor and the shower; they were installed July 2000.’
‘Funny time to do major work inside your holiday house, right in the peak season?’
‘That’s what I thought.’
‘This bathroom comes out, then, tile by tile.’
‘And let me show you upstairs.’ Willis led Carter up a separate set of stairs that took them to the top floor.
Carter stood in the doorway of the suite. The sun had come out and was streaming in via the long window that had replaced the original attic one and now afforded a breathtaking view of the coastline.
Carter stood looking out to sea.
‘Do we have enough to bring Marky and Jago in and charge them with the drugs?’
‘I think we need to wait, guv, till we find Samuel.’
‘Yes, okay, but Raymonds has to start really feeling the squeeze. I want him to understand we are closing in on him.’
Carter and Willis left Lauren and drove down to the police station. They pulled up and saw Pascoe’s car outside.
Pascoe looked up from his desk as they walked in.
‘All okay?’ asked Carter, putting his bag down on a desk.
‘Yes, I’ve made a good start. I’ve told the team in Penhaligon that I’ll be running the murder enquiry from here, but it will run alongside the abduction investigation. It will not take priority.’
‘Was there any problem with that?’ asked Carter.
‘Everyone understands that we need to keep it contained. We can’t end up with more officers than residents here. We solve one crime at a time. Plus, it’s unlikely to be an outsider. It wasn’t a random act.’
‘We’ll interview everyone who was at the farm,’ said Carter. ‘We’ll start today, but I don’t want them interviewed under caution for now. I want to keep people moving around here. I want us where we can still watch them. Okay, Willis will take the notes for us and make sure we all understand where we are. We’ve just had a development that at least discounts two of our possible suspects for the abduction of Samuel.’
Willis brought up the edited footage of Marky and Jago at Gordano services and turned it round for Pascoe to see.
‘Here we have Marky and Jago handing over a lot of cash in exchange for a lot of drugs.’
‘Jesus, that will destroy so many lives if that goes on the street down here,’ said Pascoe, almost choking on his coffee. ‘We have a big drug problem here as it is.’
‘We estimate, by the size and look of it, that these lads, Marky and Jago, have managed to buy themselves fifty grand’s-worth of what we think is probably a mix of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. That’s apparently what the brothers from Ukraine like to deal. But, what they also like to do is cut it with rat poison and horse tranquillizer.’
‘Shit. We have to find that stuff.’
‘You’ve seen them beachcombing, we can definitely pull Penhal apart to find it. Sandford’s up at the farm at the moment; I’ll tell him to test for these substances as well.’
‘We searched down the mine again, as you requested,’ said Pascoe. ‘If we want to drain it we could have a better look in there but you’re talking about an unsafe environment and it’s going to take a lot of time and resources.’
‘We’ll consider it,’ said Carter. ‘Where did Marky and Jago get the money to buy this stuff? Jago has no money and no real job and Marky is in the middle of the low season in his business.’
‘Does he own that Surfshack? Could he raise funds on it?’ asked Willis.
‘I’ll find out,’ Pascoe said.
‘Meanwhile we need house-to-house searches starting with all the people who were at the funeral or in London that day,’ said Carter. ‘We have to find Mawgan’s car.’
‘Pascoe, we need to know what investigation was made into the disappearance of Ella Simmons in 2000.’
‘Yes, I brought the file on it.’ He stood and went to the corner of the room where he’d put his belongings brought over from Penhaligon police station. ‘I’ve made you both a copy.’ He handed them out. ‘Raymonds was in charge, of course. That means we cannot be sure of any real investigation. It looks thorough, on the surface; they had a possible sighting of her hitching up on the dual carriageway.’
After five minutes’ reading Carter sat back in his seat and shook his head in disbelief. Willis glanced up at him and spread out the pages from the file. She picked up the photo of Ella.
‘I don’t think she ever left here,’ said Willis.
Carter looked at her and felt a chill reach down his spine.
‘Right, that house gets pulled apart,’ he said. ‘We need to know which parts of it have been redone and at what time. We’ll rip up floorboards to get samples.’
‘Will this find Samuel?’ asked Pascoe.
Carter sat back in his chair to think.
‘If we think Kensa took Samuel then we give her what she wants to get him back.’
‘Which is?’ asked Pascoe.
Willis answered: ‘Justice.’
Chapter 41
Raymonds drove into Penhaligon to see the bank about the life insurance he’d taken out on Martin Stokes and then he phoned Towan.
In the background Raymonds could hear a squeal of a piglet and the grunt of a large sow. He heard Towan’s breathing as he walked outside to talk in private.
‘How far have the forensics got?’ Raymonds asked.
‘They’ve been through the house, cordoned off Dad’s room with tape.’
‘How are you holding up?’
‘Just waiting to go down to the village for the police interview this evening.’
‘The best thing is for you to say nothing.’
‘I’m relying o
n you to bail me out if they should try and pin Dad’s death on me.’
‘They have no evidence. Besides, there was everybody coming through there at that time and the rain has begun to flood the lower lane. Soon any scrap of evidence they did have will be washed away.’
‘What do you think they’ll ask me?’
‘They’ll ask you about your relationship with the old man. Everyone knows that was pretty testing at times. It’s no good lying and saying it was good.’
‘There’s more people than me with good reason to kill him.’
‘Yes, that’s the main thing to keep in your head.’
‘Except they’ve not been inside with GBH before, and I have.’
‘While you’re up at the house you need to keep searching for your dad’s ledger. The old man was tight with money. Every penny was traceable from the farm. Somewhere there’s a list of men who stayed at Kellis House and what they paid your dad for, what service they got. It won’t take much to work it out, then we can make a few phone calls and get some more money in. We buy the house and the empire continues. It’s a real shame Martin won’t be here to reap the benefit. He must have really pissed someone off to make them do that to him. You need to have a word with Mawgan. I think she could have stolen the contacts book.’
‘I’ll get it off her if she has.’
On his way back Raymonds drove round to the village and as he passed the shops he slowed right down so that he could check on who was where. The Surfshack was closed again. People would think Marky was taking the piss. This was his chance to make something of himself. Useless piece of shit.
He parked up behind it. There were four police cars in the car park. He watched them knock at the farm shop, which was closed.
Raymonds crossed over and asked the officers if they would like him to open up for them, as he had keys to all the shops in the street. As he talked to them in the middle of the road he glanced across to Mary-Jane sipping tea behind her desk. He smiled. She averted her eyes from him and he smiled to himself. Those nails of hers . . . he watched them tap against one another on the desk – sharp as claws digging into his back. He finished talking to the police officers and walked along to Mary-Jane’s shop. She was decorating the window. She turned her back on him and he stood there looking at it for a few minutes. Her slim frame would break beneath him. Her sharp tongue would slice into his flesh, if he let it. She waited. She knew he was watching. He coughed, moved on. He walked down to Cam’s café.
‘Espresso, and make it a double.’ Raymonds watched Cam prepare his coffee. ‘Did you hear about Martin Stokes?’ he said almost under his breath.
‘Yes. The police came in earlier.’
‘Thought they must have.’ Raymonds held eye contact for a few seconds and then sniffed loudly as he picked up his coffee and took it across to the window seat. ‘When I allowed you back here, Cam, it was because I respected you. There was something I admired in the way you coped with everything when you were young. You moved away and that took guts too. Okay, it didn’t work out so well for you, but you’re not a quitter and you came back and set up this. What a great place you have here, Cam.’
Cam nodded but he didn’t smile.
‘You’re getting stronger here by the day. How’s it been going?’
‘Okay,’ he answered as he cleaned up the counter. ‘It’s busy now with the police arriving.’
‘Any problems?’
‘No, I don’t think so, Mr Raymonds.’
‘No, quite right too. Remember, every day you draw a line under the last and you start as if it were all new.’ Cam nodded. ‘You have a great future ahead of you. Have they been in here to ask about other things apart from Stokes?’
‘Yes. They came in and asked some stuff.’
‘Don’t tell them anything that happened in the past. Talk about the trip to London, okay, but don’t trouble going back into the mists of fucking time. They’re just nosy – prying. They don’t need to know any of it.’
‘Any of what?’
‘I’m saying to you – tell them the truth. Tell them something they can confirm and then that’s enough. Do you understand?’
‘Yes. I’m very grateful for everything you’ve done for me.’
Raymonds looked around as if to make sure no one had snuck in while they’d been talking. ‘What I’m saying is – loose tongues cost lives and all that – you want all this to continue?’ He opened his arms out in a theatrical gesture as he turned on his heels.
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Well, believe me, laddie, it needs some clever footwork from you. I know these detective types – all smiles and sweetness but they just want to trick you into relaxing and spilling out your guts. And . . . let me tell you now . . . your guts will be all over this café floor.’ He smiled. ‘Hypothetically, of course. Did they talk to you about the beach party in 2000?’
‘Yes.’
‘You told them nothing happened at the house? It was just a bit of tomfoolery. Kensa never got in trouble from one of our lads. It was all that Toby’s doing. Is that what you said?’
‘More or less.’
‘Oh . . . did they ask about Ella?’
‘Yes. I said she ran away.’
‘Yes, she did. She was seen hitchhiking up the road the next day.’
‘It’s odd she’s never contacted,’ Cam said.
Raymonds eyed him suspiciously as if, just for a second, he thought he might be toying with him. ‘Oh well, some things in life you have to learn to accept. You have to try and view them positively. You inherited your old man’s money. He was a nasty piece of work, I know, and I also know what happened to him; we both do. I was glad I could help at the time.’ Cam nodded. ‘Don’t think I didn’t try and help you when you were young ’uns, all of you, because I did. But it was hard to prove.’
‘Stokes was just as bad. Mawgan suffered the most.’
‘Yes, and even though Martin was my cousin I would have done him for abuse if I had thought there was a chance. I want you to believe that.’
Cam was staring into Raymonds’ eyes for the first time in his life. It made Raymonds uncomfortable.
‘Well, that’s all I want to say for now. You . . .’ He smiled as he poked Cam in the chest. Cam stayed where he was, unflinching. ‘Do as you’re fucking told and keep your mouth shut.’ Cam didn’t answer, he stood where he was, watching as Raymonds left the café and walked back across the street. Cam smiled to himself.
Raymonds walked back past the dress shop and stooped in the doorway. He filled it with his arms resting against the doorframe.
‘Mary-Jane?’
‘Yes? Did you want to talk to me?’
‘I want to ask you what’s going on with Jago.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Jago has a hell of an opportunity in this place but he seems hell-bent on destroying this village. He’s dragging my Marky down again, just like in the old days. I tell you, it has to stop, otherwise I’ll have to be strict and say Jago will have to leave, for good this time.’
‘No, he hasn’t done anything wrong.’
‘Where do you think he gets his money from? Haven’t you heard him sniffing all the time? He’s sticking stuff up that stuck-up nose of his. He’s making my gullible Marky into a bigger fool than he already is. Marky was doing well before Jago came back. I even signed over the Surfshack to him. He was full of plans for the future but now all he does is go surfing.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, that’s not Jago’s fault.’
‘He’s always been the smart one, your Jago. He’s always had the upper hand when it comes to intellectual capabilities, but my Marky is a trier. Eileen is breaking her heart with worry over him.’
‘He’s just not used to the way things are here any more.’
‘No, that’s for sure. You better remind him how we all depend on one another. We’re a game of dominoes – one falls, we all fall.’
‘Tell that to Kensa – she’s getting madde
r every day. She’s out of control. She needs reining in. I don’t know why you haven’t done more to stop her from behaving like an animal, having sex in the car park, wearing provocative clothes.’
He scratched his eyebrow. There was a small scar that ran through it, split it almost. It was the only imperfection on his smooth, stretched skin like crispy roast chicken: always evenly golden-browned. The scar had never healed completely and when the heat came to his face it made it itch. He took a step back to look out of the window and then he started to walk towards the back of the shop.
‘We need to make sure you’re not missing any clothes, any children’s outfits.’
‘Now?’
‘Yes. No one but the police will be coming in here today. Don’t bother to put the closed sign up, just come with me, we won’t be long.’
She followed him down into the stock room at the back. Boxes were packed on shelves and on the floor. There was a toilet, and a kettle on a tray on a draining board.
‘Christ, it’s freezing out here,’ Raymonds complained. He switched the overhead electric fan heater on.
‘Well, I don’t have to keep the clothes above a certain temperature, they are perfectly okay as they are.’ Mary-Jane kept an eye on the shop as she hovered. ‘I haven’t seen you since London.’ She turned back to him.
‘All this commotion going on – I’m finding it hard to take five minutes, plus Eileen is becoming more demanding by the day.’
‘Eileen, Eileen, that’s all I ever hear. I’ve wasted a good part of my prime waiting for you.’
‘Not wasted.’ Raymonds looped his arm around her waist and drew her to him. She was melting a little; he saw it in her eyes. ‘I could hug you so hard that you wouldn’t be able to breathe and you’d pass out in my arms – carry you off to bed, or take you here between the boxes.’
She laughed, breathless as Raymonds lifted her skirt. He stopped and looked across at three bags on the floor.
‘What are you doing with Marky’s stock over here? Those bags are from his shop.’