Cold Justice

by Lee Weeks

  ‘Kensa’s inside, upstairs. I think we should have her sectioned.’

  ‘If we do, we lose any chance of finding Samuel alive. By the time they finish medicating her, he’ll be dead.’

  ‘They all need help here, guv.’

  ‘And we’ll make sure they get it – when this is over.’ He looked at the book in her hands.

  ‘VIPs who regularly use Kellis House,’ she said. ‘This book is going to be a who’s who of the upper-class degenerate.’

  ‘That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?’ Sandford overheard her as he prepared to load up his car for the night.

  ‘Not according to Mawgan. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t suffered abuse all her life in that place. She says that Towan does a sideline in conning vulnerable kids and plying them with drink and drugs and then they end up being abused in Kellis House. Stokes got paid for it, now it looks like Towan wants to carry it on.’

  Carter took the book from Willis to have a look.

  ‘There are the ages of these kids, some as young as twelve.’

  ‘Who are these kids?’ asked Sandford.

  ‘Towan’s waiting for us in the police station – let’s go and find out.’

  Mawgan went outside to make sure that the animals were settled. She stayed a while resting her head on Bluebell’s neck as the horse stood patiently at her stable door. Mawgan stroked her as she thought about what she should do. Then she locked up, went back inside and unlocked the gun cupboard. She loaded the shotgun and took it upstairs. Cam was lying on the bed next to Kensa, who was sleeping. Mawgan lay down next to Cam and placed the shotgun beside the bed as she lay there listening in the dark to the sound of Kensa’s breathing. Cam slipped his arm around her and she sighed as she relaxed heavily in his arms. In the darkness, Kensa opened her eyes and lay listening to their whispers. She felt the heat from their bodies and everything that had seemed clear was now muddied. All her hopes vanished as she lay there listening.

  Jeanie had allowed Toby to go and see Gareth. Now, they were listening to music in his shed. They hadn’t spoken for half an hour as Toby lay back on the cushions, staring at the ceiling. A paper model of the solar system hung down. Toby was looking at the Milky Way that he had helped Gareth stick up there in ‘glow-in-the-dark’ stars. He felt the tears tickle and slide down to wet the cushion under his head.

  Gareth was making a new playlist. Occasionally he looked across at Toby. He switched the volume right down on the music and waited for Toby to look his way.

  ‘Did you find what you were looking for in the stars?’ asked Gareth. He began rolling a cigarette.

  Toby looked back up at the Milky Way and sighed heavily as he shook his head. Then he turned again to look at Gareth.

  ‘I was hoping to see an alien craft heading our way ready to whisk us up and take us to another galaxy.’

  ‘What would I tell my mum?’ Gareth grinned.

  Toby half laughed, half sobbed. ‘That’s right, exactly,’ he said. ‘What would I tell Samuel? Can’t keep running. Can’t live in a world without consequences.’ Gareth offered him his cigarette and Toby took it from him. He took a few drags and then handed it back.

  ‘Can I come and live with you in this shed?’

  Gareth stared across, trying to gauge if Toby meant it. He was frightened to agree to something if it wasn’t real.

  Toby smiled at him. ‘I mean it. I don’t know if we have a future, but I know that right now I’d rather be with you than with Lauren.’

  ‘Is it just a reaction from Samuel going missing?’ Gareth returned the smile, but he looked worried.

  ‘No. I’ve felt this for a long time. I want to be with you, if you’ll have me?’ Toby reached out and took Gareth’s hand.

  Gareth nodded happily. Toby sat up and crossed his legs and reached out for Gareth’s tobacco to roll a cigarette.

  ‘I need to face everything now.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I’m going to find my son.’

  Chapter 44

  Towan looked around anxiously. ‘I requested a lawyer to be here.’

  ‘That isn’t possible – lawyers are thin on the ground here and we have a lot of people to interview – anyway, you’re not formally being charged. This is just a chat – you’re free to go, but I expect you’ll be keen to help find out who killed your father?’

  ‘It wasn’t me.’

  ‘Can we talk about your relationship with your father? When you came out of prison he welcomed you home, didn’t he?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you get on well?’

  ‘Well enough.’

  ‘Even though you had an almighty fight with him the day he was killed?’

  ‘I had a fight with my sister and Marky Raymonds, not him.’

  Willis looked at her notes.

  ‘You stated that you were asked to accompany your father to bury the horse but instead you went to Marky’s workshop to look at your surfboard. But Marky wasn’t there, was he?’

  ‘No, he wasn’t.’

  ‘So we can’t verify that,’ said Willis.

  ‘It’s more likely to be any of the others than me. I had no reason to do the old man in. We had plans together.’

  ‘What plans?’

  ‘We were going to open a guest house.’

  Willis took out the ledger Mawgan had given her. ‘We found this. It has the names and contacts of a lot of important people who stayed at Kellis House. Were you going to contact all of them and invite them to stay?’ Towan’s eyes widened at the sight of the ledger, at the same time as he began to sweat. Willis continued, ‘Were you going to use these contacts and continue at Kellis House, as if nothing had happened?’

  Carter smiled at Towan. ‘That’s why your dad and Raymonds wanted to buy Kellis House, they have a good system going there. After all, most of the people in this book didn’t come down to spend time with Jeremy Forbes-Wright, did they? They came to have a good time. And your dad bent over backwards to give them what they wanted.’

  ‘I had a lot of respect for my dad.’

  ‘I hate to speak ill of the dead, Towan,’ said Carter, ‘but your father had a record for certain unsavoury acts in the past and not-so-past. So you were going to call these people and say “Nothing’s changed, come on down”?’ Carter said.

  ‘Not me, this was Dad and Raymonds’ business.’

  ‘But you brought new blood into it, didn’t you? You were making yourself into an important business partner for them?’ said Carter.

  ‘I was going to be part of it from now on, yes. We were talking about opening another guest house if we couldn’t buy Kellis House.’

  Willis opened the ledger out at the back pages and turned them round for Towan to see the lists of names.

  ‘Recognize any of these names?’

  He peered forwards and shook his head.

  ‘You see, next to the names are ages and ‘‘F’’ for female, ‘‘M’’ for male, you get the picture?’

  ‘I don’t have any idea who they are but, I told you, I’m new to the business.’

  ‘Your dad gave them a number and he marked them with a code of dots. Helpfully for us, he wasn’t much of a spy and he slips up now and again and, well, to be honest, it’s pretty easy to work out it refers to sexual services these children delivered,’ Willis said, bluffing. But it was clear Towan had never got his hands on the ledger before – he didn’t know what system his father had applied.

  Towan had taken to staring from beneath his fringe at Willis. His eyes flickered incessantly as his brain was churning, trying to concoct something believable.

  ‘A couple of these names are crossed out. Why is that?’ asked Willis.

  ‘I have no idea. I told you, these names have nothing to do with me.’

  ‘You’re a liar, Towan. We are in the process of contacting all of these kids, all of the people on this list,’ Willis said.

  ‘Your father worked as a pimp for Jeremy Forbes-Wr
ight and now you’re taking over the job?’ suggested Carter.

  ‘A pimp? Don’t make me laugh. It’s a private arrangement. Yes, he was asked to find girls sometimes. He just passed it over to an escort agency in Penhaligon. Talk to them, not me. My dad was a simple farmer – he did what he was asked to.’

  ‘Don’t sell him short – he wasn’t simple. He knew how to work the system. He knew how to provide a good service for a refined man of taste like Jeremy Forbes-Wright and his friends.’

  Towan looked away in irritation; he rubbed at the side of his neck and then pulled his shirt collar to cover a scratch there.

  ‘Who do you think murdered your father?’ asked Carter.

  ‘It could have been any one of a number of people.’

  ‘What about Mawgan?’

  ‘What about her?’

  ‘People in London have this idea about country folk, you know, Towan. We think that all sisters are introduced to the world of sexual relationships either by their fathers or by their brothers. How did that work out for you?’

  Towan jumped across the desk just as Carter knew he would, and he and Willis restrained him, turned his head to the side and pressed his face into the desk.

  ‘Sore point, huh?’ Carter said. Willis waited for Towan to calm down then she put him back in his seat.

  ‘You’re an angry person, aren’t you, Towan? It’s in your nature,’ said Carter. ‘I can see why you’re angry – it must be really hard living in a place like Penhal that seems to have so much injustice going on.’ Towan was still fuming. ‘I’d be angry if I lived here. I’d be mad,’ said Carter. ‘There seem to be a fair few of you that are a bit of both. But why do you stay here, Towan?’

  ‘There’s not a lot of opportunity out there for an ex-con.’

  ‘But there is here?’

  ‘Yeah, there’s the farm.’

  ‘You can see yourself as a farmer, can you?’

  ‘Well, it’s not too bad. There are other opportunities here.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Things can come along, like I told you, the guest house, opportunities can open up. They look after their own here.’

  ‘No, not unless you’re one of Raymonds’ golden boys they don’t. Is that what you are?’

  ‘Me and Raymonds get on all right.’

  ‘What, the ex-con and the Sheriff? You have to be kidding me, Towan – surely you’re not that stupid? You really think Raymonds is going to want someone like you on his team? He’s using you the way he uses everyone, like he used your father.’

  Towan didn’t answer. He was thinking things through, he was rocking on the chair, tapping his finger on the desk.

  ‘You know Raymonds is keeping all of you hanging on for some prize or other. Marky, Jago, even Cam Simmons, all waiting with bated breath to hear what the Sheriff has in store for them. You all need to man up, you know, Towan – get some balls. It’s never going to happen for you.’ Towan looked away. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. ‘You know what I think? Raymonds is working towards stitching you up for things here in Penhal,’ said Carter. ‘After all, you’re an obvious candidate.’ Towan tried to look as if Carter didn’t know what he was talking about. ‘Take the night Kensa got raped in Kellis House. You do know that everyone is saying it was you?’

  ‘It wasn’t.’

  ‘They say you came up to the house; you followed the kids after you spiked their drinks. You followed them with the express purpose of teaching Ella and Kensa a lesson.’

  ‘Ella was all right when I left. I had nothing to do with Kensa.’

  ‘Okay, then. You’re going to have no problem making a formal statement, are you?’ Carter asked, as Willis pushed across paper and pen.

  Carter and Willis left the room and went to sit in the office while they considered what to do. They put Bowie and Robbo on conference call on Skype and brought them up to date.

  ‘It’s your call,’ said Bowie, but Carter could see that he wished it wasn’t. ‘You’re in charge of this investigation, Carter, but I think you’re getting bogged down there. You’re going off on tangents. It’s four days in and we’re still no nearer to finding Samuel. And we’re collecting a host more problems along the way.’

  ‘I don’t agree, sir. Penhal is our strongest lead so far.’

  Bowie turned away as he considered what Carter was saying. Then he turned back with a resigned expression. ‘If we had just one lead here in Greenwich I would do my best to persuade you, but we don’t, do we, Robbo?’

  Robbo shook his head. ‘Every one’s a dead end. I believe we’re doing the right thing by moving the investigation to Penhal. I think the fact that these other crimes are occurring or being uncovered is proof that this is a community capable of Samuel’s abduction. And that it has a direct link to JFW.’

  ‘Except that now we hear that, after the night of the rape in June 2000, JFW and Raymonds decided how they’d handle the situation and this information came from an ex-con who is responsible for providing underage children for abuse at Kellis House.’ Bowie was doing his best to stay calm. ‘Have any of the names on the list been traced yet?’

  ‘DS Pascoe’s already coming up against a wall of silence with the names on the list, sir,’ said Willis. ‘A lot of the kids are from problem families. It’s going to take a lot of coordination with social services down here to uncover what’s been going on in Kellis House.’

  ‘We don’t have time for that,’ Bowie replied from his office, frustration showing through.

  ‘The ledger is going to be invaluable to Operation Elmtree,’ added Robbo.

  ‘Yes, but we are not looking into abuse rings, are we? And it doesn’t help us find Samuel. If he dies while we’re helping track down abused kids from the nearby town, we’ll all be roasted.’ Bowie shook his head and took a deep breath as he fought to stay calm.

  ‘What date was the last visit by JFW?’ he asked.

  ‘He came at Christmas, sir,’ Willis answered.

  ‘Is that in the ledger? Was there anyone visiting with him then?’ asked Robbo.

  Willis turned the pages.

  ‘He came alone but he had someone visit him who’s numbered at the back of the book: Bethany Smith, seventeen years old. DS Pascoe got hold of her – said she had a private arrangement with JFW – it was consensual.’

  ‘In my opinion, you should hand the ledger over to the locals and let them deal with it,’ Bowie said as he waited for Carter to enter into the conversation; he’d been a little too quiet as he mulled things over.

  ‘Carter, convince me you’re on the right track,’ said Bowie, ‘and then maybe I can convince my bosses.’ Bowie had been chewing the cuticle on his thumbnail. He sucked the blood as it came. ‘I’ve been asked to give another press conference to update.’

  ‘What about basing it on the reconstruction?’ said Carter.

  ‘We achieved very little with that. There is nothing new we really want to share with the press. The longer we can keep them away from Penhal, the better. What about ex-Sergeant Raymonds? Can we charge him with perverting the course of justice where the rape is concerned?’

  ‘If we charge him we take him away from the community he controls. The people will close ranks rather than give him up. He’s running around like a blue-arsed fly at the moment, trying to cover his tracks. He’s losing control of this community and that’s what we’re waiting for. We need to give this village enough rope to hang itself,’ said Carter.

  Chapter 45

  Towan got out of the police station with a feeling of immense relief. He really hadn’t expected it. He didn’t usually get off so lightly. He dodged the spray from the sea crashing into the side of Cam’s café. It was a once-a-year phenomenon: high spring tides and Atlantic storms. There were thirty-foot waves expected the next day and a high tide that threatened to close Penhall off and flood the shops. He had left his Land-Rover in the car park behind the Surfshack. It was already a foot under seawater with the waves breaking over the
defence. He took no notice of the shouts from excited teenagers who were pouring out of their homes to watch the waves crash in.

  He jumped into his car and sped back up the hill and across to the other side. He pulled up outside Raymonds’ house and saw that his garage was open and the Silver Fox was missing, so he decided that at some time or other Raymonds would be driving it down to the bar, like he always did. Towan would wait for him down there. There were some things he wanted to have out with him. Too much of what the detectives had said rang true. What if Raymonds had no intention of allowing Towan to take over the farm or his dad’s share of Kellis House? What if he was just mugging him off? He parked up on the road outside the Penhal Hotel and had to hold on to his door as the wind came blasting off the sea and over the cliffs. Towan walked up the steps to the bar and looked around the usual local crowd. No one smiled his way. The whole bar thought he’d killed his father.

  ‘I’ll have a pint of the usual.’ Towan made some space at the bar. He didn’t mind the hostility too much. But it irked him that he’d spent all these months convincing people that he’d put his past behind him and now they were so quick to see him as a murderer.

  Raymonds turned up when Towan was on his third pint and scowling into his glass. Raymonds stopped to hold court along the way and Towan watched him, half-amused but wholly angry, as Raymonds accepted all the sympathy over the death of his cousin, Stokes. There were nervous glances Towan’s way as people expressed their horror at his father’s killing. Raymonds spent his time reassuring them that they were safe – that the killer was almost caught, for sure. The killer was on borrowed time.

  Towan’s eyes had become a little glazed from the beer and his face was a little red, his lips wet from the constant licking in anxiety. Raymonds had spotted him and was wondering how to manage the situation. As he got near to Towan, Towan called him over to have a pint. Everyone in the bar watched. Raymonds came near and slapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘You all right, Towan, bearing up? Let me buy you a beer on this sad night.’ He whispered in his ear, ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’