“Have you been near Haytor or Hound Tor over the last two days?”
“Now let’s see. Yeah, I think I had to check on some sheep and lambs over that way. Dick is out there now doing what I was doing the other day. There’s no particular pattern to the trips across the moor. Dad, Dick and me usually go out twice a day, on the bike or in the buggy, checking or feeding or both; it’s that time of year. We usually try and do an early morning visit and a late afternoon one, before it gets dark as there would be no point checking at night.”
He answered other questions about friends and their relationships as best he could, but none of his answers had much substance, save for confirming Mary’s chats with Sonia when the group was socialising.
The detectives waited with interest for the answer given to the final question, as well as looking to detect any change in his body language.
“Can you tell us where you were and what you were doing from lunchtime on Wednesday until the early evening?”
“Lunchtime on Wednesday? I was right here changing the oil on the UTV, while Dick was out on the moor on the ATV, as he is now.”
“UTV? ATV?” the detective queried.
“Sorry, inspector. UTV stands for utility task vehicle, which is a two-seater, left hand drive buggy. As I mentioned earlier, it is particularly handy for carting hay bales and other feed stuff over difficult terrain. ATV stands for all-terrain vehicle, and is sometimes known as a quad bike. It’s like a motor bike with four wheels, very useful for moving quickly over difficult ground.”
“What time did you finish that task?”
“I didn’t start it until gone 3 o’clock and when I’d finished it was time for milking.”
“Was anyone else around who could verify that you were here all afternoon?”
“Well my dad got back about 5 o’clock and would have seen me working on the UTV.”
DS Harris was always the note taker at interviews conducted by her inspector, but she interjected:
“I thought you did the milking in the morning and your brother did it in the afternoon?”
“Yeah, that’s what we normally do, but he was busy on Wednesday afternoon and asked me if I could do his milking shift and he would do mine the next morning. Then he shot off on the quad bike.”
“What did he say he was doing that was so important to miss milking?”
“I didn’t ask, but it didn’t matter to me as I could have a lie-in the next morning.”
The detectives’ questions were all but exhausted when a burly, surly fellow entered the barn. No introductions were necessary: obviously this was Dick Sutton.
King acted on his assumption. “Thank you Mr Sutton. It’s likely that we will want to interview you again. I’d now like to interview your brother.”
With that Harry left and his brother took his place on a bale. After introductions and covering the preliminaries about the length of time Mary had been missing, the inspector asked his first question, which turned out to be more of a statement.
“So Dick, you once fancied Mary.”
“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with anything? It was a long time ago.”
“Just over two years according to our enquiries. And of course about a year ago there was the unfortunate incident with the assault on the dog owner after shooting his dog.”
“I was acquitted and none of it would have happened if the fat bastard had kept his dog on a lead.”
DI King had sought to unsettle the older brother and, to a certain degree, it had worked.
“Why did you swap milking times with your brother on Wednesday?”
“Why do I have to answer that? This has nothing to do with Mary going missing.”
“You’d better let me be the judge of that. So, where were you on Wednesday afternoon?”
Dick Sutton was clearly irritated by the inspector.
“If you must know, I took the quad bike across the moor to look for something I had lost the day before, when I was feeding the sheep the other side of Black Tor.”
“And what had you lost?”
“It was a Swiss Army knife my mother gave me the year before she died. I use it to cut baling string, among other things, and when I was feeding some sheep on Black Tor, it must have fallen out of my pocket. I didn’t notice it was missing until early afternoon when I wanted to use it to cut up some tubing in the milking parlour. I didn’t want my dad or my brother to know I had lost my precious knife; they wouldn’t have been happy because it was a gift from mum.”
“Can anyone corroborate your story? Did you see anyone when you were on the moor?”
“I saw a few people, but only in the distance.”
“What time did you get back?”
“Just before dark, so it must have been about 5 o’clock. I then helped Harry finish milking as he was a bit behind.”
“Did you find the knife?”
“No. I searched until nearly dark, but the moor is a big place and I wasn’t sure exactly where I had dropped it.”
The sergeant coughed to attract her inspector’s attention and when he looked at her she gestured with a jerk of her head in the direction of a workbench to his right. There in the middle of the bench, near a sharpening wheel, was a knife with a distinctive red casing and an embossed white cross and shield motif. DI King got off his bale and ambled across to the bench. He picked up the object and turned to face the older brother.
“Is this what you were looking for?” At that point his alibi was hanging by a thread. Dick Sutton’s reaction was initially a big smile, which quickly turned to a scowl.
“That’s Harry’s knife. Our mum gave us one each before she died. He must have been sharpening it as you arrived.”
The detective initially looked sceptical, then examined the iconic knife more closely and read the inscription on it: ‘To Harry – Love Mum’.
Just at that moment there was the sound of a vehicle starting up and leaving the farmyard, not down the driveway, but through a rear entrance and across the field. The inspector peered out of the barn in time to see Sutton Senior in the UTV. That’s a pity, King mused, not just because he wanted to interview him, but he would have liked to inspect the vehicle’s tyres. Another time he thought.
“Tell me about the last time you saw Mary.”
“That would have been in the rugby club on Tuesday evening after training. I remember as she asked about the weather for the next day and I told her what to expect.”
“So you knew she would be on the moor the next day; at what time?”
“Yeah, and so did everybody else who was listening. What time? Sometime in the afternoon I suppose, as she mentioned something about doing it after serving lunches at her folks’ hotel.”
“She must have been on the moor about the same time as you.” Sutton didn’t overreact to King’s insinuating question.
“How well do you know Dartmoor, inspector? Haytor, where she said she would be walking, and Black Tor are over ten miles apart.”
“That’s as maybe, but it’s a pity no one saw you where you said you were. That will be all for now Mr Sutton. We will want to see you again when we’ve made some further enquiries. Tell your dad that we’ll be back tomorrow around midday to have a chat with him. If he’s not in then, he’ll have to come to the station.” The detectives were interested in him partly because they wanted to check out where he was and what he was doing on the Wednesday afternoon, and also to see if he could corroborate his younger sons’ testimony as to his whereabouts.
King and Harris returned to their car, quickly stopping to inspect the quad bike as they passed, and as they simultaneously opened the car doors, the inspector spoke across the roof.
“Well remembered about the milking rota, sergeant. Very interesting chat with the brothers. You know, something’s not quite right at Quarry Farm and I intend to find out
what it is.”
*
In the distance, the UTV was climbing the rising ground behind Quarry Farm, John Sutton was heading for Black Tor Farm about four miles distant. He urgently wanted to speak with his fellow farmer and neighbour, Fred Pearce, and he was a very worried man.
FIVE
Detective Sergeant Lucy Harris was competent and confident at her job having received an excellent grounding as a police constable for seven years before becoming a detective. She had a very good working relationship with her superior, Inspector King, and although not formally appointed, he undoubtedly was her mentor.
Harris was very ambitious and realised that the experience she was gaining from him was priceless. She was very supportive towards her boss and had aspirations to be an inspector just like him. Not being married or with a partner, fantasies can often develop in a boss/subordinate relationship, and she dreamed of having Richard King as more than just a working colleague. Did she but know it, he felt the same way, but two things prevented him from showing his emotions; his professionalism and the continuing grief for his deceased wife. Both stopped him from acting on his hidden feelings.
Her main policing attributes were her quickness to grasp facts, excellence at succinctly recording interviews in longhand, and her ability to plan ahead. This last quality manifested itself in her making arrangements to gather information from witnesses or suspects. In this particular missing person case where a number of people needed to be interviewed, so as not to waste valuable time, she planned for them to see the various people in fairly quick succession. Before seeing the Suttons at Quarry Farm, she had made appointments to see Sonia Hill, the rugby club medic, at Plymouth University where she was studying, followed by a visit to Cameron & Wise, used car dealer, to speak with George Kemp and Stella Bovis, as they both worked there. The detectives were sticking to their plan to interview all the people who were in the rugby club that Tuesday evening, when Mary had announced her intention to walk up Haytor the following day.
Other interviews were also scheduled for later that Friday, Jack Lacey at Marker and Makepeace estate agents, and Doctor Josh Ingram who was on a late shift in A&E at his hospital. Harris knew that leaving these interview arrangements to chance wasted time and she hadn’t completely given up the hope of finding the young woman alive: information from one of her friends might just help achieve that desired outcome.
*
As the detectives arrived at the university car park, and before they got out of their car, the inspector turned to his sergeant.
“Okay, let’s see what Sonia Hill can tell us. We are meeting her in the café I think you said? It would be good for your development if you conducted the interview, so I’ll get the drinks.”
On foot, and after a few wrong turns, they found the campus café and as they were a little late, looked around to see if the medic had arrived. Almost immediately, a young woman approached them and introduced herself as Sonia Hill. Having made the connection, King took the order for drinks, while his sergeant chose a table in a quiet corner away from other students. DS Harris gave a brief update on the search for her friend, but didn’t mention the mitten. Her introduction was motivated partly by the wish to tell Sonia Hill the current position, and also to delay questions until the inspector had joined them at the table. He was to play a secondary role in this interview, but she wanted him listening to what Sonia had to say. Although he wasn’t asking the questions, it was left to his sergeant, as usual, to take notes: apparently, role reversal only extended so far. As the interview began, it was clear that Sonia Hill was likely to get emotional when talking about her lost friend. She clasped a tissue in her right hand as Harris started the questioning.
“When was the last time you saw Mary?”
“That was the night before she disappeared. We were all in the rugby club after training and it was a really good evening. You know, plenty of banter and a few beers. During a general discussion, Harry showed his ignorance about the state of the economy as he thought the Credit Crunch was a new breakfast cereal! We all had a good laugh at that, but he took it in the right spirit. Sometimes we all chatted together and other times in pairs or smaller groups. Eventually I had a chat with Mary on her own.
“What did you talk about?”
“Oh, you know mainly girly things, but she said that she thought Dick Sutton was staring at her, which made her a little uncomfortable. In view of the sneaky attention he was paying her, she wasn’t overly friendly towards Dick as she doesn’t want to give him any encouragement. Apparently, some time ago he wanted to go out with her and she just wanted a platonic relationship. I can understand why as he can be a bit miserable, and she is a girl who wants a good time and not have to worry about a moody partner.
“She also said she was aware that Rachel was taking more than a passing interest in Tom. I told her that I had overheard her bitching about their relationship. Mary just laughed it off and told me of a quote she remembered from someone who said ‘jealousy is the jaundice of the soul’. She wasn’t particularly worried as she and Tom had discussed it and knew he wasn’t interested in her. Mary didn’t see Rachel as a threat to her relationship with Tom, but was slightly irritated by the attention she gave to her man.”
Both detectives made a mental note that this was one person who would be happy if Mary disappeared for good. Sonia continued the report of the private conversation: “I told her that I thought Harry fancied me, but then we realised he fancies most women so I wasn’t that flattered.”
“How is Mary’s relationship with her other friends?”
“Obviously, she and Tom are very close and I can eventually see them getting married. Mary is someone who sees good in most people, but naturally, with quite a wide circle of friends, there are some she would like to spend more time with than others. Like her, I think George and Stella are okay in small doses. She likes Harry as he is fun to be with and she gets on well with all the other men in the group. I like all the guys too and occasionally get hands-on experience with them.”
She saw DI King raise his eyebrows.
“I am the medic for the rugby team, inspector. It’s my job to massage their aches and pains and tend to their cuts and bruises.”
The inspector allowed himself a surreptitious smile before she continued unprompted talking about her missing friend.
“We do enjoy each other’s company and she tells me what’s happening at The Bedford and I tell her about some of the people I’ve been working on. I don’t betray any confidences of course and neither does she.”
The sergeant continued with her questions: “How did she seem to you when you had your chat?”
“No different than usual. In fact, she was in high spirits and was looking forward to the fresh air on Haytor the next day.”
Sonia Hill then had a flashback of her and Mary chatting together in the club: she momentarily broke eye contact with the sergeant, looking down, and it was evident that she was struggling to keep her emotions under control. The detectives had already sensed that she was never far from breaking down and Harris waited a few moments before continuing.
“We’ve been asking the others, so where were you on Wednesday afternoon?”
The physio didn’t take offence at the question.
“I was at lectures here in the university, and if you ask Professor Golding, he will vouch for my attendance as I asked him several questions at the end of his main lecture.” With that Sergeant Harris concluded the interview by thanking her for the information she had given. Attendance at lectures could easily be checked, which the sergeant did before the detectives left the campus. On their way to the car, King wanted an informal debrief, but not before reaching for a sherbet lemon.
“I don’t think that anything Sonia Hill had to say gives us any clues that will help us in this case, although it was interesting what she had to say about Miss Betteridge and Dick Sutton. Anyway,
well-handled sergeant. I hope you can remember what was said as I didn’t take any notes. Okay, let’s go and look at some used cars.”
*
Cameron & Wise, a quality used car emporium, based in Plymouth, boasted a large number of nearly new cars. It had a good reputation for the high standard in presentation of its stock. The company offered a generous warranty on all the cars it sold, such was the confidence in the service history of each: it simply didn’t buy high mileage, high maintenance vehicles.
As the two detectives walked into the showroom they were greeted by a smartly dressed man, who introduced himself as Mark Preston: they could see from his name badge that he was the general manager. After King had introduced himself and his sergeant, he explained that they were making enquiries about an investigation, without disclosing what the case was about. When they requested to speak with George Kemp, he politely asked them to wait, while he went and fetched him. As Kemp confidently strode towards them, the inspector’s first impression was that here was a man in a niche job. He was exactly what might be termed an archetypal second hand car salesman as he was a sharp dresser and had the sort of bearing and swagger, which suggested a self-assessment would be he could sell fridges to eskimos.
King introduced himself and Sergeant Harris and suddenly his self-assured persona was not so cocky when he realised they were police officers: his affability mask slipped. The ever-astute inspector thought to himself that this guy has something to hide. Asked if there was somewhere private where they could talk, the detectives were invited into a small room just off the main sales area. King outlined the by now well-rehearsed reason for their visit.
Kemp confirmed his attendance at the rugby club on the evening before Mary’s disappearance as well as the presence of the other group members. When asked about the relationships within the group, he didn’t have quite the discerning observation skills of others, but what he had to say did not particularly contradict what they had already been told. King mused that it would have been interesting to hear how he thought others perceived him, but that would not really add value to the investigation.
Missing on Dartmoor Page 6