Cold Justice

by Lee Weeks

  ‘Now, will you excuse me, I need to get out of this wet suit.’

  ‘Of course. Mind if we chat to you while you do it?’ asked Carter.

  ‘No, my van is parked up there on the edge of the beach.’

  He started walking towards it. When they reached the van he peeled his wet suit down to the waist and slid back the side door of the old VW Camper. He reached in for a towel and dried his blond, sun-bleached shaggy hair. He was lean and muscled.

  ‘I hear you used to live in London?’ said Carter, trying to get over his abs-envy. Robbo had got hold of Jago’s CV. Carter had read it – Jago hadn’t stayed more than two years in a job. He’d been in recruitment in central London with three different companies.

  ‘Yes, till recently. I got done-over work-wise, thought I was embarking on this great career, but it didn’t happen – so I decided to head home and have a rethink.’

  ‘You’re a local then?’ Willis asked. She took the top off her coffee and finished it, looked around for a bin.

  ‘I suppose I am, but I’m not thought of as one. I was sent away to school in Bristol and then I went away to uni and left straight after. I am back now, of course, but most people my age have never left and . . . I don’t intend to stay long.’

  ‘And your friends in the water?’ Carter turned to look out at the surfers. ‘They seem determined to stay out even though it’s freezing.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he laughed. ‘They’re hardy locals. Born and bred. Any surf is good surf. Look, I’m really sorry to hear about the little boy,’ he said as he pulled a T-shirt over his head. ‘It doesn’t make any sense why someone should take him.’

  ‘How did you spend your day in London after the funeral?’

  ‘I hung about with Marky for a bit and then I went to do my own thing.’

  ‘Which was?’

  ‘I just went shopping for a few hours and caught up with the lads before coming home. We didn’t stay that long.’

  ‘What did you buy?’ asked Willis.

  ‘Nothing, in the end. I wanted some new trainers but I couldn’t see any I liked.’

  ‘Where did you look?’

  ‘Oxford Street.’

  ‘Nike Town?’

  ‘No, one of the small sports shoe shops, I forget which.’

  ‘And you met up with them again?’

  ‘We went to a few pubs around town.’

  ‘Which pubs?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Sorry – wish I could remember.’

  ‘Have you talked to Marky today?’

  ‘No,’ he said, puzzled. He looked very practised at hiding what he was thinking, thought Ebony.

  ‘Oh, it’s just that I had a very illuminating conversation with him about the fact that you actually left London at five on the day of the funeral,’ said Carter.

  ‘Did we?’ Jago laughed. ‘Oh well, apologies if my memory isn’t good. I’m obviously a much worse drinker than I realized. Marky would know what time for sure. I remember now – we decided we’d rather see our mates in Exeter instead.’

  ‘You can see them any time, it’s just up the road, isn’t it?’

  ‘Well, you’re probably right, but it was just one of those snap decisions, I expect – a few beers and we decided to hit the road.’

  ‘Funny – I even thought it might be to wind Raymonds up?’

  ‘What? No way. He’s so regimented about things; but sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way he plans it.’

  ‘Funny thing was, he was at the motorway services at the same time as you and you didn’t seem to talk to one another.’

  ‘Really? Bizarre.’

  ‘You didn’t even get out of the car; what was the point in going into the services?’

  ‘Um, I think we needed petrol.’

  ‘So you sat outside the refreshments section.’

  ‘Well, I have no answer for you, I’m sorry. We pulled over for Marky to have a rest, I expect. He probably had a little snooze in the car. It’s a long way.’

  ‘We’ve been hearing all about an incident with Kensa and Toby Forbes-Wright that happened after a party on this beach,’ Willis said. ‘What do you know about it?’

  Jago stopped drying and stood gawking, shaking his head.

  ‘On this beach?’

  ‘We were told you saw what happened?’ Willis continued. ‘You were there.’

  ‘You mean back when I was a teenager?’

  ‘Yes, June 2000.’

  ‘I don’t remember much – I guess you mean the beach party? That’s mostly what I remember – it was the largest beach party I’ve ever seen here. I just happened to be here that night. I don’t know any more than anyone else. Whoever told you that I saw anything is wrong.’

  ‘So, why did you say you didn’t know what I was talking about?’ asked Willis.

  ‘I don’t know – it’s such a long time ago. It was just a beach party that got a bit messy.’

  ‘What do you remember about it?’ Carter asked.

  Jago shook his head, splattering water from his hair, and frowned with a hint of ‘What’s your point?’

  ‘I told you – I know about as much as anyone else.’

  ‘What do you remember?’

  ‘I remember it was packed with kids off their faces, they were partying, drinking. They’d lit a couple of fires. There were people swimming, dancing. A bit of stuff going on that shouldn’t have been.’

  ‘Like?’

  ‘Sex on the beach. Drugs, skinny dipping – so many of them were wrecked already.’

  ‘What time was that?’

  ‘Eleven?’

  ‘You said they were wrecked. Where did they get the drugs?’

  ‘Brought them with them, I suppose. Who knows?’

  ‘There was no local supplier at the time?’

  ‘Here in Penhal? I don’t think so. I wasn’t home enough to know things like that. It wasn’t my type of thing – I’ve always been heavily into sport. The two don’t mix.’

  ‘Someone should have told Lance Armstrong that,’ said Carter.

  ‘I really don’t remember much about that night, sorry – I was the same age as the kids, more or less.’

  ‘Four years older than Kensa, three years older than Toby – it’s a lot of difference in your teens,’ argued Willis. ‘You must remember going back to Kellis House, where it all kicked off?’

  ‘No.’ Jago’s face dropped.

  ‘Cam and Ella Simmons were there, Mawgan too. You decided to disrupt their little get-together at the house?’

  Jago shook his head and stared at Willis.

  ‘No idea, sorry.’

  ‘Okay, well, we’ll be staying here for a few days – if you think of something, get in touch.’

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘Don’t forget the surf,’ he called after them, and waved Carter back to him. ‘Anything you need to borrow you can ring me. Wait a tick.’ He left his wet suit under the tap at the edge of the Surfshack and went back to his van, went round to the driver’s seat and leaned in. He emerged with a piece of paper and scribbled his number down before handing it to Carter.

  Carter pushed it in his pocket.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘And you too, of course.’ He looked across and grinned at Willis as he picked up his wet suit and held it up to drip. ‘We’ll get you fitted up with a board and a wet suit no problem. You won’t believe how great it is out there. A real adrenalin rush.’

  ‘Don’t think so,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘They’ve already tried to kill me once.’

  Jago finished rinsing his wet suit. He hung it on the top of his van to drip off the side and then he got into the VW and pulled the door shut; he sat there sweating. After five minutes he climbed over into the front and started it up. He drove up to the Penhal Hotel, parked up on the street in front and ran up the steps. He went straight to the public phone.

  ‘Marky?’ Marky answered it from home. ‘Trouble. I’ve just had a couple of visitors
. We have to move the merchandise. Get rid of it.’

  ‘Where? Where can we move it to? We can’t shift it now. It’s better where it is.’

  ‘No, it isn’t. Believe me,’ he hissed into the phone.

  ‘I’m not moving it. We have to sell it to give them their money. It’s not some fucking game to those guys. We have to come out of this. Just stay calm, stay chilled.’

  ‘Listen to me. They’re going to have a thousand officers in this place any day. They will find it. Get rid of it. I’m not going to spend ten years in jail just because of a stupid mistake. We messed up. We’ll just have to lie low for a while. Move away, sell up the business and go to Scotland, anywhere, for a year or so. Those guys will be gone by then. An anonymous tip-off to the law and we’ll help put them inside. Man up. We’ll be okay. It was a mistake. Learn from it.’

  ‘Oh, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that you just worm your way out of any trouble. I’ll never go into business with you again. I’m moving it today and I’m going to stick to the plan and sell it.’

  ‘It’s all yours, bro.’

  Chapter 34

  As they went past Cam’s café it had closed. They drove to Kellis House, and Willis asked Carter to pull his car in by the gateway.

  ‘Do you want me to come in as well?’ Carter asked as she got out of the car.

  ‘No, it’s okay, I’ll be as quick as I can. I just need to check on Lauren. She was having a rest when I left.’

  Inside the cottage Willis could hear Lauren tapping on her keyboard. The sound came from the lounge.

  ‘Lauren? You okay? Sorry I’ve been so long; we need to try and get around to take a statement from all those people at Jeremy’s funeral. What are you doing, working?’

  ‘I’m doing what you suggested – I’m researching the land all around here and looking for possible places where Samuel could be. I don’t understand why the search parties are not looking for him down here in the village.’

  ‘We have helicopters out and searches in the remote areas around the cliff. We are searching, I promise. We need to handle this community with kid gloves, Lauren. The harder we squeeze them, the more tightly knitted they become. But we are making cracks in their armour. They are beginning to turn on one another. We will get the truth.’

  ‘What about Kensa, what about what she said? She seemed so certain that she’d seen Samuel.’

  ‘We’re looking into it all. Kensa has been sectioned a few times.’

  ‘I suspect she never even got counselling for what she went through. Since I found that out about Kensa it explains a lot about Toby. I can see how frightened he is now of being accused of anything. He’ll say anything to get himself out of trouble. He says he blocked it out, that he never remembered it at all. But it makes me feel that I don’t know him at all. If he did that to another human being, could he harm Samuel?’

  ‘Did you know about his close friendship with his workmate, Gareth?’

  She shook her head. ‘I feel like he couldn’t confide anything in me.’

  ‘Lauren, why don’t you get your coat? You can bring your phone and continue researching. You can get out and have a bit of a walk while we’re talking to people? Bring Russell.’

  Outside in the car, Carter was on the phone. He looked at Willis as she came out with Lauren.

  ‘Lauren’s coming along for the ride.’

  ‘Okay, no problem. As long as you don’t mind waiting around a bit?’

  ‘No, that’s all I’m doing at the house anyway.’

  They drove past the field where Kensa’s caravan was and up over the brow of the hill. The farmland stretched down towards the sea to the left and to the right the road wound round, fenced in by high hedges as thick as the lanes they bordered. Occasionally gateways opened up and then the countryside spread out in hills.

  ‘There’s a sign for Stokes’ farm on the left,’ Willis said as they passed a small crossroads where the road turned right into the nearby market town of Wadebridge or on to a fishing village along the coast. ‘We go down this way – I want to go back to the farm.’

  They took the track and Willis looked back at Lauren to see her with a map spread out on her lap.

  ‘This is the cottage where Marky and Jago live.’

  They pulled up outside a white-painted workman’s cottage. To the right of it was a dumping ground for cars and farm vehicles.

  Lauren got out of the car. ‘Is it okay if I have a wander?’ She held the folded map in one hand and Russell’s lead in the other.

  Willis turned to Lauren. ‘Fine, see you back here in about thirty minutes? If we’re out early I’ll phone you.’

  Lauren nodded as she set off up the lane.

  The door to the cottage opened and Marky stood stripped to his waist.

  ‘Sorry, were you showering?’ said Carter. ‘Can we have a word?’ Marky stepped back from the door.

  Carter looked at the machines waiting for repair beside the house. ‘So, which one do you drive? You starting a collection of old farm machinery?’

  ‘I drive the Suzuki jeep,’ Marky replied. He didn’t look happy. ‘The rest I look after for the farm.’

  ‘Which one has this space?’ Willis asked as they stood in front of a car-sized gap and different tyre prints.

  ‘That’s Mawgan’s car, she parks it here sometimes.’

  ‘Where is it now?’

  ‘I really don’t know.’

  ‘Has she asked you to look for it?’ asked Willis.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Mind if we come in?’ Carter asked as they followed Marky back into the house. Inside the cottage it was dark and smelled of unwashed boys mixed with the ripe smell of farm.

  ‘Are you going to open the shop again today?’ asked Carter.

  He shook his head. ‘This time of year – most of my time is spent making and mending surfboards.’

  Carter looked at Marky as he began searching through the washing pile. He saw a rolled note coming out of a pair of trousers. Marky hastily covered it up.

  ‘You must get on well with the Stokes family to rent a cottage and a workshop space from them?’

  ‘I help mend the farm machinery in exchange for renting the workshop. Jago’s just moved in with me.’

  ‘You’re a mechanic then as well – very impressive.’

  ‘Look, we already spoke this morning? I need to get on.’

  ‘Yes, and then we spoke with Jago. Perhaps you have too? Did he just phone?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I bet. You want to get your stories right, I expect.’

  ‘We don’t have any stories.’

  ‘What about the fact that you sat in a service station for half an hour. The same service station where an item of Samuel Forbes-Wright’s clothes was found.’

  ‘I was having a nap.’

  ‘Yes, Jago came up with that one, didn’t he? You seem a little edgy, you okay?’ Marky was shaking.

  Lauren walked along the lane towards the farm. She looked at her map and cut left as she saw a path following the hedge around the field. Russell scampered alongside. The earth was ploughed and churned up ready to plant in the spring. The wind had died down but still the ferocious gulls screamed in the skies above her. They swirled over her head and attacked one another as they flew in circles above the field. She watched them and smiled to herself – much good the scarecrow was doing in the middle of the field!

  As she felt the earth crumble beneath her feet she picked her way carefully and wished she’d worn her walking boots. She looked back at the gate that she’d come in by and almost turned back but then she felt the impulse to walk further. She looked at her map again. This was a short cut to the farm, then she could double-back and meet the cottage again along the lane. It wasn’t exactly ‘out of her way’. It wasn’t exactly ‘in the middle of nowhere’ either but her heart began to race. The screaming gulls made an eerie sound as they fought each other in midair. Russell came close to Lauren’s side.

 
; ‘You went to the funeral – why?’ asked Carter. ‘The Sheriff wanted to create a united front? Why was that, do you think?’

  Marky shrugged and looked around for a shirt to put on; he smelled it and then decided it would do.

  ‘It’s no secret that my dad is fiercely loyal to Cornwall. He saw Jeremy Forbes-Wright as one of our community.’

  ‘Yeah, right. You’re all scared about something.’

  Marky shook his head. He looked away.

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘Do you know Kensa well?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’ve known her all her life.’

  ‘Were you ever a couple?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But you would have liked to be?”

  ‘No. Years ago when we were young, then people thought we might have been together but it never happened. I love Kensa as a friend.’

  ‘Why didn’t it happen?’

  ‘How do I know? Things do or don’t happen,’ he said, exasperated.

  ‘It had nothing to do with the rape, the brutal attack?’

  ‘What attack?’

  ‘The one that was hushed up, the one on Saturday June the 17th, fourteen years ago? You were on the beach that night.’

  ‘No one ever said it was rape.’

  ‘Didn’t they?’

  ‘Seems to be common knowledge.’

  ‘It was covered up. Why, because it involved the police sergeant’s son? You were there that night. You forced your way into Kellis House when it was just Toby and four of his little friends. You were all off your skulls on drugs that you sold to people, you sourced. It started off as a laugh, then it all went hideously wrong, didn’t it? At what point did you call your dad in to help? Which one of you men raped your friend?’

  ‘I don’t remember any of it, and anyway, what’s this got to do with the little boy going missing?’

  ‘Because Kensa was up there on the day of the funeral: the same day the boy was snatched. The funeral of the man who paid Kensa off so that she wouldn’t press rape charges against his son. That’s why? But we don’t believe it was Toby who did it, you know why? Because his drink had been spiked and so had Kensa’s. He wouldn’t have been capable in a month of Sundays. Whereas you lot? You were off your faces on God knows what – the one thing you didn’t feel was tired.’