Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(100)

‘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.