Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(107)

‘He had a history of paedophilia, did you know?’

‘I knew, everyone knew.’

‘Why, because Kensa and Mawgan told you?’

‘No, I didn’t know it involved them. Kensa’s always had trouble keeping her legs together.’

‘Kensa was raped,’ said Willis. ‘You knew that.’

‘I knew the accusation had been flying about. But Kensa says lots of things. She’s a psycho.’

Willis opened her notebook and read from Towan’s statement: ‘ ‘‘After we got into the house, Jago raped Ella.’’ ’ Jago choked on the saliva in his throat and coughed uncontrollably for a minute. Carter pushed the water across to him.

‘Are you mad? Why would I need to?’

‘You wanted to teach her a lesson, maybe?’

‘I was drunk, hardly able to rape anyone.’

‘You weren’t drunk, though, were you? You were off your head, you’d taken a concoction of things. After all, it was Marky’s birthday and you and him were used to mixing it up. You were the local lads, weren’t you? You got away with things because Marky’s dad was the Sheriff. You got away with it until it went too far. You liked Kensa. Did you think you had the right?’

‘I didn’t touch her. Toby Forbes-Wright was the one responsible.’

‘What, a little fifteen-year-old virgin asleep on Rohypnol? I’ll tell you what may interest you, we found a baby’s skeleton and we’re running DNA tests on it at the moment. Those tests will show us not only if that’s Kensa’s baby, but who the baby’s father was.’

Jago shrugged.

‘Ella Simmons was there that night too,’ Willis said, taking out a photo of Ella and sliding it across. ‘She was sixteen at the time, a beautiful-looking girl.’ Jago nodded as he looked at the photo. He could not take his eyes off it. ‘After you kicked Mawgan and Cam out, and Towan left, you carried Toby up to his bed, then it was just you and Kensa and Ella Simmons, wasn’t it?’

‘Marky was there,’ he said, staring at the floor.

‘What went on that night?’

‘I didn’t rape anyone. Towan spent a lot of time arguing with Ella. I was with Marky and Kensa until he took her upstairs. I heard a lot of weird stuff going on. I didn’t know whether Ella had gone in there and was causing a fuss because of Marky doing her friend. I was thinking I better go when Marky came downstairs in a state and he said Toby had come round, seen them having sex, and gone berserk. He had beaten Kensa really badly. He’d raped her.’

‘Did you believe him?’

‘He was really upset. I didn’t know what to think. I don’t suppose I had any reason not to believe him.’

‘Did you see her?’

He nodded. ‘I thought she was dead. She wasn’t conscious. Marky kept asking what should we do. I asked him where Ella was and he said she was gone. He said he’d knocked Toby out and he was on his bed. I went in and Toby looked pretty beaten up.’

‘What happened then?’

‘Marky called his dad. He kept saying to me that he didn’t want to get blamed for it.’

‘What was Raymonds’ reaction when he came?’

‘Raymonds told us to go home, he said he would sort it.’

‘Did you see Ella again that day?’

‘I didn’t see Ella again at all.’

Willis unfolded the piece of paper Pascoe had given her at the start. She re-read it and then handed it to Carter to read.

‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ asked Carter. Carter looked out of the window and saw Raymonds’ black Honda Jazz park up outside.

Jago shook his head, still stunned.

‘Good news, you weren’t the father. Bad news, we saw you buy that shipment of Class A drugs from the Ukrainians.’

Willis took out a still from the film footage at Gordano services and slid it towards Jago as Carter cautioned him.

She looked at her phone as a text came through from Jeanie.

We are ten minutes away.

‘I’m having Jago taken straight over to Penhaligon now,’ said Carter. ‘He can be formally charged there. I think it’s better we stay out of it. You ready to interview Raymonds?’ Carter asked Willis as they got back to their desks. She was engrossed in something on the screen.

‘What is it?’ asked Carter.

‘I’m just looking at the samples from the farm that Sandford’s taken. We have a match to the mittens at Gordano. There are fibres that contain fibreglass residue, they match the ones found in Marky’s workshop – plus we have a small amount of dust particles that are a dry pig food. It’s the one used at Stokes’ farm. It’s confirmation that Mawgan’s got to be involved in some way. Nothing goes on in that farm without her knowing.’

‘What about Marky? Where is he? He’s supposed to be in here by now.’





Chapter 48


‘Is it all right to bring my dog inside?’ Lauren stuck her head around the door to Cam’s café as Russell tried hard to pull her the opposite way.

Cam looked shocked to see her. He nodded.

‘Americano, please,’ she said after she came in and stood waiting for Cam to ask her what she wanted and it didn’t happen.