Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(39)

He nodded at Willis and she steeled herself. He grabbed hold of her hand and she tightened her fists around his wrists as a massive wave swelled up and covered them as it surged up and crashed over the cliff. He felt his knee give way and the bush crack and crumble beneath him.

He heard Willis yell but he couldn’t see her past the spray as he felt her tighten her grip on him. He dug a foot into the cliff face and pushed hard with the foot on the ledge as he reached higher and caught Willis by the back of her jacket – for a few seconds he lost his footing and dangled in the air until a second wave surged and pushed him upwards, and he jammed his toes into the cliff face again and reached blindly up with his left hand and felt it grip as Willis hauled him up and over before the pull of the wave could take him back out to sea.

Carter scrabbled across as they crawled up and away from the cliff edge. He lay on his back and looked at the weight of cloud above him and the few breaks in it where the blue sky showed through.

‘I’m getting too old for all this,’ he laughed with relief.

Willis hadn’t moved either but now she stood and walked back to look over the edge of the cliff where he’d fallen.

‘How did it happen, guv?’

‘I was pushed. A hundred per cent. Did you see anyone walking further on?’ Carter asked, sitting up and brushing himself down.

‘No, there was no one on the cliff path.’

‘Whoever it was must have seen us in the woods. They could have doubled back.’

Carter took out his radio and called Pascoe.

‘Have a look along the coastal path around Garra for me. There seems to be some interest from the locals in this area.’

‘Will do,’ came the reply.

Willis was watching Carter closely. ‘You didn’t mention someone tried to kill you.’

Carter shook his head. ‘Let’s not confuse things.’

Willis and Carter stood watching the sunset as they saw the blinking of Pascoe’s helicopter come into view and then disappear across the farmland.

He came on the radio again: ‘I can see a man walking away from the old tin mine. Pretty sure that’s Raymonds’ car I saw parked at the old Simmons farm. There’s one of the jeeps registered to the Stokes farm, that’s on the lane near Garra Cove. What’s bothering you? There are some deserted barns nearby, we have detected several small heat sources in there. Do you want me to send in a search team?’

‘Yes,’ said Carter, ‘we’ll meet them there. Nothing’s bothering me, just interested.’

Carter and Willis walked back up to the road and Carter grabbed a towel from his travel bag in the back of the car. ‘Have you got the location of this barn, Eb?’

‘Got it, guv. It’s part of the Stokes farm. We go past the main lane for the farm and take the next turning, along for half a mile then we should see the barns.’

‘Okay, I see it.’ Carter turned a sharp right and onto a farm track.

The search team had just arrived and they were getting the dogs out of the back of the van.

They pulled over and got out. Pascoe was waiting for them.

‘We’re stopping the aerial search overnight now,’ he said. ‘I thought I’d come and join you.’

‘Are these barns in use?’ asked Carter.

‘No, these were from the original farm that belonged to Simmons.’

They opened up the barn doors. Bales of straw were stacked to the roof.

‘How long has this been in here?’ asked Carter. He waved the dust away from his face as the straw flew around them.

‘God knows, years, I don’t know. It’s been forgotten, by the look of it.’

Willis walked inside and patted her hand against the bales of straw. ‘It’s still solid.’

‘Yeah, it can last fifty years and longer if it’s kept dry. They’re building houses out of it now, aren’t they? This floor is concrete,’ Pascoe said as he gave a jump and landed with a solid thump. ‘That’s the way to keep it fresh. The system they used for stacking the bales at odds to one another gave it strength. It meant, when it was first created, someone could stand on the stack without it collapsing.’

Willis was working her way along the barn, looking at the bales.

The dogs were sniffing furiously at all the bales as they wagged their tails, springer-fashion.

‘There’s probably a whole host of creatures living in this barn, but no way could a child be hidden in it,’ said Pascoe.

‘What is it you saw from the helicopter?’

‘Pockets of heat. Could be the straw itself, it ferments and gives off enormous heat when it gets mouldy. There’s bound to be pockets of heat in this. It’s dangerous. We’d better tell Stokes to sort it before it starts a fire. We’ll call the dogs off and continue our search in the morning.’

Willis went outside with Carter and the dogs to look around the exterior.

‘Will the dogs be able to work with all these farm smells?’ Willis asked Pascoe.

‘Yes, they’re trained. Our only problem is that Samuel’s clothes were changed and he’s a small child. We don’t have a lot of scent to go on.’

‘What about the old mine, where you saw Raymonds?’

‘That’s just near here but there’s nothing to see.’