Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(45)

‘Are you calling Toby this evening?’ asked Willis as she took the wine from the fridge door.

Lauren nodded.

Willis and Carter already knew about Jeanie’s day with Toby and what she’d learned. Willis knew that it would be fair to tell Lauren but decided she just wasn’t able to. She was hoping Toby would do it for her.

Willis found a corkscrew and made a mess of opening the bottle. After several attempts Lauren got up and took it off her.

‘We only have one cold bottle so I better take over.’ She smiled. ‘You’re not much of a wine connoisseur then?’

‘No – more of a Coca-Cola expert. What do you want to do this evening?’

Willis found a glass for Lauren.

‘I want to go through it all. I want to know what the police are working on. I want to know exactly what you think has happened. I want to be kept informed about everything.’

‘Okay, Lauren. I’ll do my best to tell you everything I know.’

Willis made herself a cup of tea, still thinking about what she should say and what she shouldn’t. She was trying to think what Jeanie would do and decided she’d phone and ask her later. She texted Carter as she set Lauren’s wine down and sat across the table from her. Lauren picked up a pad of paper and a pen.

‘Where do you want to start?’ Willis looked at the blank pad of paper.

‘I want to start with Samuel.’ She put Samuel’s name in block capitals in the middle of the page – from him she drew a line and wrote ‘Toby’ and then her own name.

She stopped and looked at what she’d written and then up at Willis.

‘Do you think he’s still alive?’ Willis didn’t answer straight away.

‘Honestly? I do, you know. Carter does and he’s the best judge of these things. He has an instinct about people, about what motivates them. He thinks someone has Samuel for a purpose, which we will get to the bottom of. He thinks that they won’t harm him, they will keep him until they achieve that purpose.’

‘What purpose?’

‘Something to do with money and this house; and to do with the man who owned it.’

Lauren breathed in through her nose deeply and sighed as she exhaled. Willis’s answer seemed to have exhausted Lauren but the lines on her worried face eased slightly. She seemed calmer.

‘I am sure he’s out there somewhere,’ Lauren said. ‘He’s calling for me somewhere. My heart is breaking but a part of me feels hope still.’

‘What about Toby? Does he feel the same?’

‘I don’t know what Toby feels,’ she answered dismissively. ‘Since it happened he has hardly answered one of my questions. He’s shut up shop. Yes, I know he feels like it’s his fault and Christ knows so do I. I mean, what kind of father is he? He told me he never wanted Samuel. I always knew that I got pregnant against his wishes. Ultimately it’s just as much my fault as his. I forced Toby into a corner and he’s tried his best to make himself fit into it but he can’t. Somehow I don’t care about him any more. I realize I only married him to have Samuel.’

She shook her head. ‘No, that’s just not true. I loved him, I fancied him. He was so sweet to me. We had a whirlwind romance and then that was it. A few months later I found I was pregnant, no surprise to me, big surprise for him. He tried to be happy but I knew he felt disappointed, more than that really. He felt I’d cheated him in a way. And I had.’

‘How has he been recently?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The build-up to his dad’s funeral and afterwards? He said he didn’t get on with his father, but still . . .’

‘He’s been upset, distracted. He’s been nervous about everything but he didn’t talk about specifics. I shouldn’t have let him take Samuel out – his mind was elsewhere. He couldn’t look after him properly. I shouldn’t have trusted him. Christ!’

She stood abruptly.

‘I can’t stay inside a moment longer. Can we go for a look around the area – we might find something to help Samuel. Why aren’t the police looking for him down here?’

‘We are, I promise you. Both Carter and I have been searching places today. The helicopter has been up. We are looking, I promise.’

Willis felt her phone buzz in her pocket – she got a text from Carter.

‘Excuse me, Lauren.’

How is she?

Tense, she replied, we’re going out for a drive.

I’ll stay here and wait for locals to appear, Carter replied. Watch yourself – don’t go off-piste.





Chapter 20


Ebony drove slowly on the unlit lanes. Russell settled down in the back of the car. Lauren took out a map she’d printed of the area.

‘I wanted to see what’s around – I need to get my bearings.’

‘I understand.’

They drove down the winding lane towards Penhal and the beach. The shops were all dark, closed up for the night.

Willis drove past the shops and away from the beach, up and out of the village on the other side, past the bed-and-breakfasts and small guesthouses, bungalows perched on the side of the winding lane, until the stone walls and high hedges took over again and the stars were the only light to break up the darkness.