Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(58)

‘Been already,’ Marky answered him but didn’t turn. Carter continued browsing. Marky watched him in the mirror behind the till.

‘So you’re just waiting for the season now, I suppose?’

‘There’s a lot to get on with. I spend most of the winter in my workshop mending and making boards, plus the big waves are good this time of year.’

‘I get it – so you have the perfect life, no matter what month it is, you’re out there having fun?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘Do you mind if I ask you, is this what you always dreamed of doing?’

‘Yep.’

Carter laughed. ‘Come on – I’m a London lad – I need to understand what keeps you here – you can really see yourself waxing surfboards when you’re sixty?’

‘Don’t see why not.’

‘I can see the appeal, except I’d have thought you might like to set up somewhere else? Isn’t it a bit close to home, living here under your parents’ noses? I mean, wouldn’t you prefer to take the money it took to set this up and go to say Newquay or the North Devon Coast? Croyde, for instance.’

He shrugged. ‘I’m thinking about it. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?’

‘Oh, mainly chit-chat.’ Carter smiled. He took a fleece from the racks and held it up against himself at the mirror.

‘Suits you,’ Marky said.

‘Yeah – I’ll have to come back with my kid when it warms up a bit here. I can see the appeal of living here – I honestly can.’ He turned on his heels on the wooden floor and nodded, impressed. ‘Except, as much as I love my mum and dad, I wouldn’t want my father breathing down my neck.’

‘Ha . . .’ Marky shrugged it off with a smile. ‘He’s the Sheriff – I expect you heard?’

‘The Sheriff, yeah. I bet he’s quite the ball-buster when he wants to be?’

Marky sprayed the wooden counter with polish and began dusting. ‘He is what he is.’

‘You always see eye-to-eye?’

‘Not always. But we wouldn’t be family if we did.’ Marky made eye contact with Carter but couldn’t hold it. He began to sniff loudly as he polished.

Carter laughed. ‘Yeah, yeah, absolutely – my dad loves to tell me what I should be doing in life, even though he knows nothing about the way things are now. He’s sick at the moment but he used to be a London cabbie. He used to love his job – he knew all the places to get a good brew in London. He knew all the other regular drivers on his patch. There’s not much he can’t tell you about London itself but there’s lots he doesn’t know that goes on underneath, even under the levels he sees. It’s the same in every generation, isn’t it?’

‘I suppose.’

‘But you love it so much here, you love being near your dad so much that nothing would tear you away?’ Carter persisted.

‘I’m not saying that. I just have a great lifestyle. I get to surf all year round, summers are unbelievable here and good money. Then I go away and snowboard in the winter – what more could I want?’

‘What about if there were no restrictions on what business you could have here? If I said to you, you can knock all those shops down across the road and build your dream place, what would it be?’

Marky looked across the street and grinned. ‘It would probably have a bar in it.’

‘Definitely, nothing nicer than a beach bar,’ agreed Carter.

‘Live music – there are a good few local bands in Penhaligon.’

‘Tick – bands, a bar, tick. What else?’ asked Carter.

‘A decent restaurant, a new clothes shop, bigger surf shop, I don’t know.’ Marky turned back to his polishing, daydream over.

‘That polish is making you allergic, you haven’t stopped sniffing since I walked in here.’ Carter winked at Marky and then walked to the back of the shop and peered into the store room. ‘These changing rooms?’ he asked.

‘No, that’s the stock room. The changing rooms are to your right.’

‘Oh, yes. I can see them. So what other staff do you have?’

‘Jago helps me out when he’s home.’

‘He’s home permanently, isn’t he?’ Carter said.

‘Not sure how long he’ll stay.’

‘What does it depend on?’

‘Things, prospects, I suppose, you’ll have to talk to him.’ Marky became defensive.

‘How does he make a living here?’ Carter asked.

‘You’ll have to ask him.’

‘Just Jago help you out?’ Marky nodded. ‘Not Towan?’

He shrugged. ‘He’s busy.’

Carter picked up the leather wristband collection and tried one on.

‘I’m going to get one of these.’ He spread them out on top of the cabinet to look at. ‘You’re a very close-knit society here, aren’t you?’

‘Have to be. Have to help one another out.’

‘Helping one another also means covering for one another’s mistakes?’

‘I suppose it might do, to a certain extent.’

‘What about this missing boy, do you think someone here could be involved?’ asked Carter.