Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(66)

‘Does it?’

‘Did Kensa live with you?’

‘No, her family had a van on Cam’s land, the farm next door. It’s owned by us now.’

‘Your dad has been very successful with buying up land here.’

‘Yeah, he’s a canny old sod. He bought at the right time. People wanted to sell, it’s not so easy to make money from the land.’ They went inside the food store and Mawgan began measuring out cups of food and adding it to buckets.

‘I’ve heard of Cam and his sister Ella – are they still around?’

‘Cam is, Ella left. Cam has the café on the beach.’

‘Do you keep in touch with Ella?’

‘No.’ Mawgan paused to look on the wall and check the proportions, make sure she was putting the right things into the right buckets.

‘You were very good friends, weren’t you?’

‘She was like a sister to me.’

‘Where did she go?’ Mawgan shrugged. ‘Do you remember Toby Forbes-Wright, Mawgan?’

‘Just about – it was a long time ago when he came down.’

‘It was the five of you then, wasn’t it, on the Saturday night in June when you all went back to Kellis House?’

‘I don’t remember that.’

They walked to the field around the outside.

‘And you’re a good friend of Kensa’s?’

‘Yes, I try to be.’ Mawgan opened the gate and Willis followed into a small penned-off area that had the imprint of hooves in the churned-up soil.

‘Kensa was at the funeral, wasn’t she?’ Mawgan nodded. ‘What was she doing there?’ She shrugged but didn’t reply. ‘Why did you feel you had to lie about it before?’

‘I didn’t think she should be there.’

‘How did she get there?’

‘She borrowed my car.’

‘Where is it now?’

‘She says she left it in Penhaligon somewhere but she can’t remember where. I need to go and look for it.’

‘Has she done that before? Borrowed your car and then left it somewhere?’

‘All the time.’

‘What did you say to her at the funeral?’

‘I told her to wait there and we’d come home together.’

‘Did she do that?’

Mawgan nodded.

‘So you didn’t come back on the train?’

‘No.’

‘Why did you lie about it?’

‘Because I panicked, I suppose.’

‘Did she have Samuel with her?’

‘No.’

‘Is there any way she could have had him in the car?’

‘No. I didn’t see what happened. She took my car and drove away when we got back here.’

‘Why did you lie to us about how you got home? You must have felt that there was a chance Kensa would be involved in Samuel’s abduction?’

‘I lied because we stick together, I knew she’d be the chief suspect. People would jump to conclusions. I don’t think people understand how fragile she is. She told me she only wanted to talk to Toby and she should be allowed to do that. It’s Raymonds’ fault if anyone’s. He didn’t listen to her. He knew it meant a lot to her but he chose to ignore it. You should ask him about the missing child. It’s his fault all of this happened. He controls everything in this village. He wanted that house for himself. I wouldn’t put it past him to try and stitch Kensa up for it. He knew she wanted to talk to Toby so badly she’d risk anything.’

‘And, did she talk to him?’

‘No. She says not.’

‘Why not?’

‘She couldn’t approach him at the funeral so she gave up and we drove home.’

‘So why lie to us?’

She shrugged. ‘It’s the way it is here.’

‘I could do you for perverting the course of justice. Make sure that everything you tell me is the truth now. Tell me how you really got to the funeral. You didn’t pay twenty pounds for a ticket.’

‘Yes I did. I bought it in advance. I may have left a bit earlier than I said, could have been eight.’

Willis texted Pascoe to put out an alert and find the yellow Fiat. ‘When you saw her at the funeral, was she upset?’

‘Yes. She wanted to talk to Toby. She drove all the way to speak to him.’

‘And you didn’t think she should? You didn’t want her to?’

‘No, it wouldn’t have done her any good.’

‘She needs more support than she gets, doesn’t she?’

‘The whole town should do more to help her but they look the other way.’

‘Why is that?’

‘They’re all frightened to go against Raymonds.’ She looked at Willis and shook her head. ‘And you call my childhood idyllic? You have no idea.’

‘Did something happen to you, Mawgan, something you want to tell me about? Maybe I can help?’

Mawgan stopped. Looked round. Martin Stokes was calling her.

‘My dad wants me. I’ll be back.’

Willis watched her walk over to the gate and then disappear from sight, then she heard the creaking of barn doors and heard bellowing and the thunder of hooves and saw the steam coming off the cattle as they pushed and jostled one another, riding on each other’s backs to get through the narrow gap and into the small pen where Willis stood. She looked back towards the gate and realized she was cut off. She started walking – now a hundred were in a pen meant for twenty. She was squashed and jostled as they pushed at her. Willis waved her arms in the air and the bullocks reared, frightened. The noise of their bellowing was deafening, the dust and dirt they churned was creating a cloud around them. Willis tried to climb over the fence but there was nothing to grip on. She tried to get a foothold on one of the posts positioned every eight feet or so. She heaved herself up and tried to kick a space for her feet to stay in the wire, but she fell back down and felt the pushing and the weight of the bullocks.