Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(73)

‘You mean back when I was a teenager?’

‘Yes, June 2000.’

‘I don’t remember much – I guess you mean the beach party? That’s mostly what I remember – it was the largest beach party I’ve ever seen here. I just happened to be here that night. I don’t know any more than anyone else. Whoever told you that I saw anything is wrong.’

‘So, why did you say you didn’t know what I was talking about?’ asked Willis.

‘I don’t know – it’s such a long time ago. It was just a beach party that got a bit messy.’

‘What do you remember about it?’ Carter asked.

Jago shook his head, splattering water from his hair, and frowned with a hint of ‘What’s your point?’

‘I told you – I know about as much as anyone else.’

‘What do you remember?’

‘I remember it was packed with kids off their faces, they were partying, drinking. They’d lit a couple of fires. There were people swimming, dancing. A bit of stuff going on that shouldn’t have been.’

‘Like?’

‘Sex on the beach. Drugs, skinny dipping – so many of them were wrecked already.’

‘What time was that?’

‘Eleven?’

‘You said they were wrecked. Where did they get the drugs?’

‘Brought them with them, I suppose. Who knows?’

‘There was no local supplier at the time?’

‘Here in Penhal? I don’t think so. I wasn’t home enough to know things like that. It wasn’t my type of thing – I’ve always been heavily into sport. The two don’t mix.’

‘Someone should have told Lance Armstrong that,’ said Carter.

‘I really don’t remember much about that night, sorry – I was the same age as the kids, more or less.’

‘Four years older than Kensa, three years older than Toby – it’s a lot of difference in your teens,’ argued Willis. ‘You must remember going back to Kellis House, where it all kicked off?’

‘No.’ Jago’s face dropped.

‘Cam and Ella Simmons were there, Mawgan too. You decided to disrupt their little get-together at the house?’

Jago shook his head and stared at Willis.

‘No idea, sorry.’

‘Okay, well, we’ll be staying here for a few days – if you think of something, get in touch.’

‘Will do.’

‘Don’t forget the surf,’ he called after them, and waved Carter back to him. ‘Anything you need to borrow you can ring me. Wait a tick.’ He left his wet suit under the tap at the edge of the Surfshack and went back to his van, went round to the driver’s seat and leaned in. He emerged with a piece of paper and scribbled his number down before handing it to Carter.

Carter pushed it in his pocket.

‘Thanks.’

‘And you too, of course.’ He looked across and grinned at Willis as he picked up his wet suit and held it up to drip. ‘We’ll get you fitted up with a board and a wet suit no problem. You won’t believe how great it is out there. A real adrenalin rush.’

‘Don’t think so,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘They’ve already tried to kill me once.’

Jago finished rinsing his wet suit. He hung it on the top of his van to drip off the side and then he got into the VW and pulled the door shut; he sat there sweating. After five minutes he climbed over into the front and started it up. He drove up to the Penhal Hotel, parked up on the street in front and ran up the steps. He went straight to the public phone.

‘Marky?’ Marky answered it from home. ‘Trouble. I’ve just had a couple of visitors. We have to move the merchandise. Get rid of it.’

‘Where? Where can we move it to? We can’t shift it now. It’s better where it is.’

‘No, it isn’t. Believe me,’ he hissed into the phone.

‘I’m not moving it. We have to sell it to give them their money. It’s not some fucking game to those guys. We have to come out of this. Just stay calm, stay chilled.’

‘Listen to me. They’re going to have a thousand officers in this place any day. They will find it. Get rid of it. I’m not going to spend ten years in jail just because of a stupid mistake. We messed up. We’ll just have to lie low for a while. Move away, sell up the business and go to Scotland, anywhere, for a year or so. Those guys will be gone by then. An anonymous tip-off to the law and we’ll help put them inside. Man up. We’ll be okay. It was a mistake. Learn from it.’

‘Oh, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that you just worm your way out of any trouble. I’ll never go into business with you again. I’m moving it today and I’m going to stick to the plan and sell it.’

‘It’s all yours, bro.’





Chapter 34


As they went past Cam’s café it had closed. They drove to Kellis House, and Willis asked Carter to pull his car in by the gateway.

‘Do you want me to come in as well?’ Carter asked as she got out of the car.

‘No, it’s okay, I’ll be as quick as I can. I just need to check on Lauren. She was having a rest when I left.’