Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(77)

‘It’s up to you, sir.’ Pascoe looked slightly put out.

Carter went to find the Stokes family and Marky in the farmhouse kitchen.

‘My sympathies,’ he said, standing in the doorway.

‘Are you going to cut Martin down?’ asked Marky. ‘You can’t just leave him tied to the post. It’s not right.’

Carter looked around at the broken crockery on the floor. Mawgan was sweeping it up. Towan was sitting at the table, holding a mug of coffee. He was staring at the table top. His hands were scraped with grazes and blood. His shirt was dirty with blood and mud.

‘I appreciate how upsetting it must be to you all but Martin Stokes needs to stay where he is until the forensics team have arrived. He will be covered with a tent as soon as they get here – I suggest you wait in here for the next hour until that’s done. I will need all your clothes,’ said Carter. Towan didn’t move. He didn’t look at Carter. ‘And, no one leaves this farm until they’ve been seen by the forensics officers.’

Marky nodded. He was standing resting against the Aga, his arms crossed over his chest. His face was set in a stony mask of anger and grief.

‘Where’s the woman who found him?’ asked Towan.

‘Lauren’s gone.’

‘She could have done it,’ Towan muttered into his mug.

‘Not likely though, is it, Towan?’ Carter said. ‘The doctor said he’d been dead an hour at the most. When did you see him last? Mawgan?’

‘When he left to bury Misty. Towan went with him. That was the last time I saw him alive.’

Towan laughed. ‘Yeah . . . and you think I didn’t see that coming, you stupid bitch? If you think you and Marky are going to stitch me up over this one – think again.’

‘Well?’ Carter looked at Marky.

‘It’s true Mr Stokes ordered Towan to go and bury the horse. The last I saw was them going out to do it. I left here and went down to my cottage for a shower. You came after that.’

Towan pushed his mug away and sat back in his chair so that he could see everyone properly. ‘And me and Dad got outside and I decided I had better things to do. I went to see if Marky had finished my surfboard. I went to his workshop. I went to check in the farm store next door. I’m supposed to be in charge of ordering when stocks get low.’

‘Who else was here today?’

Towan reeled off the list.

‘And Raymonds?’ Carter looked surprised.

‘He left a while ago; he picked up some things from the farm and drove up over the field, left that way,’ said Towan.

‘He didn’t come up the lane, we would have passed him,’ Carter pointed out.

‘He came over the back too. There’s a lane we use for getting the cows into the far fields.’

‘Mawgan, are you okay?’ Carter was staring at the bandages around her knuckles. One had slipped down as she bent her hands around the broom handle and he could already see the blackening and swelling around her knuckle. ‘Looks pretty nasty that.’ She shook her head but kept sweeping. ‘What happened here? Does someone want to tell me?’

‘Nothing happened,’ said Towan. ‘Just a bit of high spirits among siblings. Mawgan went off like a wild cat.’ He smiled.

‘Was Kensa here?’

‘She still is,’ answered Marky.

‘Where is she?’

‘Upstairs in my room,’ answered Mawgan. ‘I was going to take her home but she’s in no fit state. Not since her horse was stamped to death.’

Towan tittered to himself.

‘What happened there?’ Carter asked.

Marky and Mawgan looked at Towan to answer. When he didn’t, Marky did instead.

‘Bluebell’s in season. Towan thought it would be funny to have a stallion fight, except Brutus is two and Misty’s eighteen – not ever meant to be a fair fight. Thankfully it was over quickly.’

Towan looked up and around the room. He turned his chair to look at Carter.

‘Disappointing, really.’

Carter shook his head and stepped back out into the yard. He called an officer over to stand where he had been.

‘Start writing down your statements. I’ll send a Scene of Crimes Officer up here to take DNA swabs, and so on.’

Carter walked back down the lane to see Willis talking to the forensic teams who had arrived and were getting set up.

‘This is Phil Leonard, the Crime Scene Manager from Penhaligon.’ Willis did the introductions. ‘DI Dan Carter, my colleague from MIT 17.’

‘Pleased to meet you. I understand you have your own team arriving tomorrow?’

‘Correct. But we need you to make a start.’

Leonard was nodding thoughtfully as Carter spoke. His eyes were on the field where Stokes’ body, covered in a net, was being temporarily protected from further attacks by the birds.

‘We’ll carry on as we would normally here, and leave the rest of the farm to your guy.’

‘Good, appreciate it.’

‘Can we keep these birds off?’ Leonard asked, as the herring gulls continued trying to attack both the body and the forensic officer approaching to work around it.

‘Here.’ An officer appeared with a packet in his hand and gave it to Willis as she stood watching from the gate. ‘If you hang this over a tree and light it, it will get rid of the birds.’