Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(83)

‘I promise.’

Willis walked down the road to the beach and past the newsagent’s. The sea had come right in over the road during the night. It had brought and dumped odd bits of debris with it: tins and bits of wood, plastic bottles and shards of glass jutted out from sandy mounds everywhere. She looked across at Cam’s café and wondered what time he opened. There was no sign of activity at nearly eight o’clock.

‘Morning, Eb.’

Carter was waiting for her outside the old station. He was beginning to get a slightly dishevelled look about him as the lack of home comforts took their toll. Willis always travelled light and washed her things out overnight. She didn’t need more than two sets of everything to function perfectly well. She had a toothbrush and some Simple face wash and Nivea cream for when her face felt dry. Willis didn’t collect things, whereas Carter loved his gadgets and his designer garments. She knew he would have struggled to get a shirt ironed, the way he liked it, at the hotel. And all his hair products had not managed to stop his hair from looking a little flat in the sea air.

Willis cupped her hands against the glass as she looked through the window.

‘Such a tiny place.’

‘Yeah, but this was Raymonds’ mission control. From here, his eye could reach into the four corners of his kingdom.’

Willis giggled. ‘The shire folk, you mean.’

‘Yes, Master.’

‘Morning.’ Pascoe appeared from around the corner of the building, hiding a smile.

‘I hope this will do. We’ve got internet, landlines. We’ve moved over as many desktop computers as we could fit.’

‘I’m sure it will be fine.’

‘I picked up some coffees for us in town before I came,’ Pascoe said. ‘I wasn’t sure if the café would be open.’

‘Cam’s place?’ Willis asked as she took the coffees with thanks.

‘Yes. It doesn’t seem to open a lot. He opens for maybe three hours and then shuts up shop for the rest of the day. I suppose it must be like that here.’

‘You wonder how he manages to support himself,’ said Willis.

‘Oh, he’s got money,’ said Pascoe. ‘The land he inherited from his father and sold to Stokes.’

‘How do you know he’s still got it?’ asked Carter.

‘Because he had to prove he had the funds when he made an application to extend his café up a floor and create a restaurant. Shall we go inside?’

Carter turned to raise an eyebrow at Willis as they followed Pascoe into the station.

‘So, here is the main reception area which I thought we’d use as our office. Through there is the old interview room; it now has a window but it’s got bevelled glass in it, so may do. This place was used as a tourist office for a while. There is another room to your right and that was the sergeant’s office in the old days. I thought we could use that as a second interview room?’ asked Pascoe. ‘I can recommend a couple of detectives from Penhaligon who are highly qualified at interviewing.’

‘Thanks, that’s worth bearing in mind,’ answered Carter. ‘Okay, let’s get this on the road. I’d like to conference call my colleague in London.’

Willis had been fiddling with the set-up of the computers and gave Carter the thumbs-up as the screen came to life and the Met insignia appeared. Robbo’s face materialized. Willis introduced him to Pascoe.

‘Nice to put a face to the voice,’ said Robbo.

‘Shall we start with an update on the search from you, Pascoe?’ Carter asked.

Pascoe got out his notes.

‘Did you search the mine on Garra Headland?’ asked Willis.

‘Yes, I just finished the report. Here it is.’

He handed Willis and Carter a copy then emailed the file over to Robbo, before putting his laptop down on the table with his notes.

‘It’s coming your way, Robbo.’

‘Many thanks.’

‘You have a lot of mine shafts around your area,’ said Robbo. ‘How do you manage to search them?’

‘With some difficulty,’ answered Pascoe, as he looked at his notes. ‘So far, I’ve only ordered the cameras to go down the one at Garra: it’s the nearest and the deepest.’

They studied the video footage.

‘It’s L-shaped underground?’ Carter asked, as they looked.

‘Yes. It was quite a simple process. What people did is chisel straight down through the granite and if they hit a seam they followed it along the horizontal. Those days the water was pumped out. These days the mines are full of water.’

‘How difficult are they to access?’ asked Willis.

‘Easy. They are all covered but the cover is only bolted on. We’ve had a few bodies thrown down over the years but it’s not a clever choice for disposal. The cold water keeps bodies from decaying fast and there is no vermin down there. We’ve been unable to access the exit to this mine. It comes out in a cave below the water level and the seas won’t allow us to get anywhere near it right now.’

Pascoe brought up a map of the area on his screen and Willis shared her laptop with Carter and Leonard as they listened to Pascoe’s details of the search areas and the findings of the helicopter.

‘We concentrated on the cliff sections that were accessible on foot. These storms would make it an impossible task to find him in the water. The tidal surge is so high that it would be impossible to predict where he’d wash up. If he was even here.’ Pascoe looked at Carter.