Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(69)

‘I was; she was like my daughter.’

‘But her dad just lived down the road, didn’t he?’

‘He wasn’t much of a father. I could see a lot of potential in that girl. All he saw was trouble. That’s why I said she was working when she wasn’t. I thought she deserved a night away from him. He was a tyrant.’

‘Do you think he hit her?’

‘Think? I know he hit her. We all saw the marks on her. My sister should have protected her but she couldn’t protect herself.’

‘Did you ever report him?’

‘No, but I should have.’

‘Mr Truscott, when Heather disappeared on the Saturday night, where were you?’

‘I’ve been through this a hundred times. There was a party going on at the bungalow, in the two fields by the main road that they rented from me. I saw Heather and Cathy earlier on in the evening, before the party started; I was checking the log store at the back of the bungalow. I knew there was a lot of people due to come that night, a big party was planned. When those parties went on, they always used a lot of my logs, so I was making sure they had enough.’

‘That was generous of you,’ said Carter.

‘Five pound a bag and I provided fire pits, couldn’t chance them setting fire to the grass.’

‘Why did you allow them on your land at all?’

‘It wasn’t my land, Douglas rented it.’

‘But you could have said no parties.’

‘I didn’t see the harm in it.’

‘Who was at the bungalow at the time you saw Heather and Cathy?’ asked Willis.

‘Nicola, Yvonne, maybe Gavin. There was a lot going on with setting up the stage and organising the ticket collection.’

‘What did Heather and Cathy say to you?’

‘Nothing. Look, you know I lied for Heather, she asked me to. She said she wanted to go to the party and I felt sorry for her. I agreed to ask her parents if she could help me with the animals. I didn’t know she intended running away.’

‘Did you see her again after that?’

‘I may have seen her later in the yard, I can’t be sure. I had a couple of ciders that evening.’

‘After Heather disappeared that night, did Douglas voice his opinion as to what might have happened?’

‘No, not to me anyways.’

‘When did you next see Douglas?’

‘Later the next day. He wasn’t looking his best; he had a big cut on his head, said he staggered into a tree at the party and then woke up in a field. I didn’t imagine it was anything to do with Heather.’

‘When was that you saw him?’

‘I saw him about three in the afternoon. I asked him straight away if he’d seen Heather and he said he hadn’t. I was beginning to worry by then. I told her parents I’d send her back by eleven that morning and I thought she had gone by herself until John called me to shout down the phone at me.’

‘What happened in the months after Heather left?’

‘We were waiting to hear from her, the family was, I mean.’

‘What about Douglas and the others at the bungalow?’

‘It all seemed to settle down for a while. Most of us felt happy for Heather, she had got away. We never once dreamt she was dead.’

‘Did the parties continue?’

‘No, they didn’t. I was thinking Douglas was getting ready to move on. He seemed to spend more time away than ever and then after Christmas the foot and mouth epidemic started and a farm near us got affected and that was the end of all our animals. Douglas was a knackerman, he had his qualifications. He was allowed to slaughter animals and people were ringing day and night to look for people to do it. He took Gavin and Stephen with him and they went all over the place killing animals, helping with the burning afterwards.’

‘Mr Truscott, do you recognise this man?’ Willis showed him the photo of Tony Poulson.

‘Never seen him before in my life.’

Willis gave him a card. ‘Mr Truscott, can you please contact us straight away if anything comes to you about that time, or if you hear anything you think we should know.’

‘We estimate he was killed in May 2000,’ said Carter, pointing at the photo in Willis’s hand. ‘His body was buried at a farm Douglas used to visit.’

‘Jesus! It’s a wonder we all weren’t murdered. He can’t be coming out of prison, surely?’

‘We would have to have new evidence to put him on trial,’ said Carter. ‘So if you think of anything, please ring.’

They got back into the car and watched Truscott return to berating the builders. His wife was standing nearby, a lonely figure watching them leave. They drove on down the lane towards the Phillipses’ old house. Willis took out the plan of Hawthorn Farm. Whilst she unfolded it, Carter was going over something in his mind.

‘What did you see from the plant pot?’

‘That the farrier gets a good view of the rear of the bungalow.’

‘What was his statement at the time?’

Willis pulled out the farrier’s statement. ‘He didn’t go to the party, never did. He said he made a check on his fields the next day to see if there was anything he should pick up, or chuck out. He had sometimes had people sleeping there in tents before. He said he usually just politely asked them to move once they’d woken up.’