Frozen Grave (Willis/Carter #3)(97)

‘We’ll drop Tucker off on the way and then we’ll head back as soon as we’ve seen Megan Penarth, Eb.’

‘Please, guv, it’s okay. As far as I could tell there’s nothing I can do. They’re merely informing me that my mother has committed an act of violence against another inmate; they’ve given no further details. I am not rushing to her side. I wouldn’t be any help. We have work to do today and I don’t intend to dwell on my mother. Whatever her reasons, whatever the scheme behind them, I can’t keep trying to work it out.’

‘Okay. I respect that, Eb, but if you change your mind, or you hear something to the contrary, let me know and you can get a train back up or hire a car and go.’

They went into the breakfast room, which had been the restaurant the previous evening, and were shown to their table by the window. It was the first time they had seen it in the light and they looked out on clouds racing across the moors. Ponies were grazing in the hedge opposite their window. Tucker was last to appear. By the time he did, Carter had finished. Willis was on her second plate of English breakfast from the buffet.

‘What a place.’ Tucker joined them at the table. ‘I could live out here, no problem. Couldn’t you?’

‘No,’ Carter answered.

Carter looked at Willis and tried hard to suppress a smile.

After breakfast they walked down through the village and up the lane to Megan Penarth’s house. They knocked at the door but she was out. They walked back up to the pub. The landlady, Rachel, was clearing away breakfast.

‘We were hoping to catch Megan Penarth in but there’s no answer. There’s a car in the driveway. Do you know where she could be?’

‘She’s up at the quarry most days. If you’ve got walking boots, you just need to cross over at the top of this hill and you’ll be on the moors; you’ll see Haytor in front of you, right at the top. Instead of walking straight up towards it, take a detour right and you’ll see the quarry. The front entrance is there through a gate behind the granite pile.’

‘Thanks. Great help.’

‘Have we got wellingtons?’ asked Tucker. They looked at one another.

‘Straight answer – no,’ said Carter. ‘We’ll just have to prepare to get muddy.’

They set off up the hill and crossed the road. They kept to the tufts of grass between the bog areas frosted with ice as they walked up towards the Tor and then veered right. They found the entrance to the quarry and opened the gate. Saplings had rooted on the sides of the cliff face. Beyond them was a sheer drop.

‘Christ, that’s a long way down,’ said Carter as he stepped closer to the edge.

‘You’d think you wouldn’t be allowed to have something so dangerous without a railing in front of it,’ said Willis, recoiling from the edge.

‘Willis – you’re such a townie!’ Tucker laughed at her. ‘It’s not all about sanitizing. This isn’t Disneyworld.’

‘Point taken – but you’ve got to have deaths off here?’

‘Suicides, yes, tragically, and the odd dog falls off, or sheep.’

‘Clever sheep to open the gate,’ said Carter.

‘There’s another way to get in here from the back,’ said Tucker.

Willis looked down at the frozen water. ‘How deep is it?’

‘Fathomless.’ Tucker turned back and smiled at her. He was enjoying exposing the Londoners to a bit of ridicule. ‘Legend has it – it has no bottom to it and it calls for a new victim to be sacrificed to it every year.’

‘Cut the crap, Tucker.’ Carter stopped walking and listened – the icy wind had dropped as they descended into the quarry. There was an oppressive stillness. As they walked further down and wound their way around the outside of the first of the three lakes, they saw a figure standing at the far side, in a sharp cut-out in the granite rock. The figure turned and studied them.

Megan Penarth came down from her place and walked towards them. In her hand were bunches of bright yellow gorse; she was watching the three people but she kept her eyes mainly on Tucker. When she was within hearing distance, she said, ‘Strangers in the quarry – always a bad idea in civilian clothes.’ She smiled. ‘Detective Tucker, I presume?’

‘Morning, Megan. I’ve brought a couple of Londoners down to talk to you.’

‘Great – fresh meat.’ She came level with them and smiled at Carter. ‘Only joking.’ Her eyes were red-rimmed from the cold. Willis waited her turn. Megan glanced round to acknowledge her and there was a peculiar softness in her eyes. She reached out to touch Willis on the hand. ‘You’re freezing.’

Willis felt no warmth coming from Megan’s hand – it was a block of ice. Willis shivered.

‘This is an eerie place,’ Tucker said, looking about him.

‘Yes, the place of legends.’

Willis was distracted, looking at a bunch of roses drying on a rock. Her eyes went upwards to the top of the cliff directly above.

‘It’s a sad place sometimes, did you hear about the tragedy of the suicide a couple of months ago?’ asked Megan.

‘I saw it on the news. It was here?’

‘Yes.’

‘It would be awful to come here for that; such a lonely-feeling place,’ said Willis.