As much as I try to recall even an estimate of the time, my mind is blank. It’s like the whole afternoon and evening have mingled into one.
‘Sorry. I got to Polperro after lunchtime. I had a pastry at a café and walked around for awhile before heading to the beach.’
The sound of PC Bickerford’s pen scraping on paper is setting my teeth on edge. My head is sensitive and everything throbs. Even the light in the room is starting to hurt my eyes.
PC Barnes breaks the silence. ‘Tell us what happened after you reached the beach.’
‘I remember that it was getting cold and rainy. There was quite a breeze picking up. The beach was empty. I guess everyone had more sense than me.’ I let out a nervous laugh. ‘I went into the cave. It was dark so I used my phone torch to light the way. Then I remember my battery ran out and the light did too. That’s when I felt a blow to my head and I think I was in and out of consciousness for awhile. The next thing I remember was the sea lapping into the cave. That soon brought me round. I hurried out but the tide was coming in fast. I fought through it and at one point, I thought the sea was going to sweep me away. That’s when I saw the man with the dog. I think his name was Jeff.’
‘Yes, he called the incident in. The people at the pub were concerned about you.’ PC Bickerford flicks through a few pages in her notebook.
‘I’m sorry I left like that, especially as they helped me, but I wanted to get home.’
PC Barnes clears his throat. ‘So what happened after that?’
‘There were a few people, three I think. I was wet and cold. They sort of half carried me into the pub. The woman gave me a hoodie and helped dry me off in front of the fire. That’s when I realised that my phone had died. I knew my husband, Damien, would be worried and I don’t know his number by heart so I left them.’
‘Going back to the incident, do you remember hearing or seeing anyone in the cave?’ PC Barnes’s radio crackles. He speaks through it, explaining where he is.
I continue after he stops talking. ‘No. All I felt was the bang to my head. I thought I heard something, like a shoe scraping on the ground.’ I think back, trying to grasp at anything that might help but I don’t have a thing.
Then my heart quickens as I think of the message scrawled on the car window. ‘Someone followed me there. Before I left Looe, there was a dark-coloured car parked outside the cottages. Either black or blue. I came back while my husband was out with the girls. Realising that he had the cottage keys, I decided to head off to Polperro. The driver must have waited for me to leave and followed me. Then there was the message. Whoever was in that car must have left a message on the passenger’s side window while I was in Polperro. I found it when I went back to the car park.’
‘Do you know the make and model of the car?’
‘I wish I’d taken more notice. I don’t know what make it was. It was a normal-sized car, not a four-wheel drive or an SUV.’
He leaned forward slightly. ‘We can see if there is any CCTV covering the car park. Do you have a photo of the message?’
My dad walks in and places two mugs of coffee on the table.
‘No, as I said my phone had died but there was a parking fine on my windscreen but it wasn’t in a plastic bag, which I know they normally are. That was odd. I’ll have the car park ticket too, the one I paid for from the machine. That should say on it when I arrived.’
‘I’ll get them for you,’ my dad says.
‘Wait, I’ll come with you. The parking fine might be evidence if someone took it out of the bag and touched it.’ PC Barnes stands. My dad grabs the keys from the table and pops the door on the latch as they both head out.
PC Bickerford takes a swig of the coffee. ‘Your dad makes a grand coffee.’
As I wait for them to come back, I listen to the girls running around above us, yelling and laughing. If only my life was as fun and simple as theirs.
‘How old are they?’
‘Four and five.’
‘I have a five-year-old. Lovely age.’ The PC smiles.
The officer and my dad wipe their feet as they come back in out of the cold. PC Barnes grips the small plastic evidence bags that now contain the ticket and my fine. He then spends a couple of minutes standing under the main light scrutinising the paperwork. ‘Where did you say the message was?’
‘On the passenger window but the rain washed it away.’
He scrunches his brow. ‘There’s something half written along the bottom of the parking fine. I can make out smudged ink and the wordsstayedandlong.’
It’s a good job that I made myself remember exactly what was written. ‘It said on the window, you’ve already stayed too long. They must have written in the dirt on the window first. Realising that it would probably rain, maybe they wrote it on the fine too.’
‘Normally, when parking fines are issued they come in a little plastic bag. You’re right about that.’ PC Bickerford scrunches her brow.
‘There was definitely no bag.’ My attacker must have removed it to write the note then forgotten to put it back.
