OS:Well, I said hello and she didn’t say hello back. She didn’t even look at me, just carried on running up that hill, like Kate bleedin’ Bush. I thought it was rude at first, but my eyes aren’t great these days, she might have been listening to music or something. Sometimes young’uns have those white things in their ears nowadays, don’t they. Looks like they’re talking to themselves when they’re not. Perhaps she didn’t hear me.
LC:Did she see you?
OS:I don’t know. She seemed to be in a hurry.
LC:And, just to be clear, you didn’t see her jump?
OS:How many times? I told you already. Are you not listening? I didn’t see her jump, but she was running toward the waterfall when I passed her. And when I turned back, I couldn’t see her on the coast path. As you know, that stretch of path is straight, you can see for miles, and I couldn’t see her at all. It was like she just vanished. Make of that what you will. Can I go now?
LC:Soon. I just need to—
OS:Christ on a bike. If you want to know more about what happened, why don’t you ask the other woman?
LC:Other woman?
OS:Is there an echo in here or do you have cloth ears? I told you there was another woman who ran up the hill after her. She is far more likely to have seen what happened than me. Why don’t you go and bother her instead?
46BIRDY
Whenever I think I’ve got my ducks in a row one of them fucking flies off.
It was like someone had punched me in the chest when Carter’s sister said he was married. For a moment it felt like I couldn’t breathe. I tried to hide it as best I could, made my excuses, then hurried up to my room. I feel like a fool. I try to distract myself by reading the transcript of Carter’s interview with Old Stu the dog walker, but it feels like an additional kick in the tits. Why didn’t Carter tell me that another woman was seen chasing Eden Fox up the hill?
Carter has been lying to me.
About himself and the investigation.
I can understand him not wanting me to know he was married—cheating little shit—but keeping important information from me when a woman is missing, suspected dead, is not okay. And it doesn’t make sense.
Why would he do that?
I’m absofuckinglutely furious, but fury has always made me productive.
I need to speak to Old Stu myself.
It doesn’t take me long to find out where he lives. Everyone seemsto know everyone and everything about each other in this village. Or at least they think they do. I have always preferred keeping a low profile, but that’s proving tricky in a place like this. I head up the hill until I reach a thatched cottage with a black door.
“Who is it?” shouts a voice inside when I ring the bell.
I don’t answer. Instead I just wait. Eventually the door opens and a short, angry-looking man appears behind it. He has long white hair and bushy white eyebrows.Gruffis the first word that springs to mind.
“What do you want?” he growls.
Right now I’d settle for the truth.
Despite being in his seventies, Old Stu is dressed like a surfer dude. He is not what I was expecting, and is clearly not interested in talking to people unless he has to. I take out my badge. “What are you showing me that for? I already told Carter everything I know,” he says, starting to close the door.
“I appreciate that, Mr.—”
“Everyone calls me Old Stu.”
“But your full name is Stu Cummins. Is that right?”
He narrows his eyes and raises one of his old-man brows. “How do you know that?”
“I know a lot of things. I wonder if I could come inside? It won’t take long.”
His fluffy white brows knit themselves into a frown, but I’m already through the door. The house smells of wet dog and burnt toast. I linger in the hallway, not wishing to intrude any more than I have to.
