‘I don’t trust any of these people. I’ll be watching you like a hawk. Don’t forget whoever broke into your house and hurt your dad work for the same people. Has it crossed your mind that they could have planted the stories by the podcaster, what was his name?’
‘Joe Folly, the conspiracy theorist?’
‘Him. He could be a plant. A very convenient one who just so happened to be in the area podcasting when an important drug rep jumped off a banister.’
She glared at him. He’d grown in confidence since they’d split up and she liked it. He made her laugh. He was less uptight too. It was as if he tried less hard to please her and in doing so, was more natural at it. His openness was welcome whether they were together or not. Too many exes fought against one another, and it was only ever the kids who suffered. If they could get along like this for Lizzie, she had no complaints.
But he’d also hit a raw nerve. Because Joe Folly – or Greg Minda – had been an imposter at the conference and easily could have been planted there. She didn’t know one way or the other.
‘Maybe that’s what’s bugging you,’ he said. ‘When people don’t behave how they say they’re going to. Has he made a fuss of Jamie’s death on social media? Has he sounded the alarm?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘He’s gone to ground here in the Lakes.’
‘He’s here?’
‘Yes. He was Angelina’s lover, we think.’
‘Well then it’s obvious he’s the other one meeting you. The scientist wants out and he’s her ticket. You’re the rubber stamp.’
It irritated Kelly how straightforward men were. Johnny thought in such a linear fashion. They were black and white. No mushy in-between with emotional baggage to consider. But she had to admit he had a point.
Johnny raised his eyebrows as they got their things out of the car.
‘And he was at the hotel, what, just by accident? Why did he hang around? Who else was he meeting there?’
Kelly thought in silence. She’d missed Johnny’s analytical brain. And he was right. She’d assumed Joe Folly was a good guy and had been sucked in, but was that a mistake? Just because he’d fooled Angelina and they looked good in a photo on her fridge. But maybe he was a bad guy.
‘I’ll hang back and pretend to be a tourist,’ he told her.
She looked at her watch. It was ten minutes before 2 p.m.
She walked ahead and Johnny hung back.
Up ahead, groups of walkers chatted and spread across the path.
Kelly peered through the trees and saw Heron Hall from the path. She imagined Sandy coming up here with both Lee and Jamie and she wanted to know why this place was so special to them. Was it a hiding place for something? Was it something else? Was it a trap? And why had Angelina loved it so much?
A few people stared at her attire, but people hiked up here in all sorts of gear. She wore comfortable trousers and a thin top.She left her lanyard in the car, but she had no backpack. She and Johnny were used to the fells, and they knew where to stop for fresh spring water. She marched ahead and ignored everyone else, knowing Johnny had her back.
When Kelly arrived at the opening to the cave, there was a queue of people trying to get in to take photos. She peeked in and shaded her eyes. The entrance was just like Angelina’s painting. The two boulders stood like guardsmen welcoming them in under their watch. Then the five stepping stones led away from the sunlight towards the back of the cavern. And she spotted the rock on its own, proudly dominating the area under one of the magnificent arches. An order started to form in her head, and she found herself immersed in the arrangement of the visuals. Angelina had created a code.
Kelly opened an email on her phone from Emma, just before she entered the cave, before she lost all Wi-Fi. Her internet was still working but it whirred a little as it struggled to connect with whatever mast was powering this side of Loughrigg.
A visual of Paul Burlington wandering around almost naked and raving caught her attention, and she wondered if he’d been taking drugs, or, as Lee Lovett insinuated, there was more to it. Until she had permission to enter the grounds of Hampton-Dent property, or the basis to arrest any of them, they’d remain safe and hidden away in their ivory tower, and she’d be unable to interview any of them under caution, and Kelly knew that was their intention all along.
There was no sign of Sandy.
She found the email she was looking for and it was an attachment of Angelina’s bank account, the one which had received hefty sums from companies associated with Hank Hampton.
The numbers sat latent in her memory bank for this exact moment.
The sort code of the bank account caught her eye. 43-62-51.
Rearranged, that was 123456.
She checked the paintings again, but this time looked at them in the order of 43-62-51. It made sense in that order. It was a journey from Skelwith to here. It started with the four flagstones on the floor of room 13, then the three keystones in front of the carriage travelling across Skelwith Bridge, then the six stones across the roadway of the bridge itself, then the two boulders guarding the entrance to the cave, followed by the five stepping stones, finishing with the single rock, at the wall of the cave. She stared into the darkness at the lone rock.
A child’s shriek surprised her, and she turned to see Joe Folly at the entrance staring at her.
