Chapter Sixteen
JEN DROVE ROSS BACK TO MILLSCOMBE in the pool car. He’d tracked down the place where the Kinzalows had been staying in Torr before they moved to the farm.
‘A lovely guest house,’ he said. ‘More like a boutique hotel. Why would anyone want to camp out in a field when you could stay in a place like that? They said the Kinzalows were perfect visitors.’
Jen dropped him at the pub. Even if the two elderly drinkers weren’t there – and they probably would be because it seemed like a second home – Mag would know where they lived.
‘What do you want from them?’ Ross was halfway out of the car when he asked the question.
‘Probably just gossip, but they’re always around, aren’t they?
We need to consider them as potential suspects too.
But really, I want to know more about Jim and Mag Hooper.
They seem like an odd couple. He’s always angry and she seems friendly and helpful.
She was a social worker, seems sympathetic.
Maybe Hannah confided in her sometimes.’ A pause. ‘Be like the boss. Let them talk.’
She drove home then, arriving at the same time as Ben, her youngest. He’d grown up a bit since Ella had left home for university. He wasn’t quite so sullen or uncommunicative. He even looked almost pleased to see her, though the first, inevitable words were, ‘What’s for tea?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go back to the station for a briefing at six. We could eat together after that.’
‘I’m not sure that I can wait that long. I’m starving.’ That, at least, hadn’t changed.
‘There’s cake to keep you going. Vanessa brought some last week.
’ Vanessa was her fancy friend, who didn’t need to work after her lucrative divorce.
She was a magistrate, but that didn’t take up all her time – she went through phased passions, and her latest was baking.
Jen was feeling the benefit and hoped it would last a bit longer than the other brief obsessions.
She fished in the freezer and found a steak pie, another of Vanessa’s creations. They could have that with oven chips and peas when she got home.
They sat in the garden to drink tea and eat cake.
A brief pause in a hectic week. Jen lived in a narrow, terraced cottage, off a busy street, just outside Barnstaple town centre.
The garden was long and thin, and usually left to itself, unless Vanessa came in and it became one of her projects.
A narrow path led to a back gate in a high wall and on to Jen’s parking spot.
There was no space for a lawn, and Jen wouldn’t have had time to cut grass, but it was green with fruit bushes and shrubs and herbs in pots.
Now that it hadn’t rained for weeks, she did enjoy watering it, and most evenings she would go out with a hose. A last moment of peace before bed.
There was a rickety wooden table that needed a coat of varnish to stop it rotting away, and a couple of old wooden kitchen chairs.
They sat on a patch of terrace, just big enough to hold them in the shade of a damson tree.
Ben stopped with Jen long enough to eat two slices of apple cake and to give her a few details from his day.
Then he sloped off to his room. Homework, he said, but she didn’t believe it for a minute. He’d be gaming with his friends.
She called after him: ‘Dinner at about eight.’
He waved but didn’t even turn round.
Jen cleared the table and put the cake back into its tin. She’d have to phone Vanessa, maybe arrange a coffee in the Woodyard once this case was over. This cake wouldn’t last very long.
When she arrived at the police station, Venn was already in the briefing room. Jen called across to him.
‘You got my text? I saw the Kinzalows in Torr, but they disappeared before I could speak to them.’
He frowned. ‘Did they see you?’
‘Yeah, sorry, I think they did. I was sitting outside that greasy spoon at the harbour when they walked past.’ Jen hesitated, picturing the moment.
‘I don’t think they realized I’d seen them, though.
I didn’t shout out or make any kind of scene.
’ And I had a mouthful of sausage sandwich.
‘They turned a corner then, into one of those narrow streets that lead up from the waterfront. By the time I’d gone after them they’d disappeared. ’
‘There are lots of holiday rentals there.’ Ross had wandered in. ‘They could have gone into one of those. The place where they’d been staying before was booked up. If they’d looked online, they’d have seen it had no vacancies.’
‘Could they be in Torr to look for the Armstrongs? It seems a coincidence that they left Millscombe at the same time as the family moved out of Tide House.’
‘I find it hard to imagine them as stalkers,’ Venn said. ‘But it’s a coincidence all the same and it’s certainly worth checking out tomorrow. And I’m glad you didn’t make a scene, Jen. We don’t want to frighten them back to the US. We’d have no chance of talking to them then.’
The room had filled up now and Venn moved to the front and called the briefing to order.
Jen sat at a desk not far away. Venn was always efficient in these meetings, straight to the point; he allowed no chat.
She should be home in time to have dinner with Ben.
He’d want to take a piled plate back to his room and his computer, but she’d insist that they eat together.
Venn had started speaking and she dragged her attention back to the room in time to hear a question directed at her.
‘You spoke to Cath Armstrong and Elaine Cauldwell about the Kinzalows. What did you gain from the conversation?’
Jen thought for a moment and tried to find a way to put her impression of the women into words.
‘I don’t think Cath and Elaine are close.
They move in different circles and they’re quite different personalities.
Cath’s down to earth. Loves her kids. Still engaged in her husband’s career, but I can’t see her enjoying the public role of minister’s wife.
She’s not after the celebrity. I found it easier to get a handle on her.
Elaine Cauldwell is far more complicated.
She comes across as being fragile – she admitted to taking antidepressants and she’d certainly had a few drinks when I spoke to her – though there’s something manipulative about her too.
She’s used to getting her own way. Obviously minted, but I’m not sure if that’s down to the success of her business, or if she sucked her husband dry during the divorce. ’
‘They both admitted to knowing the Kinzalows?’
‘Yes, but only after I pressed them. I don’t think either of them was telling the whole story.
Elizabeth Kinzalow was at school with the girls for a while but left before they did their A levels.
Cath said it was because the family was moving back to the States, but I had a sense that there was more to it than that.
The Kinzalows still have their London flat, after all.
I wondered if there’d been some sort of falling-out. ’
‘Not important, surely?’ Ross was dismissive. ‘When I was at school, girls were always having tiffs.’
‘I don’t know.’ Jen thought she’d been lucky.
Ella had been more interested in chemistry and physics than posting pictures of herself on Instagram.
‘Social media can be pretty toxic these days and you need to be resilient not to be affected.’ The thought reminded her of another bit of information passed across by Elaine.
‘Apparently Lottie took photos and videos during MillsFest and posted them. Her mother described them as cruel. I asked her to send them to me, but they haven’t come through yet.
’ She paused for a moment. ‘Perhaps she thought better of it once she’d sobered up. ’
Venn looked towards Vicki. ‘I spoke to Keith Cauldwell, the father, and he mentioned videos too. Can you have a shot at tracking them down? Just in case Elaine has changed her mind about passing them over.’
The woman nodded and Venn continued speaking. ‘I called into the pub and talked to Mag Hooper. She said the Kinzalows ate there twice. The first time, a week ago, they were with another woman. Mag described her as glamorous, dressed like a film star.’
‘That sounds like Elaine Cauldwell.’ It must be too much of a coincidence, Jen thought, to be anyone else. ‘But she didn’t mention it. She gave the impression that she’d never been to Millscombe before.’
‘Can we get a photo and show it to the Hoopers?’
‘Sure.’ Jen paused again for a beat. ‘There must be some further connections between those people. Something more than they’re letting on. Are we certain that Elaine Cauldwell was back in London by the time the girls were killed?’
‘According to her PA she was in her office that morning.’
Jen thought about that. ‘And we know that Hannah was still alive at five. It would be tight, but she could be back in London and in her office at opening time. She has her own driver. I’ll speak to him to confirm her movements.
I can’t imagine why she would want to kill her own daughter, but I suppose we can’t rule her out. ’
‘Can we ask the PA where Elaine was the Tuesday before the girls’ murder? That was the day Mag Hooper said the Kinzalows were eating with the guest.’
‘Of course.’
‘I want to talk to the school tomorrow,’ Venn said. ‘Try to pin down the relationship between Hannah, Lottie and the Kinzalows’ daughter. Do we have contact details?’ The question was directed at Jen.
She nodded. ‘I’ll send them across.’
Matthew turned his attention to Ross. ‘Did you speak to the older guys who Jen bumped into in the Fisherman’s Arms?’