Chapter Sixteen #2
‘Yeah, they weren’t in the pub when I got there, so I saw them at home.
There are a couple of semi-detached cottages on the road out towards Torr.
They live there, rent them from the Brennans at Millscombe Farm.
Billy has never married and Joe’s a widower.
They both used to work for Brennan’s dad, and Bob let them stay on when they retired.
He doesn’t need labourers any more. He and Jake can cope on their own.
’ Ross took a breath. ‘They gossip like old biddies and if they’d had their way, I’d still be there. ’
‘You spoke to them together?’
Ross nodded. ‘It made sense. Saved a bit of time and having to duplicate the questions. Besides, I’d phoned to arrange a visit, and they were all set up for me.
Billy was hosting and the kettle was already on.
Me turning up was the most exciting thing that had happened to them in years. There were even chocolate biscuits.’
Jen could picture the scene. The two men, curious, enjoying the attention. She wished she’d been there.
‘But did they have anything useful to say?’ Matthew Venn was keeping the meeting on track.
‘A bit. All very subjective. There was a bit of resentment when Tide House was sold to yet another Londoner. A local GP who practised in Torr had lived there with his family until he’d retired to the south of France.
They would have liked someone there full time.
’ Ross broadened his accent and mimicked one of the men: ‘“A great pile like that, empty for most of the year. It’s a sin.” But they took to Armstrong when they met him.
I think he bought them a pint whenever he saw them in the pub. ’
‘One way of keeping the locals on side.’ Jen thought it would have worked for her.
‘Anything else?’
‘Seems Jim Hooper has a bit of a temper.’ Ross stopped, a dramatic pause, to make sure the room realized he was about to pass on important information. ‘According to Billy and Joe, Hooper had a row with Hannah and Lottie on Friday night.’
‘The same day that they arrived in Millscombe?’ Jen thought that might explain Mag Hooper’s attempt to keep the police sweet, and Jim’s hostility. She’d want to make light of the incident and perhaps for him, it still rankled.
Ross nodded. ‘The girls went into the pub, all dressed to the nines, and asked for drinks. Jim was behind the bar, asked for their ID and they were both seventeen, so he refused to serve them with alcohol. Apparently, Lottie got lippy, and Jim threw them out. He threatened to tell Hannah’s parents.
According to the guys, Hannah was mortified, but Lottie flounced away, making a scene, enjoying the drama. ’
‘I can’t imagine Jim Hooper killing them a couple of days later for making a scene in the pub,’ Venn said. ‘He was following the law. Nothing else he could have done once he knew how old they were.’
‘It confirms the impression we have of Lottie, though, doesn’t it?’ Jen was remembering the first conversation she’d had with Cath. ‘That she was entitled and spoiled. Not someone who believed that the rules applied to her. Not thinking that Hooper would ask her age.’
Venn nodded. ‘Why did Hannah go along with it? She spent more time here and had more to lose.’
‘Because Lottie was the more forceful character? Because Hannah wanted to let loose before her parents came down with the kids? Or didn’t want to lose face in front of her mate?’ Jen had a thought. ‘Was Jake there too?’
Ross shook his head. ‘Apparently it was early. There were only a few people in the bar.’
‘Something and nothing then,’ Venn said. ‘The girls pushing their luck and Hooper overreacting.’
Jen still thought she’d like to know more about the incident and decided she’d ask Mag Hooper about it when she next saw her.
‘Did you get anything more about the Hoopers? Like I said, it seems an odd kind of relationship. And it’s a bit daft Jim Hooper being so anti-incomer when he makes his living out of the tourists. That place wouldn’t survive without them.’
‘I don’t think he minds the holidaymakers,’ Ross said.
‘According to the old guys, it’s the second homers he can’t stand.
People like the Armstrongs, pushing up prices.
They said it was a political thing too. He’s always moaning about the government apparently.
Business rates. The minimum wage. In the winter, a gaggle of small businesspeople meet in the bar, planning to get some of their own onto the council. ’
‘Is Bob Brennan involved?’ Venn asked. ‘I can’t imagine it. There’s more of the ageing hippy about him.’
Ross shook his head. ‘They say not. Just Jim and a bunch of suits from Torr.’
‘Suits?’
‘That’s how they described them.’
It would be an odd mix, Jen thought. Jim Hooper with his tattoos and his belly mixing with the Torr business and professional classes. ‘Any names?’
Ross shook his head. ‘Sorry, I didn’t ask. It didn’t seem important if they only meet in the winter.’
That was a first too. Ross admitting he might have missed something.
‘And Mag?’ Jen found it hard to imagine the woman plotting a revolution against anything. She was far too eager to please.
‘Apparently, she makes sure she’s out on those nights. She wants nothing to do with it.’
‘But it’s still a happy marriage?’
There was a moment of silence before Venn joined in the conversation. ‘Ah, who can judge what goes on in another couple’s marriage?’
He moved on to talk to the CSIs and Sal Pengelly. The CSIs had found no evidence linking anyone specific to either murder scene.
‘We should be clear by the end of tomorrow, but don’t hold your breath.’
Sal was at the briefing and repeated the information she’d already passed on to Venn. ‘Lottie drowned. She’d been drinking heavily, and we have evidence of illegal drug use. She wasn’t dead when she went into the pool.’
‘So, if someone had fished her out, she’d still be alive?’
‘Perhaps.’ Pengelly wasn’t prepared to commit herself. ‘We’re doing the post-mortem on Hannah tomorrow, though the cause of death in that case seems less complicated.’
The room fell suddenly quiet, everyone hit at the same time by the appalling tragedy of the case, the reality of two young women murdered.
Venn allowed the silence to hang for a moment, before deciding on actions for the following day.
‘Jen, can you have a proper talk to Daniel, the barman. He might have been the last person to have seen Lottie alive.’
‘Sure.’
‘Arrange to see him at home in Torr. He’s an adult, but you might want to meet his parents.
’ Venn paused. ‘Ross, let’s put a real effort into tracking down the Kinzalows, shall we?
They know more than they’ve let on so far.
They lit the log burner in their glamping pod and I’m not quite sure why.
Not in this weather. Unless they were burning paper that they didn’t want us to find.
I fished out this bit of card from the ash.
An invitation?’ He pressed a button on his laptop and the image was flashed onto the white board. ‘Any thoughts?’
There was no response in the room, and Venn closed the meeting.
* * *
Back in her cottage, Jen started preparing supper and opened a bottle of supermarket red wine.
She was still moved by the response of the meeting to the girls’ deaths.
It was so easy when they were all so wrapped up in an investigation to forget the impact of the tragedy on the victims’ friends and family.
Ben emerged from his room to eat with her. She poured him a glass of wine and hugged him before they sat down at the table. Later, she tried to video call Ella, but there was no reply.