Chapter 45
Interviewer: Sergeant Luke Carter (LC)
Interviewee: Old Stu (OS)
Location: Hope Falls police station
LC: Can I get your name for the recording, please?
OS: You know my name.
LC: It’s just for the tape.
OS: Stu.
LC: Your full name, sir.
OS: Old Stu.
LC: Got it. So you were walking your dog when you saw her?
OS: Yes. I told you that already. And I really ought to be heading home, Tilly will be wanting breakfast.
LC: Tilly?
OS: My dog.
LC: Right, of course. This won’t take long. Tell me about the woman that you saw running up the hill on the coast path. What was she wearing? Where was she going? Did you recognize her?
OS: No, I didn’t recognize her.
LC: You didn’t see her at the art gallery the night before?
OS: What would I be doing going to an art gallery? And why would I be buying paintings of the sea when I can look out of my bleedin’ window and see the real thing? Besides, Tilly doesn’t like being left alone. Is this going to take much longer?
LC: I just need to know what you remember about what you saw.
OS: I remember everything. I’m old, not senile. And don’t be backchatting to me, Luke Carter. I’ve known you since you were shitting your nappy. I saw a woman. She was running toward the suicide spot at the crack of dawn. She looked upset. When I walked back up the hill she was gone.
LC: But you didn’t see her jump?
OS: No.
LC: In what way did she look upset?
OS: She’d been crying—nose as red as Rudolph’s—and she was distracted.
LC: What makes you say that?
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?