Chapter 46
BIRDY
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 seems to 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. Gruff is 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.
“I know you have spoken to Sergeant Carter, but I’d like to ask you a few questions myself. Sometimes people remember things differently once a little time has passed. Especially when a crime might have taken place.”
“Are you suggesting I’m a few sandwiches short of a picnic?”
I smile. “Not at all. The same rules apply to everyone. Almost all witnesses are unreliable and they sometimes remember something they forgot to mention the first time or didn’t think was relevant when we ask them again.”
“Fine. Hope you don’t mind dogs.”
I like them far more than I like people, so no worries there.
As though on cue a sausage dog and a Labrador come into the hallway to sniff and greet me.
A pug follows close behind and I wonder how many dogs there can be in such a tiny house.
I politely refuse the half-hearted offer of tea, I just want to be sure of what this man did and didn’t see.
The answers he gives me are very similar to the answers he gave Carter, but what I’m most interested in is the other woman he thinks he saw.
“What other woman?” he asks, staring over my shoulder at the muted TV in the living room behind me. I get the impression I might be keeping him from his favorite show.
“When you spoke to Sergeant Carter you said you saw another woman, running up the hill after the first one.”
“No, I never.”
“You didn’t see a second woman? Or you didn’t tell him that you did?”
“You’re making my head hurt speaking in riddles.
I saw a woman, just the one, running up the hill toward the suicide spot.
How many times do I have to tell you people the same thing?
Carter has always been a scobberlotcher.
Back in my day police officers wrote things down and remembered what you told them.
Not anymore. Now there are two of you asking the same bloody questions and still getting everything I say wrong. Have you got cloth ears too?”
I leave feeling even more confused than before.
Did Old Stu forget what he saw?
Or did Carter make up what he said in the transcript?