Chapter Thirty-One #2
Another nod. ‘She just told him to fuck off or she’d tell everyone he was a sexual predator.’ Karen gave a little wince. Swearing didn’t come easily to her.
‘So, on the Saturday night, you both went to Tide House in the hope of getting the girls together. Your car was seen in the drive.’
Because who else was driving a car like the one seen by Daniel Miller when the girls were skinny-dipping?
‘You seem remarkably good at your job, Inspector. I wish you’d been working for the Met when Elizabeth fell that night.’ Her tone was dry.
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘The girls were swimming in the pool. They had no clothes on. Can you imagine what Lottie could have done on social media if we’d approached them when they were in that state?
They hadn’t seen or heard the car. They had music blaring.
We backed up the drive and drove back to the farm.
’ There was a pause. She turned her head to look out of the window, though there was nothing to see but sunlight bouncing off concrete.
‘Geoff was ready to give up then, to drive straight home that night, but I said we should give it a few more days. I was hoping to catch Hannah on her own.’
‘And did you?’
She shook her head. ‘The following day, she always seemed to be with Jake Brennan. They were stuck together like glue. Even when we were invited into the farmhouse for that party on Sunday evening, the pair of them disappeared into his room.’
‘You didn’t see her early on Monday morning?’
‘No! We hadn’t moved from our pod before you came to talk to Jake. We didn’t know then that the girls were dead.’
There was another silence. Venn was going to release her. She had ample motive, but motive wasn’t enough to hold her, and she’d come here of her own will. Then he remembered the piece of card he’d found, charred, in the pod’s wood-burning stove.
‘We looked round your accommodation in Millscombe once you’d left,’ he said. ‘You’d used the stove, despite the heat. Why was that?’
He thought Karen might refuse to answer, but it seemed she’d decided on honesty now.
‘The three girls had formed a kind of secret club,’ she said.
‘They called themselves the Three Furies. Of course, Lottie was the leader. The queen bee. You’d have thought all their communications would be by text or email, but she sent or handed out postcards to arrange their meetings.
A kind of affectation, fancy printing. But childish too, I thought.
Lottie C demands your presence at … Alcoholic beverage required.
The others were expected to RSVP. I had the card calling Elizabeth to their spot on the Heath that night.
I found it in her room after the accident.
I wasn’t stupid. I could see that Geoff and I would be considered suspects after the murder.
So, I burned it. That was hard. It reminded me of how Elizabeth had been before she fell. Full of life and mischief and fun.’
Venn thought he’d have to let her go back to her husband. He couldn’t see how Karen could be a killer. He didn’t sense any desire for revenge, just a desperate longing for knowledge.
Geoff Kinzalow was a different matter, though. Venn had hardly spoken to him, had no sense about how he was feeling about his daughter’s accident and what he might be capable of.
‘I need to talk to your husband.’ A pause. ‘I could come now, if that would be convenient?’
‘Oh no! I’ll need to warn him, to explain that I came here to talk to you.
’ She seemed horrified. He wondered if she was scared of the man.
Or scared of what he might have done. He couldn’t picture her as a killer, but he could imagine her protecting her husband if he’d taken revenge on behalf of them both.
He was about to insist when she continued talking. ‘He’s no good at surprises. If you come now, he’ll just clam up.’
‘Very early tomorrow morning then.’ Because later in the day, I have to drive to Cornwall to meet my husband’s birth mother. Since speaking to his own mother, that seemed more important.
‘As early as you like,’ she said. ‘And I promise we’ll still be there. We’ve done enough running.’ She gave him the details of their accommodation. It was a tiny cottage, it seemed. They’d come across it by chance.
Venn stood up. ‘If you’re not there, I promise we will track you down.’ His voice was light, as if it was almost a joke, but she understood that he meant every word.
She stood too. She was hardly more than a silhouette with the sunlight behind her.
‘We’ll be waiting, Inspector. I told you we’re giving up the fight.
It was dragging us down. I thought Cath Armstrong might have information for us.
That was why we tried to speak to her in Torr.
We knew Paul wouldn’t help. He only cares about his career.
But we’re going back to London and taking a flight home to Washington on Monday.
Our place is with our girls. This was a kind of madness.
’ She stood very still, staring out at the room.
‘It’s your fight now, Inspector. Three girls’ lives have been cut short.
I think you’ll get to the bottom of it. I’d be grateful if you’d tell us when you know. ’
He moved aside to let her out of the room. With her back very straight she walked ahead of him. Leaving him with a challenge he didn’t feel able to meet.