Chapter 26
It was dark outside now and still snowing, a bitter wind stinging my face the moment I stepped outside, making me rethink my plan. All around me, the snow was piled high, fresh and white. It was far too cold to walk all the way to the village without making myself ill.
I had an idea.
I phoned Susan.
‘I know you need me to come in and make a statement, but I’m stuck with no car. Could you come and pick me up?’
‘Do you think I’m a taxi service?’
She agreed, though, and ten minutes later, she picked me up. She told me that, with no official police buildings on the peninsula, she was using the visitors’ centre as a temporary base, somewhere the crime scene investigators and detectives could work from and, if necessary, the search teams.
‘The roads still seem okay,’ I said. The surface was coated with a thin crust of compressed snow, with two lines of tyre tracks revealing the black beneath.
‘The coast road isn’t too bad,’ Susan said. ‘There’s been enough traffic all day to keep it driveable, anyway. It’s the road on to the peninsula that’s the problem. Very heavy snow across the Highlands towards Inverness.’
‘So we’re still stuck here on our own?’
She gripped the wheel hard. ‘It’s Hogmanay.
The pubs are full already, there are millions of people out drinking, and every officer who’s on duty is needed in the big towns.
It’s the worst possible day for someone to go missing.
Add the snow and you have what I believe is referred to as a perfect shitstorm.
Inverness have promised me they’ll get a team here as soon as the roads open again. ’
‘Charles and Zack have both been on the phone to the chief constable.’
‘I know they have. Demanding a fleet of snowploughs with vans full of officers behind them. I’m afraid they’re going to have to wait.’
‘Have you been looking for Jasmine?’
‘Of course I have. We have a couple of community support officers, too. We’ve all been out looking. To be honest, though, Patrick, there aren’t many places to hide around here.’
‘Does that mean you think she’s dead?’
She didn’t reply, and a minute later we arrived at the visitors’ centre. From here, it would only be a short walk to the village.
It was a squat building with a flat roof. Just beyond it stood the church and, between the two buildings, a small cemetery. Elizabeth’s grave was there somewhere, I guessed.
We went inside. The visitors’ centre was essentially a small museum, filled with exhibits that looked like they had been created by keen amateurs.
Models showing what Applecross was like in the past, an old radio, an antique fishing net and neolithic tools.
There were boards all around the walls describing the history of the peninsula, including one focused on the caves, with a large black-and-white photo of the Serpent Stone taking pride of place.
There was also a board describing how Applecross had once been a Victorian shooting estate, where the landed gentry would come to hunt and stalk deer.
I guessed that would have been part of the attraction for Charles.
‘Please take a seat.’ She was less friendly than she had been earlier. All business. She asked me to repeat everything I’d already told her, writing it down in neat, cursive script.
‘So you haven’t remembered anything else since we spoke at the caves?’
‘Like what?’
‘I’m talking about before the incident. Anything solid that would back up your accusations.’
I shook my head. ‘Miranda denies having that conversation with Lewis. Says I must have misheard. She’s lying. I didn’t mishear, and I didn’t imagine it either. I’m certain Lewis was planning to murder Jasmine and she must have got the better of him. She has to be hiding somewhere, scared.’
‘Or she’s gone.’
‘What do you mean, gone? Wait. Do you think she’s left the peninsula?’
‘I think that is a very strong possibility. We have to be open to all theories, but perhaps she hitched a ride. A passing motorist, a farmer, someone heading out of Applecross who won’t be aware yet that they might have given a lift to a missing woman.’
It seemed plausible. If Jasmine had accidentally killed Lewis, if it had been self-defence, she might have panicked and decided to flee. If he’d tried to kill her, she might be afraid of all the Grants and wanted to get as far away from them as possible.
‘Or maybe she had someone waiting to pick her up,’ Susan said. ‘Someone helping her.’
‘You think this might have been premeditated? That she was planning to murder Lewis?’
‘Right now, I’m keeping an open mind.’
‘But who would be helping her? She didn’t know anyone here.’
‘The two of you seemed very pally when you came to my house.’
I stared at her, open-mouthed.
‘Wait. You don’t think I helped her kill Lewis, do you?’
‘It’s possible, isn’t it?’ she said coolly. ‘Or perhaps the three of you went to the caves together.’
‘No. I was with Holly.’
‘Your girlfriend. Not a reliable witness. But even if that’s true, you already told me you went to the caves on your own. Perhaps it was you who was waiting for her to leave the caves so you could drive her somewhere. Then you came back and pretended to find Lewis.’
‘Oh, right, so I jumped into the water and almost killed myself to make my story look more plausible? Everything I’ve told you is the truth.’
‘Hmm.’ She slid the sheet of paper across to me and asked me to read and sign it. I hesitated before reading through it carefully, ensuring it was an accurate reflection of what I’d told her, not something that would be used to incriminate me.
‘I can’t believe you suspect me,’ I said, after signing it.
‘Like I said, I’m trying to keep an open mind. I assume you do the same with your films?’
‘Of course. But I have no idea where Jasmine is. I wish I did. You’re right – I like her. I don’t want anything bad to happen to her. But I wasn’t in cahoots with her.’
‘The detectives will want to talk to you when they get here. Do you need me to give you a lift home?’
‘No, I don’t. I’m going into the village, to help search for Jasmine.’
I stepped out into the icy wind, setting off down the hill towards the bay in the dark.
By the time I reached the Bay Inn I was shivering.
Opening the door, I was hit by a wall of heat and noise, warm bodies and the roaring fire.
Music and voices and the clink of glasses.
It was seven thirty and heaving in here already, with people standing shoulder to shoulder, creating a wall of noise.
I took a moment to enjoy the warmth, then pushed my way through the crowd to get to the bar, where I found Brenda, pulling a pint for a customer whose red nose and glassy look told me he’d started early.
Everyone in the pub seemed excited and jolly.
There was certainly no sign that Applecross was rocked by grief or even concern.
Brenda, though, seemed surprised to see me.
‘Is it true what they’re saying? You found him? Lewis?’
I didn’t want to have to go through the whole thing again, but nodded. ‘Have you heard anything? About Jasmine?’
‘Only that no bugger knows where she is.’ She closed her eyes for a moment, and I wondered if she was thinking about her son, Jimmy, on the nineteenth anniversary of his death.
For the first time, I noticed a framed photo behind the bar of two teenagers.
One was Morag, in her full emo gear, thick eyeliner and a black military-style jacket, and next to her was a boy who looked a little older.
Leather biker’s jacket, long hair, sharp cheekbones.
I still wasn’t sure if he and Holly had been an item, but I wouldn’t have blamed her.
He had that bad-boy rock-star thing about him.
When she opened her eyes again, she surprised me by saying, ‘Did you see Avril on your way in? That girl is going to be the death of me.’
‘No. Why, what’s wrong?’
‘The daft lassie has been crying her wee heart out over Lewis. I keep telling her, it’s no loss. He wasn’t interested in you when he was alive. Why should you care now he’s dead?’
‘I’m sorry, but you’ve lost me.’
She ignored the man who was trying to get served, waving a ten-pound note in her face. ‘Are you saying they haven’t told you? Not even Holly?’
‘Haven’t told me what?’
‘Lewis was Avril’s dad.’
I was stunned, but immediately went on to think, Of course. That explained the conversation I’d overheard outside the house, when Avril had told Lewis she hated him.
‘He got her up the duff that Hogmanay. The same night my Jimmy died.’ There was a mixture of grief and anger in her eyes.
Another realization hit me. ‘That’s why they pay Morag so much for housekeeping. It’s actually child support.’
‘Aye. In disguise. He’s never publicly admitted it, but Morag told me it was him straight away and I went to Charles to demand that we do a deal. He wasn’t going to leave my daughter bringing up his son’s wee bastard without getting paid.’
There was a coldness in her voice now.
‘Lewis didn’t want to be involved in Avril’s life?’
‘Did he hell. And to be honest, I was glad. The Grants are poison. I’m guessing you don’t know about the arts centre?’
Charles had mentioned this earlier, but I had no idea what it was.
Brenda didn’t let me speak. ‘No one has told you about the promises they made.’ She snapped at the man still waving the tenner at her. ‘Is your mouth on fire? No? Then you can wait.’
He stopped waving the tenner.
Brenda spoke to me again. ‘Lewis was not a good man. None of them are. I’m on the verge of flinging those two out.’
Not understanding what she meant, I followed her gaze to the other side of the pub, where a group of people were standing with their backs to us. Among them were Charles and Zack.
‘The devil himself,’ she said. ‘And his pet imp.’ She finally turned to the man she’d admonished and asked him what he wanted to drink.