By the time they had reached the highest point above the valley, Kotsev was sweating and breathing deeply to calm himself. This was the point on the journey where the cars slowed down and hung stationary for a minute or two, high above the valley floor.
‘Are we broken?’ said Kotsev nervously. ‘Do we need rescue?’
But then the wheels whirred again, and the cars approached Masson Hill through an avenue of trees as the cable passed over the first gantry. From there, it was an easy coast in, past the base of the stone tower to the hilltop station.
‘You can look now,’ said Cooper.
Kotsev took his hand away and opened his eyes. ‘Yes, OK. It was a little too high.’
Fry found Jed Skinner in the garage at the distribution centre outside Edendale, where he worked as a mechanic. He was wearing disposable gloves like a scenes of crime officer as he worked on the engine of a large van. No more dirty rags and oily hands for car mechanics these days, then. Gavin Murfin had been exaggerating.
‘Do you happen to know where your friend Brian Mullen is right now?’ asked Fry when they’d taken him into the supervisor’s office.
‘He’s staying with his parents-in-law. They live at Darley Dale.’
‘He’s not there any more.’
‘Oh?’
‘When were you last in contact with him?’
‘Yesterday. They wouldn’t let me visit him while he was in hospital, but Brian rang me yesterday afternoon to say he was out. He was pretty fed up, so I went to see him in the evening.’
‘At Darley Dale?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did he say anything to you about leaving to stay somewhere else?’
‘No, not a thing.’
‘You live at Lowbridge, don’t you, Mr Skinner?’
‘Yes, but you won’t find Brian there. He could have come and stayed with me, if he’d asked, because we’re mates. But he didn’t ask.’
‘All right.’
‘Phone my wife if you don’t believe me.’
‘We might do that,’ said Fry.
Skinner gazed out of the window of the office at a truck being backed out, its reversing alarm echoing inside the garage.
‘Has Brian got the baby with him? Luanne?’ he said.
‘We believe so, sir.’
‘Shit. I hope you find them.’
‘So do we.’ Fry paused. ‘Speaking of Luanne, we know about the adoption. Mr Mullen’s father-in-law has explained to us that Brian and Lindsay couldn’t have any more children, because Brian was infertile after a bout of mumps.’
‘Mumps?’ said Skinner. ‘Is that what he told you?’
‘Certainly. He said the illness caused physical damage that made Brian become infertile.’
‘Well, it’s not what Brian told me at the time. Mumps had nothing to do with it.’
‘So what was it, then?’
‘STD.’
‘A sexually transmitted disease?’
‘That’s right. I can’t remember the exact name, though. Something with “clam” in it.’
‘Do you mean chlamydia?’
‘Yes, that’s what Brian had. And it wasn’t the first time, either. Chlamydia was what caused the damage. He told me all about it. If you get it too often, it causes scarring and blocks the — you know, the passage.’
Fry stared at him, her mind adjusting to a series of new possibilities. ‘Not mumps?’
‘I wonder if mumps was what he told his in-laws,’ said Skinner. ‘I met Henry Lowther once. He’s the sort of bloke who likes everything to seem right and proper. Even his son-in-law — since he’s stuck with him.’
‘Does Brian not get on with the Lowthers?’
‘Well, you know what it’s like. He wasn’t really good enough for their daughter from the start. They’d have preferred Lindsay to marry someone loaded. A step up on the social scale, if you know what I mean. Not a few steps down, like Brian.’
‘Mr Skinner, were you aware of any problems in the Mullens’ marriage? Was there any trouble between Brian and Lindsay?’
‘Trouble? Why should there be?’
‘Well, for a start, I presume Lindsay knew about the chlamydia? That would make quite a difference to their relationship, I think.’
The idea seemed to strike Skinner for the first time. ‘You think she might have blamed Brian for the fact that they couldn’t have another child naturally? Lindsay really, really wanted a daughter, you know.’
‘Yes, I know that.’
Skinner nodded. ‘That would make her a bit upset with him, I suppose.’
‘Well, yes,’ said Fry. ‘And there are other things that might have upset her, too — like where her husband picked up an STD in the first place.’
‘Hey, you’re right. I imagine there were a few words exchanged.’
‘But Brian never mentioned anything like that to you?’
‘Do you know, there were times when he was a bit pissed off, and I reckoned he might have had problems at home. But he never explained why — we didn’t talk about things like that.’
Fry cursed to herself as she left Jed Skinner and got back in the car. Male friends, what a waste of time. To learn anything about the state of the Mullens’ marriage, she needed to talk to Lindsay’s mother. But she didn’t give much for her chances of getting information out of Mrs Lowther right now.
With a frown, Fry turned to her notes from the interviews with Brian Mullen, seeking the smallest clue. After a few minutes, she picked up the phone and called Cooper.
When his phone rang, Cooper was standing by the lid of a shaft into the hillside that had been sealed by a steel grille. A bush rustled, showering drops of moisture, and a small, grey shape slipped along a branch, stopping to pull off the berries.
‘Ben, what are these illuminations that Brian Mullen mentioned?’
‘Illuminations?’
‘I’m sure he said they were in Matlock Bath. The only illuminations I know of are in Blackpool.’
‘Well, they’re not quite the same. In Matlock Bath, there are some lights along the promenade and across the river, but when people talk about the illuminations they mean the parade of boats.’
‘Boats?’
‘They create designs out of lights and mount them on rowing boats. Then they parade up the river — when it’s dark, of course. So what you see isn’t the boat but something like, say … an illuminated London bus floating on the water. There’s other stuff, too — fireworks, entertainment. You can see it all from the pleasure grounds in Derwent Gardens.’
‘OK. So when does this happen?’
‘September and October, but only at weekends. They call them Venetian Nights. I don’t know why, it must be something to do with the boats. But they always attract big crowds. Why, what are you thinking?’
‘Brian Mullen. When I interviewed him in hospital, he said that he and Lindsay had promised to take Luanne and the other children to see the illuminations in Matlock Bath. It was supposed to be a special treat.’
‘Yes, but surely he’d have more sense than to …’
Cooper stopped speaking, and Fry laughed. ‘What was it you were saying earlier, Ben? About people acting in an irrational way?’
‘Emotions interfere with rational behaviour.’
‘That was it.’
