‘Why has no one mentioned a third brother? And where is Alan now?’
‘I phoned Ned Dain while I was at the heritage centre. He was very evasive, and when I pressed him he had to go away to consult his mother. But they finally agreed that Alan Sutton just upped and left the village one day, seven or eight years ago. They reckoned he couldn’t bear living with the other two. The Dains hinted that they treated him badly.’
‘Why have they been so shifty about mentioning a third brother? They could have come straight out with that information when we first visited the Dog Inn.’
‘Yes, they could.’
‘But Dain was deliberately vague and misleading when I spoke to him,’ said Fry, starting to sound angry. ‘I know damn well he and his mother haven’t just suddenly remembered this Alan Sutton. In a place the size of Rakedale, it’s inconceivable that they wouldn’t know exactly who was in the family at Pity Wood. So what have they been trying to hide?’
‘I don’t think they’ve been trying to hide anything really,’ said Cooper. ‘I think they were protecting him, in their own way.’
‘Protecting Alan Sutton? From what? Interest by the police?’
‘Possibly. Or from being found by his brothers.’
Fry considered it, her mouth tight with irritation. ‘You think the Dains took sides in some sort of dispute between the Suttons? Maybe they know where Alan is, and they’ve made a promise not to tell anyone.’
‘It would explain their behaviour. They would have been worried that we’d go off and find him.’
‘On the other hand, they might be taking Raymond’s side.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, Raymond seems to have sold the farm without any reference to his younger brother. Shouldn’t Alan be due a share of the proceeds? But if he’s disappeared to the other side of the world and lost touch, Raymond could be hoping that he never gets to hear of the sale — or at least, not until it’s too late.’
‘That’s a theory, too,’ said Cooper.
Fry was silent for a while as they drove, but Cooper knew she wasn’t going to let the question drop. He could almost hear the calculations going on in her mind as she gazed at the photograph of the three brothers.
‘So what really happened to Alan Sutton?’ she said at last.
Cooper looked at her. ‘What makes you think something happened to him?’
‘Well, given the recent history of the family, it seems a good bet.’
‘I don’t know. You could be right. But all we really know is that Alan went away. I had a quick check through the records — there was no report of him missing at the time.’
‘But who was likely to put in a misper report?’
‘His brothers.’
Cooper thought of the plan of Pity Wood Farm, with the grave sites cleared marked on the eastern boundary. Fry might be right in her suggestion. If one of the victims they’d found had been male, he could have a guess at the identity, too.
‘But if Alan Sutton met an unpleasant end somewhere, it wasn’t at the farm,’ he said. ‘The search would have turned him up by now, wouldn’t it?’
‘We could try to find him, wherever he’s got to. But it would take an awful lot of work. A common name like Sutton … And if he hasn’t been around at the farm for nearly ten years, he’s out of the time frame, anyway.’
‘I don’t think anybody actually saw him leave,’ said Cooper. ‘The Dains were full of dark hints, especially the old lady.’
‘Mr Dain didn’t even lower himself to a hint when I spoke to him. But I knew there was something he wasn’t saying. He must have thought I was a fool because I didn’t know there were three Sutton brothers. And he made no attempt to enlighten me.’
Cooper nodded. ‘He told no lies when he was asked a direct question, but he didn’t volunteer information either. It’s the way a lot of people are, I’m afraid.’
‘And why hasn’t anyone else mentioned Alan Sutton?’ said Fry. ‘Palfreyman, for example.’
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Cooper. ‘It is a bit odd.’
‘In a place the size of Rakedale, everyone must have known him, or at least have been aware that there were three brothers at Pity Wood, no matter how much they kept themselves to themselves.’
‘I wonder if they’ve been protecting someone,’ said Cooper thoughtfully.
‘Protecting who?’
‘I couldn’t say. It just makes me think of one of those family tragedies or misfortunes that no one talks about. It might not be for the protection of anyone living, even. It might be out of respect for the mother, old Beatrice Sutton.’
‘But she’s been dead a long time, surely?’
Cooper shrugged. ‘It doesn’t mean that people in Rakedale won’t still respect her memory.’
‘It must be great to have such caring neighbours,’ said Fry.
‘I suppose the best option is to ask Raymond directly about Alan, and see what reaction we get.’
‘Old people,’ said Fry. ‘Even when they aren’t in the early stages of Alzheimer’s like Raymond Sutton, they don’t always talk sense, you know. Their minds wander, and their memories let them down. Because they know that perfectly well, they make things up. They don’t really intend to lie, they just want to keep the conversation going, they desperately want to be interesting. It’s because they’re lonely.’
‘I’m aware of that. But I don’t think it’s true of all old people, Diane.’
‘I’m just suggesting,’ said Fry, ‘that if you’re at the care home again, take anything you’re told with a pinch of salt. Whether it’s something you’re told by Raymond Sutton, or anyone else.’
‘Old ladies are useful sources of information,’ said Cooper. ‘Old ladies know things that other people don’t. Look at old Mrs Dain. Her memory goes back a long, long way.’
‘Ben, I’m fully aware that you don’t take a blind bit of notice of any advice I give you. But I’m warning you that if you go off and do your own thing regardless one more time, you mustn’t be surprised if I say “I told you so” in no uncertain terms.
‘OK, OK. I get the message.’
He could feel Fry staring at him until he started to flush, but he wasn’t going to rise to her baiting.
‘Have you noticed,’ he said, ‘how quickly Pity Wood Farm went on the market after Derek Sutton died? Raymond must have phoned the estate agents at the same time he called in the funeral directors.’
‘He wanted to be busy,’ suggested Fry. ‘One of the main reasons we have funerals is to give bereaved people something to do. The way it was explained to me, you have to continue doing things that are in the present tense, otherwise your life would just stop when a loved one dies.’
‘We were told that, too, when Mum went. But it’s funny that Raymond didn’t really do that when Derek died. Well, not for long. He seems to have had the farm up for sale pretty quick, doesn’t he? That was certainly a “past tense” action, if you like. It brought everything to a stop. The whole of the life that he and his brother had been living at Pity Wood for decades — it was just ripped up and thrown in a skip by a Polish builder.’
‘Yes, it does sound very final, when you put it like that. But he might have had reasons.’
Cooper finally remembered what else was near Godfrey’s Rough when they were still more than half a mile away. He could see it, standing gaunt and eerie on the skyline, framed by skeletal trees. Stone ruins like the keep of a medieval castle. Steel winding gear like a rusted scaffold. Deep shafts that drove eight hundred feet into the ice- cold water below the limestone.
‘Magpie Mine,’ he said. ‘Beware of the widows’ curse.’
25
Minerals had been a key element in the wealth of the Peak District for centuries. The remnants of the lead- mining industry were widespread, their impact on the landscape had been so dramatic that it would be many centuries yet before their traces disappeared.