‘Exactly.’
‘Why don’t people use the litter bins?’ said Cooper.
‘In this case/ said Petty, ‘we might be grateful that they didn’t.’
‘I see.’
‘The interior of the car could be what matters most, though. By the way, there’s a box of some kind in the footwell at the back,’ she said, peering through the car window.
‘You realize the perpetrator probably didn’t arrive in this car, Liz?’
‘We can hope, can’t we, Ben?’
‘He might not even have come this way. Apparently, there’s a track to the air shaft from the other side of the hill, from a place called Withens.’
‘Never heard of it,’ said Petty.
‘You will.’
Tourist hot spot, is it?’
‘Hardly.’
Cooper couldn’t recall seeing anything picturesque about the village where the Oxleys lived. No wonder there were never any tourists passing through, as there were in other Peak District villages.
But at least there was one good thing about Withens. It was a long way from Diane Fry.
With a slam of the door, DC Gavin Murfin started the car and turned out of the West Street car park towards Edendale.
‘So how the hell do we get to this Withens place?’ said Fry. ‘Have you any idea, Gavin?’
‘Why don’t you find it on the map?’ said DC Murfin. ‘I put a couple in the glove compartment.’
Fry found two thick, badly folded Ordnance Survey maps from the Outdoor Leisure series, covering the whole of the Peak District at two and a half inches to the mile.
‘We want Dark Peak, right?’ she said.
‘Hey, you’re learning the lingo.’
‘I just try to remember that it gets dark if you go north and lighter if you go south. Can’t go wrong then.’
‘I suppose so.’
115
Before she had unfolded the map even hallway, Fry realized that it was huge. It was so big that it was almost the size of the Peak District itself. There was no way she could open it fully inside the car, not without covering the windscreen and blocking Murfin’s vision. Then she discovered that the map was printed on both sides, too.
‘All right - Dark Peak West or Dark Peak East?’ she said.
‘West, I think,’ said Murfin.
‘You think?’
‘Pretty sure.’
‘You don’t sound certain enough for me. You do know this place we’re heading? It is in Derbyshire, isn’t it?’
‘Just about. But it isn’t the kind of area you really know unless you live there, like.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Fry suspiciously.
‘You’ll see.’
‘Oh, I can hardly wait.’
‘Dark Peak West/x said Murfin. ‘I’m sure.’
‘Stop the car for a minute, then.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s on the other side of the map, that’s why. I need some space.’
Murfin pulled into a gateway. Fry got out and began to unfold the map on the car roof so that she could turn it over. When it was opened up, the map almost covered the roof of the Peugeot completely. She cursed steadily as the wind blowing down the valley snatched at the corners of the map and pulled sections of it from her hands, slapping them against the roof and tearing the folded edges.
‘Right, I’ve got Dark Peak West,’ she called to Murfin. I’m looking at the top right-hand corner, and I can see a place called Holmfirth. Anywhere near there?’
‘Not far off. Holmfirth is a few miles over the border into West Yorkshire. Come south a bit, and you’ll be about right. It’s just this side of the national park boundary, in an area called Longdendale.’
‘South a bit? But there’s nothing there.’
‘Well, not quite nothing.’
‘Gavin, I can see the national park boundary, and I’m telling you that there’s nothing anywhere near it on this side.’
‘We’ll find it,’ said Murfin.
116
Fry ducked her head and got in the car. She pulled down the visor to look at herself in the little mirror. Her hair had been pushed up on end by the wind in old-fashioned spiky punk style. Murfin was also going to have to apply a bit of Sellotape to his map to hold it
