‘They match the impressions from Rebecca Lowe’s garden.’
She handed him the report. A photograph of the dirt floor slid out, grainy and scattered with small stones, like the surface of the moon. He could make out the footprint clearly. The SOCOs must have been delighted. Even at a glance, Cooper could see they would have no trouble making a comparison.
‘What do you say now, Ben?’ said Fry.
Cooper blew out a long breath at the helium balloons. They bounced against each other, as if applauding quietly. ‘OK, what’s the next move?’
‘We’re hoping that he’s weakened by his injuries and the loss of blood. Quinn can’t have got far, so we’re going to hit all the places where he might be lying up.’
‘Such as?’
‘Peak Cavern, for one.’
When he came back to the place, the dead sheep had gone. Mansell Quinn quartered backwards and forwards across the area, but he was sure he had the right spot. His sense of direction was excellent. Above him he could see the limestone
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outcrop and the ledge where the sheep had been trapped. From below, he could hear the river, and he knew the path the women had walked on was near it, though he couldn’t see it. And here was the patch of leaf litter beneath the tree where the animal had fallen.
Clutching the wound on his side, Quinn crouched close to the ground. At least two pairs of boots had trampled the area since he’d left it, and there were signs of something heavy having been dragged down the slope.
He made his way downhill, stepping carefully to avoid tripping over rocks and tree roots. Suddenly he emerged into the open and found himself standing on a smooth surface made of compacted earth. The path here was wide enough for a small vehicle, perhaps an ATV of the kind that farmers used for getting around the furthest corners of their land.
Quinn grimaced. Because of the interruption, the sheep he’d killed had been found too soon. Anyone who took a close look at the carcass would be able to see that it hadn’t died by accident. Soon, the search parties would arrive in his dale.
Well, so be it. Quinn patted the crossbow in its bag across his shoulder. This meant the time was past for taking risks, for spreading fear among those who ought to be afraid. The time had arrived to finish the job.
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34
‘You’re convinced he’s back in Castleton?’
‘Who?’
Alistair Page laughed. ‘Mansell Quinn. That’s who you’re looking for, isn’t it? It’s hardly a secret by now. It’s been all over the papers and TV.’
Ben Cooper nodded. ‘Yes, OK, you’re right.’
‘As a matter of fact, I didn’t really need to ask. I know somebody who works at the craft shop down the road there. They said he was in the shop, and he got caught on the security cameras.’
Cooper sighed. ‘There’s no point in trying to keep anything secret in a place like this, is there?’
‘Absolutely no point.’
Page’s mannerism of speech seemed more pronounced today. Perhaps it was a sign of excitement. He had certainly seemed agitated at the sight of the police officers entering the cavern, and the fact that it had been temporarily closed to the public.
‘And at the height of the season,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘They won’t like it.’
‘It’s routine,’ said Cooper. ‘We have to check all the possibilities.’
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‘Do you really think he might come to Peak Cavern?’
‘As a matter of fact, yes.’
Some of the task force officers were returning from a trip down the Devil’s Staircase to the River Styx and into Five Arches. The knees and elbows of their overalls were covered in the brown silt that coated the floor and the walls down there. One of the last officers up was covered from head to foot, and the front of his overalls glistened with mud. Even his hands and face were liberally splashed with it.
‘It can be really difficult to keep your footing down there,’ said Page. ‘I wonder if anybody told them it would be easier to walk in the stream bed.’
‘Probably not,’ said Cooper.
The task force officers smelled, too. As they passed, Cooper got a whiff of the ancient sludge that had been sucked out of the nooks and crannies of the cavern system over many thousands of years and left in the passages to add to the fun for cavers.
‘They ought to have come with proper equipment,’ said Page. The hope they’re not planning on trying to go any further than Five Arches.’
‘Would he be likely to get that far in?’
‘There are food dumps in Treasury Chamber and Picnic Dig for cavers who get trapped by flooding,’ said Page. ‘But there’s no way he could reach those unless he has diving equipment. There are sumps in the way.’
‘No matter. He could survive for days without food, provided he can get access to water.’
‘There’s plenty of that. In fact, there might be too much.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Cooper.
‘These thunderstorms we keep getting. They’re depositing a lot of water into the system. If we get another one like Thursday night, the cavern could flood.’
‘In July? I thought the floods happened in winter.’
‘Mostly. But it wouldn’t be the first time the system has
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