‘Yes, I remember you.’
‘Oh, you do? Thank you. Well, I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s just one thing I wanted to ask you, about the bones in the crypt…’
398
Yes?’
‘I realize it was before your time, but I wonder if you know where exactly on the estate the bones were found?’
‘Oh, it was some distance from the hall, beyond the parkland. I believe one of the tenant farms had become vacant, and it was decided to plant trees on the land. One of my ancestors wanted to take advantage of the demand for timber, I suppose.’
‘Would that have been Corunna Wood?’
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Chadwick. And I don’t suppose you’ve remembered anything about the man who came asking about the crypt? No? Well, never mind. Thank you for your help.’
Cooper finished the call. The geography and the lack of direct roads in this area were very deceptive. Everything was so close together really, when you could see it - Ravensdale and Tom Jarvis’s place at Litton Foot; Alder Hall and the dense woods on this side of the water; and the austere house where Vernon and Abraham Slack lived, down by the river in Miller’s Dale. There was no distance between them at all.
On his way back to the parking area, he caught sight of a sign below the trail: Stream polluted, don’t drink or paddle. Curious, he made his way down to the edge of the water. He found huge plants growing in the boggy ground, almost choking the stream. Some of them seemed to be a sort of giant rhubarb, but others were the same purple-stemmed monsters he’d seen growing at Litton Foot, the stuff like tenfoothigh cow parsley. He made a mental note to find out what they were some time.
Cooper got his OS map out of the car. It didn’t have Fry’s six-mile zone on it, but he could remember pretty much where it ran. Did the clues in the phone calls really mean anything? Why had the caller led them to Peter’s Stone? Was he trying to mislead them, just having a joke at their expense? Or had they misunderstood his meaning completely?
399
Fry’s interpretation of the second message suggested Wardlow as a starting point, moving west towards the Gibbet Rock and Litton Foot, where Audrey Steele’s remains had been found. But the line about the flesh eater remained unexplained. Moving west? Cooper recalled his first visit to Freddy Robertson’s house. The professor had described the traditional funeral procession entering a churchyard from the eastern gate and following the direction of the sun to the grave.
He dialled Fry’s number, hoping she was there for once.
‘Diane, that Beatrix Potter book,’ he said when she answered. ‘Did you have scenes of crime check it for fingerprints?’
‘Yes, but there’s nothing.’
‘Shame.’
‘One thing I found out, though, and quite by accident. One of the SOCOs speaks a bit of German.’
‘German? Are they all doing Open University courses down there, or what?’
‘I’ve no idea. But you know the Beatrix Potter book is called The Tale of Mr TodV
‘Yes.’
‘Our educated SOCO pointed out that “Tod” is the German word for death.’
Cooper stared at the carved owl at the entrance to the car park. ‘Amazing,’ he said. ‘It fits, though.’
‘Unfortunately, it doesn’t get us anywhere. As a clue, it’s a dead end. So to speak.’
‘By the way, I ran into Maurice Goodwin,’ said Cooper. ‘Remember him, Diane? He’s the man who was supposed to have been keeping an eye on Alder Hall until he fell out with John Casey. He turns out to be Tom Jarvis’s brother-in-law. It makes sense - he lives nearby, so he was on hand if there were any problems.’
‘And were there?’
‘Well, Mr Goodwin knows about the lampers. He says he
400
spotted them on the estate a couple of times. He wanted to report it, but Casey wouldn’t let him.’
‘Is that what they fell out about?’
‘I think it started from there. There used to be an ATV kept in one of the outbuildings up there for Mr Goodwin to use, so he could get round the whole estate. But Casey took it off him, so he was pretty much restricted to keeping an eye on the house after that.’
‘Interesting.’
‘I think Mr Goodwin had his suspicions about Casey,’ said Cooper. ‘And if he’s anything like his brother-in-law, he won’t have hesitated to express his opinion. I don’t think Casey would have liked that.’
‘The old personality clash.’
‘Mmm. I wonder whether John Casey is involved in something more than just providing access to a gang of professional lampers.’
‘Ben, where exactly are you?’ asked Fry suddenly.
‘Near Tideswell.’
‘Isn’t that close to where the Slacks live? What are you doing in that area?’
‘I was thinking of visiting the Slacks again. Look, I think Vernon is very frightened. I think Hudson and McGowan have systematically terrorized him until he’s terrified of talking to anybody. That suggests Vernon knows something, doesn’t it? Something of interest to us.’
‘I agree with the last part at least.’
