At 10:10:19 two young women pushed two strollers into view. Tabitha recognized them: they were twin sisters who lived in the village and were married to men who looked rather similar to each other, and who both had small children. She made a note that they too had been in the village after the tree had fallen, and looked back at the screen in time to see both toddlers raising their heads and pointing at something in the sky. One of the mothers disappeared into the shop while the other guarded the strollers. She was rubbing her hands together to keep them warm. Then the little group left.
Tabitha was starting to feel a bit dazed with staring at the grainy images, but then Andy was on her screen. He was wearing his work clothes and carrying a large canvas bag. He walked toward the shop; the time clicked past; a couple of minutes later he was there again, turning to the right.
Dr. Mallon dashed past in the other direction. Tabitha noted the time: barely enough to reach Stuart’s and Tabitha’s houses and the solid cliff beyond, however fast he had run. She remembered that he had mentioned seeing her, when she had been agitated and incoherent. It must have been in between these two times. Again, she put herself back there, in the windy coldness, salt on her skin. She would have been swimming at the cove, her hair would have been wet and her fingers numbed. What had she said to him? What had he said to her? She thought she remembered seeing him, but it was like a memory groped at in thick fog, retreating as she reached out for it.
At just past 10:20 A.M., the vicar and her dog, a golden retriever called Sukie, were on the screen. Mel sat Sukie on the pavement, wagged her finger at her to stay still, and went into the shop. She came out holding her paper, and met Shona, well wrapped up in a quilted jacket and mittens and wearing wellington boots. Tabitha watched as the two women walked out of camera in the direction of Tabitha’s house, Sukie between them, talking. Almost immediately, Shona came back and went into the shop. A minute or so later the vicar and her dog walked by. That’s what people did in villages, Tabitha thought: they took their dog for a walk, or themselves.
Tabitha wrote all the times down. She knew what must come next and sure enough, at 10:34:33 a gray car drove past the camera. Stuart.
And at 10:40:22 it returned. She needed to concentrate because it was between now and half past three in the afternoon that he was murdered. She stood up and jumped up and down a few times, then sat once more.
The deliveryman came out and sat in his van. Nothing happened. No car drove past—but then it wouldn’t because the tree was down and so the only place they would be driving to was Tabitha’s house or Stuart’s. No other person walked past.
The 11–12 A.M. disc showed nothing, except Mel walking past with her dog, and the deliveryman getting out of his van, wandering off in the direction of Tabitha’s house and returning a couple of minutes later.
Tabitha went to the door and opened it. Mary Guy was sitting on a chair outside, legs stretched out, chewing gum and staring straight ahead.
“I need the toilet,” said Tabitha. “And some water.”
Mary Guy pointed. Tabitha used the toilet and drank some water from the tap. What she really wanted was a large mug of coffee but she didn’t think the warden was going to stir herself. She must have been watching footage for nearly four hours. What had she learned that she didn’t already know?
She went back to her position and sat hunched forward, staring at blankness with her fingers pressed to her temples and willing herself to stay alert.
At 1:05 P.M., the deliveryman got out of his car. He no longer wore his hat and his scarf and Tabitha caught a glimpse of his face. He didn’t look impatient, just resigned. He went into the shop, or the café, and stayed there.
At 13:19:38 Shona went into the shop. The interior disc showed her buying a packet of crisps and a can of Coke. She was wearing different clothes: a woolen coat and ankle boots. What had she done that day, when she was stuck in Okeham?
At 13:33:01 Rob Coombe went into the shop. The interior disc showed him buying sandwiches.
Tabitha frowned. He had dropped his daughter off at the school bus at ten past eight and driven off, but the tree hadn’t come down till after half past nine. Why had he stayed in Okeham? Everyone else—the vicar, Shona, Andy, Dr. Mallon, the twin sisters, Luke, Terry herself—lived there, but Rob’s farm was above the village. Where had he been all that time? She scribbled a note to herself and returned to the CCTV.
The door opened quietly and the librarian tiptoed in, carrying a mug of coffee and a plate with two shortbread biscuits on it. She put it down in front of Tabitha.
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” Galia said in an exaggerated whisper, and tiptoed out once more.
Tabitha took a gulp of coffee, then another. She had a large bite of the biscuit. The light was fading; the white bark of the birch glowed in the dusk. Snow began to fall once more, melting on the road, quickly turning back into rain. And then a thin figure with a rucksack on his back sloped past. She rewound; he shot backward; she pressed play and there he came again. Luke Rees entering the village at 1:57:49. It matched what he had told her.
She watched as the vicar, in a waterproof jacket, came into the camera’s view, and went out again. A
