from the brochure rack at this. She said, -Grandie. Didn't you get my message?"
-Haven't been home," Selevan told her.
-Oh. I was...Will and I were meaning to have a coffee after closing."
-Were you now?" Selevan was pleased. Perhaps, he thought, he'd been incorrect in his assessment of Tammy's regard for the younger man.
-He was going to drive me home afterwards." Then she frowned as she seemed to realise it was too early for her grandfather to be there to fetch her home anyway. She looked at a watch that flopped round on her thin wrist.
-Come from the Salthouse Inn," Selevan said. -Been an accident out round Polcare Cove."
-Are you all right?" she asked. -Did you get in a smash with the car or something?" She sounded concerned, and this gratified Selevan. Tammy loved her old granddad. He might be short with her, but she never held it against him.
-Not me," he said, and here he began to watch her closely. -It was Santo Kerne."
-Santo? What's happened to him?"
Was there a rise to her voice? Panic? A warding off of bad news? Selevan wanted to think so, but he couldn't reconcile the tone of her voice with the look that she exchanged with Will Mendick.
-Fell off the cliff, way I understand it," he said. -Down Polcare Cove. Dr. Trahair brought some coast walker to the inn to phone the police. This bloke - the walker - he found the boy."
-Is he all right?" Will Mendick asked even as Tammy said, -Santo's all right, though, isn't he?"
Selevan was definitely gratified at this: the rush of Tammy's words and what that rush of words indicated about her feelings. No matter that Santo Kerne was about as worthless an object for a young girl's affections as could be found. If affection was present, that was a positive sign, and Selevan Penrule had recently allowed the Kerne boy access to his property at Sea Dreams for just this reason. Give him a shortcut across to the sea cliffs or the sea itself and who knew what might blossom in Tammy's heart? And that had been the objective, hadn't it? Tammy, blossoming, and a diversion.
-Don't know," Selevan told her. -Just that Dr. Trahair came in and told Brian over Salthouse that Santo Kerne was down on the rocks 'n Polcare Cove. That's all I know."
-That doesn't sound good," Will Mendick said.
-Was he surfing, Grandie?" Tammy asked. But she didn't look at her grandfather when she spoke. She kept her eyes on Will.
This made Selevan look more closely at the young man. Will, he saw, was breathing oddly, a bit like a runner, but his face had lost colour. He was a ruddy boy naturally, so it was noticeable when the blood drained away.
-Don't know what he was doing, do I?" Selevan said. -But something's happened to him, that's for certain. And it looks bad."
-Why?" Will asked.
-Cos they'd've hardly left the boy on the rocks alone if he'd only been hurt and not..." He shrugged.
-Not dead?" Tammy said.
-Dead?" Will repeated.
Tammy said, - Go, Will."
-But how can I - "
-You'll think of something. Just go. We'll have coffee another time."
That was apparently all he needed. Will nodded at Selevan and headed for the door. He touched Tammy on the shoulder as he passed her. He said, -Thanks, Tam. I'll ring you."
Selevan tried to take this as a positive sign.
DAYLIGHT WAS FAST FADING by the time Detective Inspector Bea Hannaford arrived in Polcare Cove. She'd been in the midst of buying football shoes for her son when her mobile had rung, and she'd completed the purchase without giving Pete a chance to point out that he'd not tried on every style available, as was his habit. She'd said, -We buy now or you come back later with your father," and that had been enough. His father would force him into the least expensive pair, brooking no arguments about it.
They'd left the shop in a hurry and dashed through the rain to the car. She'd rung Ray from the road. It wasn't his night for Pete, but Ray was flexible. He was a cop as well, and he knew the demands of the job. He'd meet them in Polcare Cove, he said. -Got a jumper?" he'd asked her.
-Don't know yet," she'd said.
Bodies at the bases of cliffs were not rare in this part of the world. People climbed foolishly on the culm, people wandered too near the edge of the cliffs and went over, or people jumped. If the tide was