want others at the party - perhaps his sisters, who might've grassed to their parents - to see being exchanged. But not wanting to have others see him in possession of something that they themselves might have wanted seems out of character in the Jamie I've heard described. Having what others needed, wanted, admired, respected, whatever...that seems to have been how he operated. Showing these things off to people. Showing off full stop. Being better than everyone else. So I can't see him agreeing to meet in a cave to take ownership of something illegal. That, then, seems to leave us with something more private that was promised him. Which seems to lead us to sex."
Frankie's eyes did it. Blue, their pupils enlarged. Lynley wondered how he'd managed to keep quiet when questioned by Wilkie away from his friends. But perhaps that had been it: Away from his friends he wouldn't know what to say, so he'd say nothing. In their presence, he could wait for their lead.
-Young men - adolescent boys - will do just about anything if sex is part of the picture," Lynley said. -I expect Jamie Parsons was no different to the rest of you when it came to that. So the question is, was he homosexual, and did one of you make a promise to him that was meant to be kept when he got down to the cave?"
Silence. They were very good at this. But Lynley was fairly certain he could go them one better.
-It would have had to be more than merely a promise, though," he said. -Jamie wasn't likely to respond to the mere suggestion of buggery. I reckon it would have had to be a move of some sort, a trigger, a signal so that he would know it was safe to proceed. What would that be? A knowing look. A word. A gesture. Hand on bum. Stiffie pressed up to him in a private corner.
The sort of language that's spoken by - "
-No one here's a poof." It was Darren who spoke. Not surprisingly, Lynley realised, as he was a teacher of young children and had the most to lose. -And none of the others were either."
-The rest of your group," Lynley clarified.
-That's what I'm telling you."
-But it was sex, wasn't it," Lynley said. -I'm right in that. He thought he was meeting someone for sex. Who?"
Silence.
Finally, -The past is dead." It was Chris Outer this time, and he looked as steely as Darren Fields.
-The past is the past," Lynley countered. -Santo Kerne is dead. Jamie Parsons is dead. Their deaths may or may not be related, but - "
-They're not," Fields said.
- - but until I know otherwise, I have to assume there may be a connection between them. And I don't want the connection to be that each investigation ends in the same way: with an open verdict. Santo Kerne was murdered."
-Jamie Parsons was not."
-All right. I'll accept that. DCI Wilkie believes it as well. You're not going to be prosecuted more than a quarter century after the fact for having been so bloody stupid as to have left the boy in that cave. All I want to know is what happened that night."
-It was Jack. Jack. " The admission fairly burst from Frankie Kliskey, as if he'd been waiting nearly thirty years to make it. He said to the others, -Jack's dead now and what does it matter? I don't want to carry this. I'm that bloody tired of carrying it, Darren."
-God damn - "
-I held my tongue back then, and look at me. Look. " He held out his hands. They were shaking, like a palsy. -A cop comes round and it's all back again and I don't want living through it another time."
Darren pushed his body away from the table, a gesture of disgust. But it was also a gesture of dismissal, one that could be interpreted as -Have it your way, then."
There was another tight little silence among the men. In it, the gulls cawed and far below, a boat gunned its motor in the cove.
-She was called Nancy Snow," Chris Outer said, slowly. -She was Jack Dustow's girlfriend and Jack was one of us."
-He's the one who died of lymphoma," Lynley said. -That would be Jack?"
-That would be Jack. He talked Nan into...doing what was done. We could have used Dellen - that's Ben's wife now, Dellen Nankervis as she was - because she was always ready for action - "
-She