The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,119
handler could take more details. She didn’t even have a chance to say what service she wanted. But the guy in the call centre had seen all the publicity about the missing woman. He thought we should know.’
Matthew was thinking that when all this was over he’d track that man down and send him a bottle of very good Scotch.
‘He must have a record of the phone number.’
‘Yes. It was a landline and he’s already found the name and address.’
‘Come on, Ross! Is it someone known to us?’ For the second time that day Matthew wanted to strangle the man for holding back information.
‘Colin Marston,’ Ross said. ‘Toll keeper’s cottage.’
Chapter Thirty-Eight
THEY PULLED JEN OUT OF THE interview room, and left Preece alone with a uniformed officer. Matthew thought they’d need a woman with them. On the drive to the coast, he was swamped with guilt, and couldn’t escape thoughts of the mistakes he’d made earlier in the day. He should have sent a team out to the toll keeper’s cottage earlier. He’d been misled, obsessed with the Salters. The cottage was close to where Walden had died and it should have been an obvious place to look.
He was overwhelmed with admiration for Lucy too. Somehow, she’d managed to get to a phone and to call 999. He thought she must have been interrupted; he hoped she’d cut the call herself, that her captors hadn’t realized what she was doing. If they had, it would be unlikely that she’d still be in the cottage.
Ross was driving. He was in an unmarked car, no lights, no siren, but taking them down the narrow roads like a maniac. In other circumstances Matthew would have told him not to be so ridiculous, but now, in his head, he was urging him on to more speed. At the toll gate they slowed down.
‘Go through,’ Matthew said. He slipped Ross some coins. ‘Park near my house. They won’t be so suspicious then. We haven’t given Preece any opportunity to make a phone call so they might not realize we’re after them. Jonathan and I have visitors all the time. We can walk back.’
The curtains in the cottage were drawn. The Marstons’ car was still there. It was possible that the couple were still in the building. That Lucy was there too. At Spindrift, all the lights were on and Jonathan’s vehicle was in the drive. Matthew thought how good it would be to be in the house, just the two of them, in the long room by the fire, this nightmare over.
The detectives walked back towards the toll gate in silence, using the torches they’d brought from the station until their eyes got used to the gloom. An owl, flying low over the marsh, was caught in the beam. At the cottage, Matthew sent Ross to the back door and then rang the bell. No reply. There was a crack in the curtains and he looked into the front room. It was much as it had been when they’d visited on the day of Walden’s death. A bit cluttered. Books and files on the shelves. A couple of dirty mugs on the low table. Nobody inside this time, though. He rang the bell again, but harder, leaning on the button. There was still no reply and, leaving Jen at the front door, he walked around the rest of the house, trying to look inside whenever he came to a window. Ross was still waiting at the back door.
‘This frame is completely rotten.’ His voice was so low that Matthew had to bend towards him to hear. ‘We’ll have no problem forcing an entrance if we need to.’
All the other curtains were shut tight and Matthew made his way back to Jen. She was peering through into the living room and waved him towards the gap in the curtains. ‘Look. Wasn’t Lucy wearing that when she went missing?’
Across the threadbare armchair was thrown a purple cardigan.
He led her to the back of the house and to Ross, who was still waiting for them, pacing, impatient for action.
‘She’s definitely been in there.’ Jen’s voice was high-pitched, panicky.
Ross put his shoulder to the door. There was the creak of splintered wood and it fell inside, almost intact.
Matthew pulled the door out of the way.
‘Hello! Police!’
The back door led straight into the kitchen. The kettle was warm but not hot. Dirty plates on the draining board. In the bin the remains of takeaway fish and chips.