The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,47
statement back to be signed. She might talk some sense into the woman.
Sharon looked at him. ‘My husband doesn’t know. He thinks I left work because I was bored in the office. He doesn’t mind. He likes me at home to keep on top of things, to be around for our son.’ A pause. ‘Nothing happened that afternoon on the beach. We’re not kids. We didn’t make passionate love in the dunes.’ Another moment of silence. ‘But I’d been missing him. I love his company.’
‘Did you see the body when you were on your way to Crow Point?’
‘No, not until we were on our way back.’
‘And you would have seen the man if he’d been there?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ Sharon said. ‘We were talking, catching up. We hadn’t seen each other for a few weeks because Dave had been away with his family for the half-term holiday. But I think we would have seen the body. It wasn’t hidden in any way and we followed the same tracks back in the sand.’
If that was the case, Walden had been killed while Sharon and her lover were walking out to the Point. That had been risky. Perhaps Matthew should be looking for somebody reckless, who enjoyed danger. Or somebody desperate.
She was staring into the empty coffee mug. ‘I didn’t want to be left there on the beach with the dead man. Not on my own. I know I should have stayed with the body, but I just couldn’t face it. So Dave walked with me back to the cars and then he drove off to work. He had a meeting. I phoned the police from there and waited.’
‘Can you give me some timings?’ Matthew asked. ‘When you arrived, when you saw the body?’ Because that would pin down a time of death much more accurately than any information the pathologist could give him.
‘I was supposed to meet Dave at midday, but he was a bit late.’ Matthew imagined her sitting in her car, getting more and more anxious that her lover wouldn’t turn up. ‘It was probably nearer half past when he got there. It was ten past two when we first saw the body. I checked my watch.’
‘Did you see anyone else on the beach?’
‘Nobody that I was aware of. We were talking, you know, making plans for the future, for when our kids are old enough to understand.’
Matthew nodded. He suspected the guy was stringing her along, making promises that he had no intention of keeping. Would she enjoy the affair, anyway, if it stopped being illicit and exciting? But relationship counselling wasn’t in his job description and it wasn’t his place to give advice. He stood up and told her how helpful she’d been and left the house. As he unlocked the car, he heard the music again, compulsive and manic, and thought she was trying to dance away her boredom and her demons.
* * *
In Ilfracombe the breeze was stronger and eddied through the narrow streets. He knew it was a westerly, because he’d heard the shipping forecast that morning, but whichever way he walked it was in his face. He was early here too – punctuality was a curse, inherited from his mother who thought it was a sin to be late – so he left his car at the top of Hope Street and walked down the hill, along the high street, then on towards the harbour. There was a smell of fried fish. A couple of optimistic cafes had opened early in the season. A gift shop owner had stacked all his goods to one side and was mopping the floor.
Verity, Damien Hirst’s sculpture, stood at the end of the pier. A huge pregnant woman. Triumphant, one arm raised. From one side all her internal organs were showing and Matthew was reminded of a body on the pathologist’s table, the skin peeled back. In the Lundy Island ferry offices, there was a short queue of people booking tickets. A woman sat in the waiting room, her coat wrapped round her for protection, looking out of the window.
‘Mrs Bale?’ But he knew it was her without asking. She looked so nervous, so mousy, so scared of the world.
She jumped to her feet. ‘I’ve only got half an hour.’
‘That’s okay. It won’t take longer than that. Perhaps I could buy you lunch.’
‘Oh no. I always bring my own sandwiches. I’ll eat them at my desk later.’