Page 35 of Worse Than Murder (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller #13)

O rdering a crane with a hydraulic arm and having a low-loader on standby is the easy part.

The difficulty is getting the crane close enough to the edge of the lake in order for the divers to swim out to the submerged car and attach the cables to the axles.

So Aaron told me when I took down a tray of coffees for him and his team at lunchtime. I decided not to wait and watch.

I’m in the living room, making notes on a pad, trying to work out how best to investigate Travis Montgomery without getting on the wrong side of Inspector Gill Forsyth. Everything I can think of could end up with Gill charging me with interfering with a criminal investigation.

I shrug. ‘Fuck it! Who cares? It might be fun to be the one who is arrested for once.’ I have to smile to myself when I picture it making the news.

My boss would have a thousand fits. Is ACC Ridley still my boss?

I still think of him as my boss so he must be.

Does that mean I still think of myself as being a detective?

The door to the living room swings open.

‘They’re bringing the car up,’ Carl shouts, before turning on his heel and running back out of the room.

I slam the laptop closed and follow. Of course I’m still a detective. What else can I be?

* * *

It’s now dusk. The sun is setting over the horizon and the cloudless sky is lit up a brilliant red.

Visibility isn’t great, and arc lights have been erected.

A crowd has gathered, too. Rumour has spread that a car beneath the water belongs to Travis Montgomery.

Does the car contain the bodies of the young Pemberton twins?

It seems the whole of High Chapel has turned out to see.

Me, Carl and the two dogs have joined the growing crowd by the side of the lake.

I look for Aaron and spot him in a skin-tight diving suit in the shallows, guiding his team into position.

I nod to Gill Forsyth as we accidentally make eye contact.

She nods back, though her face is grim. I scan the crowd, and I see Alison Pemberton, now out of uniform, standing separate from her mother and stepfather, who look as if the weight of the world is pressing down on them.

They’re holding hands, supporting each other.

I spot Tania Pritchard standing next to a uniformed sergeant I guess to be the Claire Daniels Tania has mentioned.

We give each other a succinct smile. We don’t want Gill thinking we’ve joined forces and are in league together, which I suppose we are, really.

We had a long chat earlier where Tania told me about Travis being listed as a missing person.

I wasn’t expecting that. I’m now keen to know how many bodies might be in that car.

I look at all the other faces in the crowd, most I’m seeing for the first time.

I wonder if one of them, perhaps hidden in the shadows of the nearby woods, is the mystery man Alison believes is her father.

Surely, if he’s been keeping an eye on things for the past thirty years, he’ll want to be here to see this.

After a few false starts, the hydraulic arm of the crane begins to slowly rise.

The slack cables tense and soon I can see movement below the surface of the clear waters of Lake Windermere.

As the water breaks and the car becomes visible, I steal a glance across the crowd and look towards Alison.

She’s moved to her mother and has her arm around her, whispering soothing words to her.

Lynne nods, raises a tissue to her eyes and wipes away her tears.

It’s impossible to tell the colour of the Vauxhall Astra as it’s covered with an amalgam of mud, silt and algae.

Everything is hidden. Once it’s fully out of the water, it’s left to dangle in the air as water runs off it.

When that’s reduced to a trickle, the car is on the move again.

Aaron and his team painstakingly oversee its removal to a nearby low-loader.

In the background, Tania is taking photographs with something more professional than a smart phone.

Once the car is in position and secured, it’s covered with a tarpaulin to protect any forensic evidence from the elements and is slowly driven away.

‘Are they going to look inside?’ Carl asks.

‘Not yet. It’s potentially a crime scene. It needs to be looked at carefully in a clean environment.’

‘Where are they taking it?’

‘I’m not sure. They won’t want to drive it too far, so somewhere nearby that’s secure and sterile.’

‘That’s disappointing. I thought they were going to open the doors in front of us all.’

‘Trust me, nobody wants to see a body that’s potentially spent thirty years in the water.’

The crowd begins to disperse.

Two marked police cars follow the low-loader. Aaron stays behind and walks over to Gill. He’s pointing out to the lake. His work isn’t finished just yet, it seems.

I look over to Alison and signal for her to join me. She says something to her mother and hands her into the care of her stepfather as if she’s an unexploded bomb, before heading over the uneven pebbles to me.

‘Do your mother or stepfather recognise the car?’ I ask her.

‘They both say it’s Travis’s car.’

‘How are things with you?’

She shrugs and, even in the dim light, I can see she’s struggling with everything she’s learned lately. ‘I haven’t said anything to them yet. When I think back to that time, I remember my mum doing a lot of crying. I don’t want to upset her by having a blazing row.’

‘That’s a good idea.’ I give her a sympathetic smile. It’s difficult to know what to say when there are so many unanswered questions. ‘Did Travis ever talk about his past to them?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t ask. Do you want me to question them?’

‘No.’ I’m quick to answer. I don’t want Alison getting involved in this. She’s too close to distance herself from the stark truth. ‘Look, I’d like to talk to your mum and Iain. Will they talk to me?’

‘Yes. I’m sure they will.’

‘I’m not sure how much I’m going to be able to help. I very much doubt Gill will want me stepping on anyone’s toes. But I’ll do my best.’

‘Thank you,’ she says. ‘Thank you so much.’

She looks pleased as she turns and leaves. I’ve given her hope. I only hope it’s not false hope.

‘I thought you weren’t going to be a detective anymore,’ Carl says.

‘The problem is, I’ve been a police officer my whole life. I’m not qualified for anything else. I can’t just not work. What else can I do?’

‘You could go into partnership with Mum and Dad. Dad was saying last night how you know a lot about wines.’

‘I know how to drink them, Carl. That’s all. Come on, let’s get back.’

We head for the woods, but I hear my name being called. I turn back to see Aaron running towards me.

‘Did that go well?’ I ask.

‘Yes, it did. Very smoothly,’ he says with a grin.

‘The divers that went down to the car were wearing body cameras. I was watching from up here, and I still have my detective brain on occasionally. I’ve just been telling Inspector Forsyth.

I believe the car was pushed into the lake rather than driven in. ’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘The car was sitting on a shelf.’

‘There’s a shelf in the lake?’ Carl interrupts.

‘Oh,’ I almost forgot Carl is next to me. ‘Carl, this is former DS Aaron Connolly. He was on my team who helped look for you. Aaron, this is Carl.’

A smile spreads across Aaron’s face. He holds out a hand for Carl to shake. ‘It really is a pleasure to finally meet you, Carl.’

‘Thank you,’ he replies, slightly unsure how to respond. ‘You said there was a shelf in the lake?’

‘It’s kind of like a big ledge before the lake drops even further below ground.

Lake Windermere goes down to sixty-seven meters at its deepest point and there’s a big drop-off just a few meters out from here.

If the car had been driven in at speed, I think it would have gone completely off the shelf, sunk, and it may never have been discovered.

The fact it was on the shelf makes me think it was pushed in only far enough to be hidden. ’

‘By someone who maybe doesn’t know the lake too well.’

‘Possibly. My team is going back in tomorrow to scan the bed of the lake to see if there’s anything else down there that might have become detached from the car. I know I shouldn’t, but I’ll let you know if we find anything.’

‘Thanks, Aaron. Where are you staying tonight?’

‘We’re booked into a hotel on the outskirts of the village.’

‘Where did you take the car?’

‘You’re always switched on, aren’t you?’ He laughs.

‘Always a detective. You said yourself your detective brain switched on.’

‘True. It’s gone to a warehouse about five miles away. It’s a secure site Cumbria Police has used before for large-scale operations.’

I ask Carl to give me and Aaron a few minutes alone. He picks up a stick and throws it for the two Woodys to chase after, then he follows them. Standing to one side, I lower my voice.

‘Are there bodies inside the car?’

‘There’s something in the back seat. Curiosity got the better of me. I smeared one of the windows and was able to get a high-powered torch on it. I’m just not sure what it is.’

‘Bones?’

He nods. ‘I think I saw a skull.’

‘Anything in the driver’s seat?’

‘No.’

‘Thanks, Aaron.’

‘Are you going all Miss Marple on me?’

‘Judging by the dirty looks Inspector Forsyth was shooting me during the recovery operation, I think I might be.’

I wink and walk away. I join Carl and we make our way through the woods back to the restaurant.

All the way, I chew on my lip as I think.

I have a lot of questions running around my mind and I guess I’m going to make a lot of people unhappy by asking them, but as I said to Carl earlier, all I know is how to be a detective, and I’m a bloody good one.