She was silent for a moment. Yes, I am. Not in my mind, but in my heart. I feel sure thats Jane Raven Lee.
Cooper nodded. Yes, he said. Thats my feeling, too.
Audrey Steeles mother lived on the Devonshire Estate, in a cream rendered semi that had a washing line full of sheets billowing in the back garden. You didnt see many washing lines these days, but maybe Vivien Gill was the old-fashioned type.
Inside, a rustic-effect brick fireplace had been set into one wall of the sitting room, and a central heating radiator on another. Above the picture rails, the ceiling was coved and artexed. At the back of the house was a kitchen smelling strongly of disinfectant. When he followed Mrs Gill into it, Cooper became aware of a sickeningly sweet scent that might have several sources he didnt want to think about. A baby sat in a high chair at the table, its mouth smeared with something sticky and yellow. Doidy Cup and Bickiepegs were set out on the counter.
This is my granddaughter, said Mrs Gill. Isnt she gorgeous?
Shes beautiful, said Cooper, giving the child a brief wave. He might learn the attraction of babies one day, but for now the appeal was lost on him. Once they could walk and talk, and look after their own toilet arrangements, he had no problem with children. But babies made him a bit nervous.
In the sitting room, Vivien Gill made him sit down in one of the armchairs, though he told her he couldnt stay long.
Mrs Gill, I dont know whether youve spoken to Ellen Walker today
I talked to Ellen last night. She had some idea about a picture in the paper. An artists impression, or something.
A facial reconstruction, yes.
I thought it was a daft idea myself.
Did you see the picture?
No. I dont get the evening paper.
Cooper looked out of the window and saw a man watching the street from a house opposite. Maybe that was why Mrs Gill had wanted him to sit down, so that he couldnt be seen by nosey neighbours. She hadnt otherwise seemed particularly hospitable. Of course, this was the Devonshire Estate, where residents were practised at recognizing a police officer, even out of uniform.
It was on the TV news, too, he said.
Ive got the child to look after. I dont spend all my time watching telly.
May I show you a copy of the photo?
Mrs Gill squinted at the picture he handed her, held it up to the light, then put it down while she found her glasses. It doesnt look human, she said. Its just a clay model, painted up.
Does it bear any resemblance to your daughter?
No. Its daft.
She handed the photograph back dismissively. But Cooper noticed that her hand was shaking a little more. The baby was snivelling and getting ready to start crying, but Mrs Gill ignored it.
What about these items of clothing? said Cooper gently. Im sorry about the condition of them. Do they look familiar at all?
Mrs Gill barely glanced at the second set of photographs. They had been taken in the mortuary after the remnants of clothing had been removed and laid out on a table. They were stained and partially rotted, and they had an air of squalor despite the mortuary lights.
The old woman turned pale, but shook her head, perhaps a little too vigorously. She looked at Cooper, then out of the window.
No, they mean nothing to me.
One more thing, said Cooper, and then Ill get out of your way. Could you tell me what doctor your daughter went to?
Mrs Gill breathed an audible sigh of relief. Now she was on safer ground, and she didnt question why Cooper wanted to know such information.
Doctor? Well, the same one as me. Crown House Surgery, here in Edendale.
And a dentist?
Moorhouses in Bargate. Hes NHS, so you have to go for a check-up every six months or you get kicked off his list. Audrey always went regularly. She was a nurse she knew about looking after her health.
Cooper smiled as he gathered the photographs together. I bet she took regular exercise, too.
Mrs Gill stood and gazed out of the windows as she waited for him to leave.
She swam as often as she could, she said. Audrey competed in the county championships when she was a youngster. Her brother was a good swimmer, too this is his child Im looking after.
Audrey also has a sister, doesnt she?
Oh, her. She doesnt live around here any more.
There was something about the way Mrs Gill said her that reminded Cooper of Tom Jarvis, as though there was a name that mustnt be spoken. But there had been a gruff affection in Jarviss voice when he referred to his wife. There was none in Mrs Gills when she spoke of her daughter.
Has there been some kind of rift in the family?
Eh?
Youve fallen out with your other daughter?
We just dont see as much of each other, not since she re-married. I dont trust that new husband of hers. A leopard doesnt change its spots so easily no matter what she says.
* * *
Cooper ust had time to call in at West Street before he was due to meet Professor Robertson. But the moment he walked into the office and sat down, the phone rang on his desk. It was Tom Jarvis.
The old girls dead, said Jarvis. Somebody shot her.
Cooper sat bolt upright.
Dead? Have you called 999, Mr Jarvis?
Nay. But I thought youd want to know.
Where ? I mean, wheres the body?
I laid her out on the porch. But Ill bury her by and by. I thought Id put her in the orchard. She always liked it there.
No, Mr Jarvis, dont touch her. Just wait until someone gets there. Ill send the paramedics, and a doctor. We need to get scenes of crime there. And she was shot, you say? My God, we need the armed response unit as well. You really should have called 999 straight away.
Jarvis breathed down the phone at him for a few moments in puzzled silence.
Well, I didnt think youd be all that bothered, he said. Not for a dog.
11
Professor Freddy Robertsons home stood on rising ground in a cluster of newer houses on the outskirts of Totley. It had a flat, brick face broken by bay windows and an oak front door. Its gardens were reached from a broad gravelled driveway that ran past a detached garage with a dark blue BMW drawn up outside.
Cooper had been given the impression that the professor had retired to Derbyshire, but this wasnt strictly true. Totley was an outer suburb of Sheffield, and it lay in South Yorkshire. But the county boundary was only a stones throw away across the fields, and the national park a few hundred yards further on. The rural setting was one of the attractions for those who could afford to live here.
Cooper had spent the drive to Totley listening to a Runrig CD. The Edge of the World didnt quite describe his journey across Froggatt Edge and the eastern moors, but it came close.
This is an Edwardian gentlemans residence, said Robertson, meeting Cooper at his car. As you can see, we had it refurbished in a manner sympathetic to the Arts and Crafts movement. Four bedrooms on a galleried landing, original beams, a wine cellar. And look at these gardens
The professor was a big man in his early sixties, his hair greying and rather too long at the sides to compensate for the bald patch at the front. He wore a rather baggy pinstripe suit like a lawyers, and moved a little stiffly, as if suffering from the first symptoms of arthritis.
They entered an L-shaped reception hall with mosaic tiles on the floor and a staircase with mahogany balustrades. On the wall was the ugliest coat rack Cooper had ever seen. It was covered in imitation deer hide, and had four real hooves turned upside down to act as hooks.
Robertson took him through into a study lined with books, the floor space almost filled by an oak desk and a set of deep leather armchairs. The professor sat at his desk, with his back to a window looking out on to the garden. He offered Cooper a drink, which he refused, but poured himself a whisky from a bottle of Glenfiddich he took from a cupboard. Then he linked his fingers, like a headmaster with an errant pupil on the carpet.
Im sorry to have messed you around, sir, said Cooper. I hope I havent disrupted your afternoon too much.
Oh, Im glad you could make it. I was worried that youd decided you didnt need to call on my services after all. But I suppose you were detained on urgent police business?
You might say I had to speak to a man about a dog.
Oh, dogs, said Robertson. He sniffed suspiciously, as if Cooper might have smuggled one into the house, or at least brought in the smell and a few stray hairs. Now Im really wounded, Detective Constable. Id have been happy to come in second to anybody or anything, except a dog.
Cooper smiled hesitantly, not sure whether the professor was joking.
You dont like dogs, sir?
I find their form of domestication offensive, on an ethical basis.
Im sorry?
Well, dogs are basically animal slaves, arent they? People find them useful for certain menial tasks, or for massaging their egos. Dogs fawn on their owners shamelessly. Dont you find it so? No, I expect you disagree with me.
Many people would value dogs for their loyalty, said Cooper.
Oh, youre thinking of the dog that will dive into the river to save its master when hes drowning? Well, the fact is that nine dogs out of ten would sit on the bank and watch you drown. And then theyd go off to see where their next meal was coming from. Loyalty is skin deep, you know.
Cooper shifted uneasily under the professors gaze, but didnt argue.
Robertson smiled. Now, I presume there was something you wanted to ask me about. Which case is it, now? Somebody mentioned skeletonized remains ?
Thats correct, sir.
Briefly, Cooper explained the background to his enquiry and showed Robertson photographs of the scene at Litton Foot.
You see, sir, the feet were pointing to the east and the head to the west. For a start, I wondered if that might have any significance.
That was very observant of you, said Robertson. Well, it certainly reflects the Christian cemetery tradition. The practice was based on the belief that the Lords Second Coming would be from the east. When you rise from your grave on Judgement Day, you want to be facing your God, not turning your backside to him.
I see.
Burials in Roman Britain were already east-west oriented by the end of the second century AD, so the tradition lasted a long time. But this isnt an ancient burial, or you wouldnt be here, surely?