I’ll speak to Ruth Hawkin on her own. Just tell them we’ve found evidence that suggests Hawkin may have been involved in Alison’s disappearance and that we’ll be charging him with at least one serious offence tonight. It’s up to Ruth how much more she wants to tell them.’
‘They’re going to want chapter and verse. Especially Ma Lomas,’ Clough warned.
‘Let them come to court, then. I’m concerned about Ruth Hawkin. She’s my key witness as of this moment, and she’s got the right to decide how much her family knows at this point,’ George said dismissively. ‘Tell them as little as you need to.’ He squared his shoulders and flicked his cigarette butt into the night. He ran a hand over his soaking hair, showering Clough with tiny droplets of water. ‘Right.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Let’s go.’
They walked through the back door and across the hall into the warm fug of the smoky kitchen. The support team of Ma Lomas and Kathy had been joined by Ruth’s sister Diane and Janet’s mother, Maureen. The five women’s faces sharpened with fear at the sight of the grim expressions on the men’s faces. ‘We have some news, Mrs Hawkin,’ George said heavily. ‘I’d like to talk to you alone, if I may. The rest of you ladies, if you’ll go with Sergeant Clough, he’ll explain what’s happening.’
Kathy opened her mouth to argue, but a second look at George’s face killed her protest. ‘We’ll go through to the parlour,’ she said meekly.
Ruth said nothing as they filed out. Her face was like a bolted door, tightly secured, her jaw muscles bulging with the effort of silence. She never took her eyes off George as he sat down at the table opposite her. He waited till he heard the door close behind Clough, then he said, ‘There’s no easy way to say this, Mrs Hawkin. We’ve found evidence that Philip Hawkin has committed serious sexual assaults against your daughter. There can be no doubt about that, and he will be charged before the day’s out.’
A whimper escaped from her lips, but her gaze continued to pin him down. He shifted in his seat and automatically reached for his cigarettes. She shook her head as he offered them, so he left the packet sitting on the table between them. ‘When you add that to the evidence of the stained shirt and the gun that you found in the outbuilding, it’s hard to resist the conclusion that he very probably murdered her too. I’m really very, very sorry, Mrs Hawkin.’
‘Don’t call me that,’ she said, her voice a series of glottal sobs. ‘Don’t give me his name.’
‘I won’t,’ George said. ‘And I’ll do my best to make sure no other police officer does.’
‘You’re sure, aren’t you?’ she said through stiff lips. ‘In your heart, you’re sure she’s dead?’
George wanted to be anywhere but in Ruth Carter’s kitchen, nailed by her eyes against the truth. ‘I am,’ he said. ‘I can find no reason to think otherwise and a significant amount of circumstantial evidence that leads me to that conclusion. God knows, I don’t want to believe it, but I can’t not.’
Ruth began rocking to and fro in her chair, her arms clamped across her breasts, hands turned to claws in her armpits. Her head dropped back and she let out an agonized roar, the wordless cry of an animal wounded beyond recovery. Helpless, George sat like a block of wood. Somehow, he knew the worst thing he could do would be to touch her.
The noise stopped and her head fell forward, slack-jawed and flushed. Here yes glittered with tears unshed. ‘You get him hanged,’ she said, hard and clear.
He nodded, reaching for his cigarettes and lighting one. ‘I’ll try my best.’
She shook her head. ‘Never mind trying. Do it, George Bennett. Because if you don’t make sure he dies, somebody else will and it’ll be a damn sight less humane than what the hangman will do to him.’ Her vehemence seemed to have used her last reserve of energy. She turned away and said breathlessly, ‘Now go.’
George slowly got to his feet. ‘I’ll be back tomorrow, to take a statement. If you need anything, anything at all, you can reach me at the police station.’ He scrabbled in his jacket pocket for his notebook and scribbled his home number on a torn-out sheet of paper. ‘If I’m not there, call me at home. Any time. I’m sorry.’
He backed across the room and groped for the door handle. He closed the door behind him and leaned against the wall, cigarette smoke dribbling up his arm in a fragmented swirl. The sound of voices from down the hall led him to the cheerless room where the other Scardale women were besieging Tommy Clough. ‘To hell with the monkey, here comes the organ grinder,’ Maureen Carter said, catching sight of George. ‘You tell us. Are you going to hang that bastard Hawkin?’
‘I don’t make those decisions, Mrs Carter,’ George said, trying not to show how far past arguing he was. ‘Can I suggest that you’d be better off spending your time and your energy with Ruth? She needs your support. We’ll be leaving shortly, but there will be a guard on the outhouse overnight. I’d appreciate it if you’d all rally round Ruth now, and rack your brains for any little detail that might help us build our case.’
‘He’s right, leave him be,’ Ma Lomas said unexpectedly. ‘He’s only a lad and he’s had a lot to take in for one day. Come on, girls. We’d best see to Ruth.’ She shooed them out of the door ahead of her, then turned for the inevitable parting shot. ‘We won’t let you off this light again, lad. Time to shape up.’ She shook her head. ‘I blame the old squire. He should have known better. Half an hour with Philip Hawkin and there’s one thing you know for certain. Who spared that would drown nothing.’ The door closed behind her with a sharp snick.
As if choreographed, George and Clough subsided into chairs opposite each other, their faces as drained as their spirits. ‘I never want to have to do that again,’ George sighed on an exhalation of smoke. He cast around looking for an ashtray, but none of the ornaments held out any possibilities. He settled for nipping the hot coal off with his fingers and dropping it in the empty grate.
‘Chances are you’ll have to before you get your pension,’ Clough said. In the hall, a phone began to ring. On the sixth or seventh ring, it was picked up. A murmur of interrogatory speech, then footsteps approached the parlour door. Diane Lomas poked her head round and said, ‘It’s for the inspector. Somebody called Carver.’
Wearily, George pulled himself out of the armchair and across the room. He lifted the receiver and said, ‘DI Bennett.’
‘What the bloody hell do you think you’re playing at, Bennett? I’ve got Alfie Naden reading the riot act in here, claiming we’ve shoved his client in the cells without so much as a by-your-leave, and left him to stew while you go gadding around Derbyshire on another wild-goose chase.’
And how, George wondered, had the town’s most expensive lawyer found out that Philip Hawkin was in custody in the first place? Cragg was a useless wassock, but he wouldn’t have phoned the solicitor without George’s say-so. It looked like Carver hadn’t learned the lesson of Peter Crowther’s death and was behaving like a law unto himself again. George choked back an angry retort and said, ‘I was about to come back to the station and charge Mr Hawkin.’
‘With what? Naden said you told Hawkin he was being arrested on suspicion of murder. You’ve not got a murder to charge him with!’ Carver’s broad Midlands accent always thickened under pressure. George recognized the signs of a man whose temper was about to burst the dam. That made two of them.
Biting down hard on his anger, he spoke calmly. ‘I’ll be charging him with rape, sir. For starters. That should give us enough breathing space
