“I thought that was me done for,” said Tristan, spitting out more sand. “Jesus.”
Three police officers were leading Bill away toward the houses.
“We need to move, quickly,” said another of the officers, coming over to Kate and touching her on the shoulder. “The tide’s coming in, and it can move faster than we can walk.”
Far ahead, Kate saw a foamy carpet of water creeping toward them.
“Are you okay?” she said, helping Tristan to his feet.
“No, but I will be,” he said. “What about you? You need to get your arm seen to.”
Kate nodded, but she didn’t feel any pain. She just felt euphoria. They’d got him. They’d solved the case. She took Tristan’s arm, and they started back across the sand toward the safety of the shore.
48
Four days later, at four o’clock on Friday morning, Kate and Tristan arrived back at Max and Bill’s house in Burnham-on-Sea.
It was still dark, and they’d seen the floodlit forensics tent from a couple of miles off, casting its spectral glow into the darkness. The parking spot near the house was filled with two police vans and a black forensics van, so Kate pulled past and parked up at the end of the sandy track.
The past four days had felt like a lifetime. When Bill had been taken into custody, he’d been in an emotional state, and Kate had naively presumed that he would repeat what he’d told her and Tristan. He’d been taken to Exeter police station, and he’d used his one phone call to contact Bev. Who in turn had called in a solicitor. Bill had refused to answer any questions, so now the pressure was on to find Joanna Duncan’s remains in the sand.
Kate had called Bev, but rather than being grateful for the breakthrough in the case, Bev had blamed Kate for everything. She refused to accept that Bill had been living another life, and even more steadfastly, she refused to believe that Bill had killed Joanna. A part of Kate understood the denial. After all those years of her crying on Bill’s shoulder and having his support, it would be hard to believe.
The police had been in contact with Max Jesper, and he had reacted in a similar way to Bev. He had remained in Spain, missing his flight home. Kate wondered how long Max would delay coming back.
DCI Faye Stubbs had kept in contact with Kate and Tristan, and things were now very tense. They had just a few hours to recover the car and charge Bill, before their time ran out and they had to release him. Noah Huntley had already been released, pending the investigation into Bill.
“Oh my Lord. The thought of going back on that beach,” said Tristan when Kate switched off the engine. It was pitch black outside, and the wind was rocking the car. Kate took his hand and squeezed it.
“You can stay in the car if it’s too much,” she said.
“Are you crazy? I want to see this through until the end,” he said with a laugh. They got out of the car and pulled on their warm coats and gloves. They walked down toward the beach and went to the police van, where Faye emerged from the side door.
“Morning,” she said. “Do you want a cuppa? We’re waiting for low tide, which should be in the next twenty minutes,” she said, checking her watch. “I just need to go and speak to the forensics team and the Coastguard. They’re setting up on the beach.”
Faye climbed over the barrier next to the track and headed off onto the beach. Kate and Tristan went into the warmth of the van, where two police officers sat with Styrofoam cups of tea. They said hello, and Tristan went to the small table with a kettle and cups and started to make tea for them both.
This was the third morning that Kate and Tristan had joined the search team on the beach. The police had guessed the trajectory Bill could have driven the car down the hill from the house. And they predicted it had left the track and gone straight out across the beach and into the sea. Even if Bill had been intending to drive in a straight line, the radius of his drive was wide. The police search team had used ground-penetrating radar to scour the area. A small transponder had been dragged toward the edge of the breakers on the back of a hovercraft borrowed from the Coastguard, and yesterday the radar had detected a large mass out at the very edge of the tide reach. There had only been time to drive in a metal pile to mark the spot before the tide came back in and made it impossible for a recovery operation. Today, they were hoping to return to the same spot and find something.
Kate and Tristan drank their tea standing outside the van with two police officers.
“I heard that you were the guys who searched the house?” said Kate to the officers.