Lewis had insisted on taking the woman who could make him considerably poorer there, despite the coming snow and encroaching darkness.
She slipped and fell, I heard him say.Drowned. Just like Jimmy.
This was no paranoia. Lewis had been faking his surprise ever since Jasmine had got here. Somehow he had known all about their marriage and plans to have a family– otherwise why would he have acted so coolly while Miranda and Holly were rightfully outraged? Or perhaps it didn’t matter to him because he was already planning to get rid of her, wasn’t he?
Now it made sense why he had wanted me to overhear his conversation with Jasmine in the kitchen this morning. I was the witness who would tell the police that he hadn’t coerced Jasmine into going. In fact, I would no doubt have said, he hadseemed genuinely excited about showing her the rock carving. There hadn’t been any hint of darker plans.
Trust me. I’m going to fix it.
I was the only person who suspected the truth. But unlike most true-crime documentary-makers, who trace backwards to get to the truth about what was behind some awful crime that had already happened, I had a chance to stop it.
I thought about going upstairs to talk to Holly, but it might take me ten or fifteen minutes to try to persuade her of my theory, and I was very aware that the clock was ticking. Lewis and Jasmine had headed to the caves almost an hour ago.
Oh God.
If I was right, she might already be dead.
18
I went straight out to the car.
Before starting the engine, I hesitated. Should I call the police? I knew that was what people always said you should do in these situations, but what was I supposed to say?I think my brother-in-law is planning to do something to his dad’s fiancée. Why? I half-overheard a couple of cryptic conversations and he seems awfully keen to take her on a trip to the local caves.
It sounded flimsy. There was nothing that would make the police jump into their squad cars and race to the scene. And wasn’t the nearest station two hours away in Inverness? If Lewis really was planning to murder Jasmine, the corpse would be cold by the time they got here, and Susan, the only local cop, had hardly been friendly when I’d gone to see her, even if she had then sent me Emma Fox’s details.
I decided to check it out first and pray I was wrong, that Lewis really did like Jasmine, that this was nothing more than a fun excursion.
I should let Holly know where I was going, though, in case she came downstairs and wondered where I was.
I sent her a text.Hey. I’ve gone to the caves.
I paused. Should I tell her about my fears?I think your brother is about to kill your dad’s new wife.What if I was wrong? Again, I decided to leave it. Because despite the churning in my gut, there was still a part of me that refused to believe it was true. I wanted to be wrong.
I want to see this Serpent Stone for myself. xxx
I started the car. I wasn’t even 100 per cent sure where the caves were, just that they were in the hills somewhere in the direction of the big ruined house.
The sky had darkened while I had been figuring out what to do, snow and clouds blocking out the sun, and it was so cold in the car I could see my breath. I sped down the hill, towards the village and the pub, then kept going in the direction Lewis and Jasmine had headed. Halfway up the hill, I saw a man who had been propping up the bar in the pub earlier. He appeared to be making his way home, head down, a little unsteady on his feet.
I pulled beside him and put the window down.
‘Hi,’ I said. ‘Could you tell me how to get to the caves? Where the Serpent Stone is?’
He scrutinized me. He had a nose like a purple Brussels sprout. ‘What do you want to go there for?’
‘Can you just tell me how to get there?’
He proceeded to give me a long explanation which boiled down to: drive straight and turn left at the electricity station.
I thanked him and drove on, going as fast as I dared on the bumpy, narrow mountain pass. Lewis would have had plenty of time to carry out his plan. I would almost certainly be too late to stop him, unless Jasmine had somehow figured out what he was doing and tried to get away. Bought herself some time. I had to try anyway.
This was not the right time to admire the view, but here, driving inland, it was just as beautiful, in that craggy Highlands way, as it was on the coast road. Greens and browns and greys, old wooden signposts with writing so faded it was impossible to read. In two separate places, waterfalls poured down the crooked surfaces of the cliffs above me, and downon the coast I could see a sandy beach, the sea battering the shore.
I turned left as the drunk guy had instructed, and then I saw it, up ahead. A tiny car park, in which the only vehicle was Lewis’s Mercedes.
I pulled in behind it and got out of the car. There was nothing to mark this spot out as a tourist attraction. No signs, just the opening of a cave at the base of the grey rock face above me. A dark opening which looked just about big enough to walk into. Easy to miss, despite what the guy had said. I knew the big house I kept seeing on the horizon was somewhere near here, but it was hidden by the cliff face.
I headed on foot along the path towards the cave. Loose rocks and slippery patches of grass dotted the path like traps. The sky was almost black now and, up here, exposed to the Scottish elements, the wind had a bite. Now I was here I could picture poor Samir freezing to death even more clearly. I could see it as if I were looking through a camera, framing it, reconstructing it.
