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“Wrong answer, Mary. I’m very tired now.”
He strolled over to the other side of the room and rummaged around in his toolbox.
Chapter Forty-three
Gardener slipped into the incident room a little after seven-thirty in the evening, carrying a manila folder under his arm. He deposited the paperwork on the table, took a swig of water, and faced his men. There was a buzz of conversation like he’d never heard before. They were excited about something, especially Dave Rawson and Colin Sharp.
“Robbie Carter. I’m hoping you guys can bring something to the table. We really do need to find him soon.”
Sharp and Rawson both raised their arms. Gardener nodded to Rawson first.
“I’ve got something positive at last.”
Gardener breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, Dave, what have you got?”
“I met the guys in Brough, as you asked. Only got back half an hour ago. Basically, it’s as Maurice said last night. Jane Browne and her husband Raymond Culver spent a weekend camping in the area, but not where the body was found at Bedlam Rocks. They were north of Brough in a place called Warcop Fell. They’d been there three days when he wandered into the police station at two o’clock in the morning, claiming his wife was missing. He hadn’t seen her since he’d woken up at eight that morning.”
“And it took him till two the next morning to report her?”
“His excuse was that, as far as he understood, people had to be missing twenty-four hours before anything would be done. As the Brough police explained, maybe under normal circumstances that would be the case. But they were in an area inundated with walkers, full of nature paths, therefore, the authorities took any disappearance seriously.
“They alerted the air rescue services straight away and a search was mounted. According to them, they looked everywhere but found nothing. We know now why – they were in the wrong place altogether. They questioned him for three days and he appeared devastated. Kept going on about how much he loved her, and he thought the love was mutual. The only explanation he could come up with was she must have upped and left him.”
“Why? Did she take all her clothes with her?”
“Didn’t take anything. The police searched the area and went back to their camping ground: she’d left everything.”
“Doesn’t sound right to me,” said Reilly.
“So, what happened, Dave?” Gardener asked.
“They let him go after three days. They had nothing on him. They didn’t believe he’d done anything to her. He apparently went home and told the daughter, Grace. She didn’t take it very well. In fact, she reported the incident to the local police in Billingham. Even went to see the police in Brough.”
“What was the outcome?” Gardener asked.
“She put her side of the story to them. She didn’t like him. She figured the relationship between Raymond and her mother wasn’t as he’d claimed, that they used to argue a lot, and there were times when her mother had bruises, personality changes, but she wouldn’t talk about them. Grace reckoned it was all down to him.”
“All starting to sound very familiar,” said Reilly.
“Did they take her seriously?”
“Well, they had him back in the station at Brough,” continued Rawson, “but he claimed that Grace didn’t like him. They’d never got on from day one. Grace had it in for him. He told them all about her disruptive behaviour and how she often tried to wreck their plans, stop them from going away. He said her stories were not true. He and her mother had an excellent relationship.”
“Despite the bruises and the moods and the fact that she’d supposedly left him?” persisted Reilly.
“So, it’s possible something went wrong on the camping trip,” continued Cragg. “Maybe they argued, it got out of hand, he struck her... maybe he went too far. She died as a result, and he got rid of the body, buried her on Bedlam Rocks.”
Rawson held up the photo of Robbie Carter. “The police in Brough reckon this is Raymond Culver.”
There was a gasp of interest amongst the team. Gardener felt the net was closing, and he noticed an agitated Colin Sharp who obviously had news along similar lines.
“What have you got, Colin?”
“Very similar story to Dave’s. They also confirmed from the photo we have of Robbie Carter that was him.”
“Did they back up Grace’s story?”
“Yes and no. Although they weren’t keen on Raymond, they said they never heard or saw anything that gave them cause for concern.”
