The Running Grave — страница 133 из 179

‘If you wuz on the vegetable run, they gave you a little clock to wake yourself.’

‘You were sleeping in the children’s dormitory the night before the trip to the beach, right?’

‘Yeah,’ she said uneasily, ‘I wuz on child duty.’

‘And who was going to be looking after the kids, once you’d left on the vegetable run?’

After yet another pause, Carrie said,

‘Well… there’d still be someone there, after I’d gone. There wuz always two grown-ups or teenagers in with the children overnight.’

‘Who was the other person on duty that night?’

‘I… can’ remember.’

‘Are you sure someone else was there, Carrie?’ asked Robin. ‘Emily told me that there were usually two adults in the room, but that that night it was only you.’

‘She’s wrong,’ said Carrie. ‘There wuz always two.’

‘But you can’t remember who the other person was?’ said Strike.

Carrie shook her head.

‘So you were woken up by your alarm clock. Then what happened?’

‘Well, I – I woke Daiyu up, di’n’ I?’

‘Had Jordan Reaney been given an alarm clock, too?’

‘Wha’?’

‘He was supposed to be on the vegetable run, too, wasn’t he?’

Another pause.

‘He overslept.’

‘You wouldn’t have had room for Daiyu if he hadn’t overslept, would you?’

‘I can’ remember all the details now. I jus’ know I woke up Daiyu and we got dressed and went to the van.’

‘Did you have to load vegetables onto the truck?’ asked Strike.

‘No. Everythin’ was already in it. From the night before.’

‘So you and Daiyu got in, taking towels for your swim?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Can I ask something?’ said Robin. ‘Why was Daiyu wearing a dress, instead of a tracksuit, Carrie? Or didn’t church members wear tracksuits, in the nineties?’

‘No, we wore ’em… but she wan’ed to wear her dress.’

‘Were the other children allowed normal clothes?’ asked Strike.

‘No.’

‘Did Daiyu got special treatment, because she was the Waces’ child?’

‘I s’pose – a bit,’ said Carrie.

‘So you drove out of the farm. Did you pass anyone?’

‘Yeah,’ said Carrie. ‘The people on early duty.’

‘Can you remember who they were?’

‘Yeah… what’s-his-name Kennett. And a bloke called Paul, and a girl called Abigail.’

‘Where did you go, after you’d left the farm?’

‘To the two grocers.’

‘What grocers?’

‘There wuz one in Aylmerton and one in Cromer we used to sell to.’

‘Did Daiyu get out of the van at either of the grocers?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘Well – why would she?’ said Carrie, and for the very first time, Strike heard a trace of defiance. ‘People came out from the shops to unload the boxes. I on’y got out to make sure they took what they’d ordered. She stayed in the van.’

‘Then what happened?’

‘We wen’ to the beach,’ said Carrie, her voice noticeably stronger now.

‘How did you get down to the beach?’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘Did you walk, run—?’

‘We walked. I carried Daiyu.’

‘Why?’

‘She wan’ed me to.’

‘Did anyone see this?’

‘Yeah… an old woman in the café.’

‘Did you see her watching you at the time?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Were you parked very near her café?’

‘No. We wuz a bit along.’

Strangely, Strike thought, she seemed more confident now they were discussing the events that were presumably among the most traumatic of her memories than she’d seemed talking about Chapman Farm.

‘What happened when you got to the beach?’

‘We got undressed.’

‘So you were intending to swim, rather than to paddle?’

‘No, jus’ to paddle.’

‘So why take off all your outer clothing?’

‘I didn’ want Daiyu gettin’ her dress soakin’ wet. I told her she’d be uncomfortable on the way back. Daiyu said she wouldn’ take off her dress if I didn’ take off my tracksuit, so I did.’

‘Then what happened?’

‘We wen’ into the sea,’ said Carrie. ‘We paddled a bit and she wanted to go deeper. I knew she would. She wuz like that.’

‘Like what?’

‘Brave,’ said Carrie. ‘Adventurous.’

These were exactly the words she’d used at the inquest, Strike remembered.

‘So she went in deeper?’

‘Yeah. An’ I wen’ after her. An’ then she sort of – launched herself forwards, like she wuz goin’ to swim, but I knew she couldn’. I called to her to come back. She wuz laughin’. Her feet could still touch the bottom. She wuz wadin’ out, tryin’ to get me to chase her. And then – she wuz gone. She just went under.’

‘And what did you do?’

‘Swam out to try an’ get her, obviously,’ said Carrie.

‘You’re a strong swimmer, right?’ said Strike. ‘You give lessons, don’t you?’

‘Yeah,’ said Carrie.

‘Did you hit the rip current as well?’

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I got pulled into it, but I knew what to do. I got out, but I couldn’ get to Daiyu, an’ I couldn’ see ’er any more, so I wen’ back to the beach, to get the coastguard.’

‘Which is when you met the Heatons, walking their dog?’

‘Yeah, exactly,’ said Carrie.

‘And the coastguard went out, and the police came?’

‘Yeah,’ said Carrie. Robin had the sense she relaxed slightly as she said it, as though she’d come to the end of an ordeal. Strike turned a page in the notebook in which he’d been writing.

‘Mrs Heaton says you ran off up the beach when the police came, and started poking at some seaweed.’

‘No, I didn’,’ said Carrie quickly.

‘She remembered that quite clearly.’

‘It didn’ happen,’ said Carrie, the defiance now pronounced.

‘So the police arrived,’ said Strike, ‘and walked you back up to the van, right?’

‘Yeah,’ said Carrie.

‘Then what happened?’

‘I can’ remember exactly,’ said Carrie, but she immediately contradicted herself. ‘They took me to the station and I told them what had happened and then they took me back to the farm.’

‘And informed Daiyu’s parents what had happened?’

‘On’y Mazu, because Papa J wuzn’ – no, he wuz there,’ she corrected herself, ‘he wuzn’ supposed to be, but he wuz. I saw Mazu first, but Papa J called me to see him after a bit, to talk to me.’

‘Jonathan Wace wasn’t supposed to be at the farm that morning?’ said Strike.

‘No. I mean, yeah, he wuz. I can’ remember. I thought he wuz goin’ away that mornin’, but he didn’ go. And I didn’ see him the moment I got back, so I thought he’d gone, but he wuz there. It’s a long time ago, now,’ she said. ‘It all gets jumbled up.’

‘Where was Wace supposed to be that morning?’

‘I don’ know, I can’ remember,’ said Carrie, a little desperately. ‘I made a mistake: he wuz there when I got back, I just didn’ see him. He wuz there,’ she repeated.

‘Were you punished, for taking Daiyu to the beach without permission?’ said Robin.

‘Yeah,’ said Carrie.

‘What punishment were you given?’ asked Robin.

‘I don’ wanna talk about that,’ said Carrie, her voice strained. ‘They wuz angry. They had every right to be. If somebody had taken one of my little—’

Carrie emitted something between a gasp and a cough and began to cry again. She rocked backwards and forwards, sobbing into her hands for a couple of minutes. When Robin silently mimed to Strike an offer of comfort to Carrie, Strike shook his head. Doubtless he’d be accused of heartlessness again on the return journey, but he wanted to hear Carrie’s own words, not her response to somebody else’s sympathy or ire.

‘I’ve regretted it all my life, all my life,’ Carrie sobbed, raising her swollen-eyed face, tears still coursing down her cheeks. ‘I felt like I didn’ deserve Poppy and Daisy, when I had ’em! I shouldn’ of agreed… why did I do it? Why? I’ve asked myself that over ’n’ over, but I swear I never wan’ed – I wuz young, I knew it wuz wrong, I never wan’ed it to happen, oh God, and then she wuz dead and it wuz real, it wuz real…

‘What d’you mean by that?’ said Strike. ‘What d’you mean by “it was real”?’

‘It wuzn’ a joke, it wuzn’ pretend – when you’re young, you don’ think stuff like that happens – but it wuz real, she wuzn’ comin’ back…’

‘The inquest must have been difficult for you,’ said Strike.

‘Of course it wuz,’ said Carrie, her face wet, her breathing still laboured, but with a trace of anger.

‘Mr Heaton says you spoke to him outside, after it was over.’

‘I can’ remember that.’

‘He remembers. He particularly remembers you saying to him, “I could have stopped it.”’

‘I never said that.’

‘You’re denying saying “I could have stopped it” to Mr Heaton?’

‘Yeah. No. I don’… maybe I said somethin’ like, “I could’ve stopped her goin’ in so deep.” That’s wha’ I meant.’

‘So you remember saying it now?’

‘No, but if I said it… that’s what I meant.’

‘It’s just a strange form of words,’ said Strike. ‘“I could have stopped it”, rather than, “I could have stopped her.” Were you aware there was a custody battle going on for Daiyu, at the time you took her to the beach?’

‘No.’

‘You hadn’t heard any talk about the Graves family wanting Daiyu to go and live with them?’

‘I heard… I heard somethin’ about how there wuz people who wanted to take Daiyu off her mum.’

‘That’s the Graveses,’ said Strike.

‘Oh. I thought it wuz social workers,’ said Carrie, and she said a little wildly, ‘they have too much power.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘A friend of mine’s fosterin’. She has a terrible time with the social workers. Power mad, some of them.’

‘Can we go back to the night before you and Daiyu went swimming?’ said Strike.

‘I’ve already told you everythin’. I’ve said it all.’

‘We’ve heard you gave the children special drinks that night.’

‘No, I didn’!’ said Carrie, now turning pink.

‘The Pirbright children remember differently.’

‘Well, they’re wrong! Maybe someone else gave ’em drinks and they’re confusin’ it with that night.