Martin Edwards - The Cipher Garden

The ringtone of her mobile pierced the silence.

‘Hannah Scarlett.’

‘Nick.’

‘Oh, hi.’

‘Are you OK?’

‘Yes, sure.’

‘I mean, you sounded…never mind.’

‘You wanted to talk?’

‘How about this afternoon?’

‘I’m off duty but Marc’s driving down to Derbyshire. I’d thought of going to a skydiving event. You might like to come along.’

‘Are you serious?’

‘There’s an ulterior motive.’

A laugh. ‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’

‘Kirsty Howe is one of the parachutists and I’d like to talk to her again. We didn’t get off on the right foot. She may be more relaxed if we meet on her home ground.’

‘If she’s a skydiver, maybe she doesn’t do relaxation. But I’m happy to meet you there.’

‘We can have a heart to heart.’

Suddenly, she wanted very much to be with a man who cared for her. Not a lover, but someone she could rely on. Would she tell Nick about the baby? Not yet, it was too early. She needed to see her GP to confirm the result from the testing kit, but her guess was that she was a month gone. She wasn’t intending to broadcast the news until she’d made it through the first twelve weeks. So much could yet go wrong. She was frightened of tempting fate.

‘I couldn’t do it,’ Louise said. ‘I just couldn’t do it.’

‘I can see the appeal, in a funny kind of way,’ Miranda said. ‘Skydiving is all about living dangerously, isn’t it?’

Behind the wheel, Daniel uttered a silent prayer that she wouldn’t develop a new passion for extreme sports. Dodging bikers on the narrow lanes was dangerous enough.

‘I’m keen to continue living, I suppose,’ Louise said. ‘Danger, I can do without.’

Miranda gave a sigh of dissent. Louise was going home the day after tomorrow, Daniel thought, Miranda had won. She didn’t need to bite her tongue any more, didn’t need to avoid petty disagreements for the sake of diplomatic relations.

‘We all need a little danger in our lives, if you ask me. I can see the appeal of jumping out of a plane with nothing to rely on but your parachute, no one to trust but yourself. Women are supposed to be well suited to it, Kirsty said so last night when we were leaving. They have the physical flexibility as well as stamina.’

‘She didn’t look well to me. Pale and drawn. I hope she’s going to be all right.’

‘Lovesick,’ Miranda diagnosed. ‘She fancies Oliver.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I saw the way she looked at him when she thought nobody was watching. Not even him. Poor thing, my bet is, she’s doomed to be disappointed. If you ask me, he only has eyes for Bel.’

The airfield stretched across low, flat terrain on the southern tip of the county. It had been an RAF base during the Second World War, but since then it had seen little action more exciting than the occasional car boot sale. In the Nineties, skydiving enthusiasts from universities and colleges had begun to utilise it and today there was a huge banner above the entrance proclaiming the Lakeland Parachutists’ Club Annual Charity Freeflying Day.

The lane skirting the perimeter had been colonised by traders selling ice creams, floppy hats and sun block and a field had been turned into a car park. The Lexus was air-conditioned, but the moment Hannah climbed out, the heat smothered her. The afternoon was so humid that she could scarcely breathe. It was an effort to drag one leg after the other as she crossed the lane. How much of her exhaustion was down to the weather, and how much to pregnancy, she wasn’t sure, but she was praying for a thunderstorm to cleanse the atmosphere.

She made a donation to the students rattling tin boxes at the entrance and looked around for Nick. Each of the students wore a sweatshirt bearing the question Fancy a Jump? Upwards of two hundred people were milling around on this side of a fence and a signboard labelled — Danger — Keep Out — Dropzone . The first face she recognised belonged to Tina Howe. She was wearing a sleeveless top and a short white skirt that displayed long tanned legs. When their eyes met, the older woman stared in surprise, but after a brief pause, she pushed past a group of lager-swilling girls and made her way to Hannah’s side.

‘I didn’t expect to see you, Chief Inspector. What brings you here?’

‘Curiosity, I guess, Mrs Howe. I’ve seen skydiving on TV, but never in real life. I thought it was time to fill the gap in my education.’

‘You know Kirsty’s freeflying today?’

Hannah nodded. ‘Sounds terrifying to me. I did a little research. Freefly involves falling through the air with your head facing down?’

‘Twice the speed of conventional skydiving, she tells me.’ Tina exhaled. ‘I’ve only dared to watch her once before and my heart was in my mouth when she hit the ground. According to her, the only serious risk is if you try to show off with some hair-raising stunt and miscalculate so that you hit the ground hard instead of skimming over the dropzone and landing perfectly. But when I tell her to take care, she says I’m a whuffo.’

‘A whuffo?’

‘An American term, it’s what skydivers call sane people who ask the obvious question. What for you guys jump out of them aeroplanes? Kirsty reckons skydiving is the best fun she’s ever had.’ She folded her arms across her breasts. ‘Tell you what, I never had hundreds of people watching the best fun I ever had, but it takes all sorts. Are you here with anyone?’

‘I might ask you the same question.’

‘I sent Sam for ice creams, Peter’s gone for a pee. So you’re on your own?’

‘Looking out for a friend of mine.’

‘Another police officer?’

‘Why do you ask?’

A scornful noise. ‘You’re not telling me you’ve suddenly developed an interest in skydiving. You’re here for a reason.’

Hannah held her gaze. ‘Kirsty must have stacks of courage. Any skydiver must, I’d say. Yet she seems to me to be worried sick. It’s the contradiction that fascinates me.’

‘She is a brave girl. Sensitive, too, her feelings are close to the surface. Not like me or her dad. Or her brother, come to that. But you’re wasting your time if you think you’ll be able to worm something out of her about Warren’s murder. She won’t tell you anything new. There’s nothing to tell.’

‘Daniel!’ Peter Flint was gorging on his cornet and there was a smear of vanilla ice cream on his chin. His shorts exposed bony knees and made him look like an overgrown schoolboy. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’

‘We had a meal at The Heights yesterday evening,’ Daniel said. Miranda and Louise had wandered off to look at the bric-a-brac for sale on the stalls. ‘Kirsty mentioned that she’d be here today and we decided to take a look.’

‘Just as exciting to watch as to participate, if you ask me, and a hell of a lot safer. Not that Kirsty would agree. She keeps assuring her mother that freeflying is statistically less risky than fly-fishing. Anglers are constantly slipping off wet rocks and drowning in rivers or lakes, it seems. Parachutists come through thousands of jumps without a scratch.’

Daniel laughed. ‘You know what they say about lies, damned lies…’

‘And statistics, yes. Glad to bump into you. I was meaning to get in touch.’

‘I’m still mulling over your sketches.’

‘I wasn’t meaning to hassle you for business. Sam mentioned something that I thought would interest you. He once heard his father talking about a garden at Tarn Fold.’

Daniel stared at him. ‘Warren Howe?’

‘Yes. According to Sam, he knew people in Brackdale, they told him the story.’

‘What story?’