‘Ah, it wus “I could’ve stopped it”,’ he said.
‘You can’t remember th’exact words, not after all this time,’ said Shelley scornfully.
‘Do you shet up, woman,’ said Leonard, for the second time, no longer smiling. ‘I can, an’ I’ll tell you why, because I said back to her: “Nothing on earth’ll stop a rip tide.” Thass wut I said. An’ then she said, “I’ll navvar go swimming again” or sumthing, an’ I said, “Thass juss silly, after all tham medals,” an’ she kinda laughed—’
‘Laughed!’ said Shelley indignantly. ‘Laughed, an’ there’s a kid dead!’
‘—an’ she started telling me a bit about what she’d won, an’ then you come outta the bog,’ Leonard told Shelley, ‘an’ said we needed to get back to Betty, so off we went. But I know whar she practised wus open air, ’cause—’
‘’Cause you started picturing har in har undies again, probably,’ said Shelley, eyes on her audience, but nobody sniggered: they were all now interested in Leonard’s story.
‘—cause she said she trained at a lido. I remember that. You’ve olluz been hard on that gal,’ he said, looking sideways at his wife. ‘She warn’t as bad as you make out.’
‘It wus her fault,’ said Shelley implacably, with a supporting murmur from the two women on the sofa. ‘Bloody stupid thing to do, take a kid who can’t swim to the beach, that time in the morning. I spoke to the little gal’s aunt in the bathroom,’ she added, possibly to even up the score between herself and Leonard, who’d just excited so much interest from Strike, ‘an’ she agreed the blame wus what it belonged an’ she thanked me an’ Leonard fur whut we’d done, gettin’ the coastguard an’ oll that, an’ she said it wus a relief it wus oll over. Posh woman,’ Shelley added judiciously, ‘but very nice.’
‘Nearly there, just a few more questions,’ said Strike, casting an eye over his notes to check he hadn’t missed anything. ‘Did either of you see anyone else on the beach, before the police got there?’
‘No, there warn’t—’ began Shelley, but Leonard spoke over her.
‘There wus. There wus tha’ jogger.’
‘Oh, yeah, there wus him,’ said Shelley grudgingly. ‘But
‘When did you see him?’ asked Strike.
‘He run past us,’ said Leonard. ‘Not long after we got on the beach.’
‘Running towards the place where you met Cherie, or away from it?’ asked Strike.
‘Away,’ said Leonard.
‘Can you remember what he looked like?’
‘Big guy, I thenk,’ said Leonard, ‘but it wus dark.’
‘And he was on his own? Jogging, not carrying anything?’
‘No, he warn’t carrying nothing,’ said Leonard.
‘Given the timings, would he have passed Cherie and Daiyu when they were still on the beach, do you think? Or after they entered the water?’
The Heatons looked at each other.
‘Ahter,’ said Leonard. ‘Can’t’ve been more’n five minutes after we seen him, she come out the sea, screaming.’
Strike made a note, then asked,
‘Did you see or hear any boats in the area – before the coastguard went out, I mean?’
Both Heatons shook their heads.
‘And the van was empty when you got there?’
‘Ah, empty and locked up,’ said Leonard.
‘And how long did the coastguard look for the body, d’you know?’
‘Ah, they give it a good few days,’ said Leonard.
‘They said at the inquest she must’ve got dragged down and got stuck somewhar,’ said Shelley. ‘’S’orful, really,’ she said, fondling her tiny dog’s ears. ‘Whan you thenk about it… poor little gal.’
‘One last thing,’ said Strike, ‘would you happen to remember another drowning off the beach, back in 1988? A woman had a seizure in the water, not far from the shore.’
‘’Ang on a mo,’ piped up the wheezy George from the sofa. ‘’Eighty-eight? I remember that. I was
His companions all looked round at him, surprised.
‘Ah,’ said George excitedly, ‘if iss the one I’m thenking of, she wus with a little gal, too!’
‘That sounds right,’ said Strike. ‘The drowned woman was there with her husband and daughter. Did you see what happened?’
‘I seen a bloke with long har a-running into the sea and then him an’ another bloke dragging her up along the beach. The little gal wus crying and screaming. Tarrible business. The firs’ man gev har mouth to mouth until the ambulance came, but I hard after it was no good, she died. It wus in the paper. Epileptic. Tarrible business.’
‘Wut’s that got to do with our little gal?’ asked a curious Shelley.
‘The man whose wife died of the seizure in the water was Daiyu’s stepfather,’ said Strike.
‘Yes,’ said Strike, closing his notebook.
‘
‘It is, isn’t it?’ said Strike. ‘Well, I think that’s everything. You’ve been very helpful, thank you. I wonder whether you could give me directions to the bit of beach where you met Cherie?’
‘Straight down th’end of our road, turn left,’ said Leonard, pointing. ‘You can’t miss it, the old café and car park’s still thar.’
‘And where—?’ began Strike, turning to George, but the latter anticipated the question.
‘Same place,’ he said, and the three women gasped. ‘Exact same place.’
