8.

It really was such a shame about the Light House. For generations, people had known where they were when they saw the pub. They had chosen it as a meeting place, as a halfway point on a journey, as a perfect spot to stop for a breather and admire the view.

The trouble was, not enough of them had actually been going inside, except to use the toilets. No one had recommended eating a meal there for years. No one even chose the Light House for a drinking session. It was impossible to include in a stag-night pub crawl because it was so far out of town. In its last few years it didn't even have real ale on tap to attract the aficionados, and that meant even morris dancers stayed away. Reputation was everything in the pub business. The Light House had possessed a good reputation once. But that had long since trickled away a and with it the majority of its customers.

Cooper walked up from the car park on to the front terrace, which looked out over the valley. It had been a favourite spot to sit in the summer, when the weather was good. He'd sat there many times himself, gazing towards the horizon where the hills disappeared in a warm haze.

But his eye was still drawn towards the pub itself a blank, windowless and dead. The facade had looked Georgian in style, with big sash windows placed in perfect symmetry. Now, those windows had vanished underneath the boarding. He wondered if they would ever re-emerge and light up the way they once had, re-creating that familiar landmark. He didn't feel optimistic about the prospect. Once things had gone, they tended to stay that way. The past didn't come back.

'I thought they would be here already,' said Villiers, leaning against the bonnet of Cooper's car. 'I wonder where they are.'

'I don't know,' said Cooper. 'They don't intend to share everything they do with us, that's obvious.'

'Is that the way it is these days?'

'I think we just got unlucky,' said Cooper.

'DS Fry is a good officer, I think.'

Cooper glanced at Villiers, wondering why she felt the need to defend Diane Fry.

'Yes, of course she is.'

He couldn't make his mind up about Carol Villiers any more. He'd thought he knew her well, but the woman who'd transferred into Derbyshire Constabulary wasn't the same person who'd left the area for service with the RAF Police.

He recalled the day not long after Villiers had arrived when he'd see her driving away from the car park at E Division headquarters with Diane Fry. He'd thought about the moment many times in the weeks afterwards, trying to imagine what they might have in common, what they might have had to talk about. But he'd never come to any logical conclusion, not one that made any sense to him anyway. Not one that he wanted to think about too deeply.

And it was a sign of how his trust in Villiers had begun to ebb away that he'd never felt able to ask her the question. It was too late now, of course.

Villiers looked at her watch. 'Maybe we should get on.'

'We'll be okay for a few minutes.'

'If you say so.'

Cooper had wanted to get a look at the pub one way or another. It wasn't right that he'd let Fry find a body when he should have been here himself. This building seemed to stand like a rebuke, a symbol of his failure. He needed to find out what its secret was, if it had one.

Close up, the story of the Light House was even sadder. Weeds sprouted in the tarmac of the car park, along the edges of the walls and even in the guttering. Green stains ran down the stone where the gutters were blocked. Bird droppings streaked every surface. Foxes had left their spraints in the long gra.s.s growing rank and untidy where the beer garden had once been. From the looks of it, the only visitors to the pub in recent months had been a string of vandals, who'd scrawled casual graffiti on the boards over the windows.

It was disturbing how quickly a building began to deteriorate when it was left unoccupied. The pub was like a grand old lady down on her luck, left alone and unloved, with her elegant clothes frayed at the edges, her hair unwashed and her fingernails dirty. She looked lost and ashamed, with her eyes closed against the light.

At the rear stood a range of outbuildings that had been used for storage, including two garages. Rubbish had been burned in an open s.p.a.ce. A huge pile of old furniture was stacked against the back wall of the pub. Heavy tables with metal bases, wrought-iron chairs, a heap of torn parasols on steel posts.

On the south side, even the conservatory had been boarded over. Since it consisted mostly of gla.s.s, the result was a monstrosity of hardboard, like some giant armoured beetle or an above-ground nuclear bunker. In its time it had been a pleasant place to sit, even on a cold day, its bright and airy s.p.a.ce a contrast to the dark interior of the pub.

This was the place where he'd once sat with Diane Fry. But that was in a whole different universe.

He turned and looked up the hill. The smoke was drifting closer again. Cooper screwed his eyes up against the light, unsure of what he was seeing. Shadows. Yes, shadows in the smoke. Dark and insubstantial, moving in and out of the murk, their movements flickering and unnatural. He tried to follow their direction, but quickly lost them. It was as if they had simply slipped out of the world around them and stepped into another dimension.

He strained his eyes to probe the billowing clouds, and thought he saw something once again. But it resolved into the corner of a stone wall, which dropped teasingly into sight for a moment, then vanished again. Perhaps they had been just shadows after all, an effect of the sun still shining down through the smoke. Or maybe it had been a couple of stray sheep, lost and bewildered on the moor.

'Really,' said Villiers. 'We should probably get moving.'

'Don't worry.'

Although Fry and Mackenzie weren't here, the pub was far from deserted. It was a suspected murder scene, and that changed everything. The scenes-of-crime team were at full stretch now, with scene examiners drafted in from other divisions. He couldn't see Liz, but he knew she was on duty, so she'd be working somewhere. They tried not to see too much of each other on duty, in case there was talk.

The forced door and loose panel had been examined for tool marks and dusted for fingerprints, and the position of the suspect white pickup had been established from evidence of flattened weeds in the car park. It was lucky that the road had been closed for the fire on the moors. It meant that no one had been here between the departure of the pickup and the arrival of Fry's Audi, which she'd left in the entrance.

Inside the pub, lights had been set up and a series of stepping plates and yellow evidence markers surrounded the position of the body, as well as the route the victim and his a.s.sailants had taken from the door. Two SOCOs in scene suits were still combing the adjacent floor and walls for traces, tracking the direction of blood spatter and photographing shoe marks in the dust.

'DS Cooper, isn't it? You're on my crime scene.'

Cooper backed away from the door and found DCI Mackenzie behind him, with Fry at his elbow. Mackenzie's voice was mild, but there was a cool undertone to his words, and a penetrating gaze in the eyes below the quizzically raised eyebrows.

'I thought DC Villiers ought just to see the location,' Cooper said.

He gestured towards Carol Villiers, who was waiting at a safe distance. Trust Carol a she had more sense than he did at a crime scene.

Mackenzie nodded. 'Okay. Well while you're here, Cooper, you might see if you can deal with the natives for us.'

'Who'

Cooper looked towards the road, and saw a silver Volvo estate that had been stopped at the outer cordon. An elderly man in a suit was standing talking to a uniformed officer just outside the tape.

'Fine,' said Cooper. 'I know who that is.'

Thomas Pilkington was the old man of the auctioneers Pilkington and Son. He'd been around the Eden Valley for years a a member of the Rotary Club, a former town councillor, a drinking companion of the golf club captain and the editor of the Eden Valley Times. The son of the firm was Jeremy Pilkington, quite a different proposition, more often to be seen in a red MG on his way to the sailing club at Carsington. Cooper felt sure Jeremy must now be the driving force behind the company.

Old Thomas had been the auctioneer at the cattle market in Edendale for decades. His voice was familiar to generations of farmers and livestock dealers. In fact it had been hard to escape for anyone pa.s.sing within two hundred yards of the sale ring near the town's railway station. Cooper remembered the sound as an integral feature of shopping trips to Edendale on cattle market days. Thomas Pilkington's voice still played as part of the soundtrack to his childhood memories, along with the pop music he'd grown up listening to during all those long, hot summers.

But Edendale cattle market had closed years ago, losing the battle against movement restrictions and compet.i.tion from the new agricultural business centre fifteen miles away at Bakewell, part of a twelve-million-pound regeneration project. With the loss of the mainstay of their business, Pilkington and Son must have been close to the edge. No doubt it had been Jeremy who pushed for the move towards property auctions. That was still a thriving sector. Booming these days, in fact. But it was ironic that the firm should find itself auctioning off other businesses that could no longer compete.

Pilkington must be well into his seventies now. He was a red-faced man with an expanding belly almost bursting the b.u.t.tons of his suit jacket. His complexion was just right to allow him to blend in with the farmers and livestock dealers who'd been his customers for all those years. He could have pa.s.sed for a butcher or gamekeeper. But as a property agent, he was projecting the wrong image.

Cooper escorted him from the cordon via the safe route that had been marked out, and Fry cut across to intercept them, as if she didn't trust Cooper within fifty yards of the crime scene.

'My son is dealing with this property actually,' Pilkington said, confirming Cooper's suspicion. 'I don't know all that much about it. But he's out of the country at the moment and it seems I'm responsible for it, so I'm the one who was called out by your people.'

'Can't you tell us anything, Mr Pilkington?'

'Well, this is a free house and can be sold with all fixtures and fittings, should someone wish to continue with the current use. Alternatively it can be sold as a development opportunity and could feasibly be turned into residential accommodation, or a bed and breakfast business. Ample parking, et cetera.'

'The pub was owned by the licensee himself? Not by a brewery or a pub company?'

'No, Mr Wharton owned the pub outright. Or rather ...'

Fry looked at him. 'What?'

'Let me consult the file.'

'Please do.'

After a moment, Pilkington seemed to find the form he was looking for.

'Yes, here we are. There's quite a substantial charge against the property. Mmm. Yes, quite substantial. Mr and Mrs Wharton committed themselves to a large refinancing package, with the property as security. It seems they defaulted on payments to the financial inst.i.tution involved. That's very unfortunate. It should never have been allowed to get to that stage. I suspect Mr Wharton must have received some bad advice.'

'So it belongs to the bank?'

'Well ... mostly to the creditors, yes. It seems the Whartons were obliged to sell when the incomings no longer matched the outgoings.'

'They went bust.'

'It's rather a crude term. More of a tabloid journalist's expression.'

'But still ...?'

'That's the gist of it, yes,' admitted Pilkington.

'And now it's a dead duck. Who would buy a failed pub?'

'It's an opportunity to regenerate an underperforming business,' said Pilkington stiffly. 'An adjustment of the food and drink split, a shift to a more dry-led trading model. The potential incomings-'

'Save it,' said Fry.

'It could be a unique destination food house. We expect to get a good price at auction.'

Fry looked at Pilkington as if she was going to hit him. Cooper was more reluctant to upset anyone in the property business. You never knew how word might get around in a place like Edendale. But Fry didn't care, clearly. She had no intention of ever buying property in this area. She'd never made any secret of it. Property ownership meant roots. It certainly involved financial ties. All the things Diane Fry didn't want.

'This is a landmark property, freehold and free of tie, with function room and guest accommodation. It ought to be an easy sell.' Pilkington looked faintly apologetic at his use of the phrase. 'Well, that's what my son says. A full commercial kitchen, with gla.s.s wash and preparation room. Three-bedroom self-contained owner's accommodation, with four en suite guest bedrooms. Goodwill, plus stock at valuation.'

Cooper recalled reading in the local newspaper that the freehold for another famous landmark inn in the Peak District had sold recently for one and a half million pounds. Who would have that kind of money available to rescue the Light House from its fate?

Pilkington eyed Fry nervously as she walked away. Then he turned to Cooper as if to share a confidence.

'To be honest, the turnover doesn't look too good on paper,' he said. 'We're advised by our clients that business was more than acceptable a few years ago, but it began to decline. Potential buyers don't like to see a downturn on gross profits when they examine the financial records.'

'No, of course.'

'There were particular problems here, though.'

'Oh, were there?'

'Well, for example a a lot of businesses in the hospitality sector rely on making a profit over the holiday period. It can compensate for flat trading during the rest of the year. But the Light House had developed the practice of closing over Christmas. You can understand it on a personal level, I suppose. We all like to spend time with our families. But from a business point of view, it didn't help the bottom line at all.'

A scatter of soot on the wind and the acrid smell of burning heather reminded them that a wildfire was burning on the moor not too far away.

'They need to put that fire out,' said Pilkington nervously.

'They're doing their best, sir.'

'They need to put it out. It mustn't be allowed to get any closer to the property.'

'I'm sure the firefighters will have it under control in a day or two.'

'A day or two? Are you serious?'

'These moorland fires can burn for weeks. The fire gets right down into the peat, you see, and then there's no way of putting it out. It just keeps smouldering away down there, and burning back up to the surface again. That could go on all summer. Or until we get some decent rain, anyway.'

'That can't be possible surely.'

'I'm afraid so, sir. But the firefighting teams will make it a priority to prevent the blaze spreading this way so as to protect your property.'

He turned and looked at the derelict inn as he spoke, the shuttered windows and boarded-up door, the gra.s.s growing on the car park, the weeds sprouting from the roof. And he wondered what there was to protect, really.

'They should have had protection by occupation,' said Pilkington. 'My son advised it, but they didn't take up the option.'

'A live-in guardian, you mean?'

'Exactly. Someone who lives on site temporarily for a small rent. It would have worked here, I'm sure. There's separate owner's accommodation already in place. A guardian could have looked after the property a bit better, and prevented it from becoming such an eyesore. Not that the right buyer won't see the potential ...'

'Yes, of course.'

'There have been a lot of rumours about problems with the pub since it closed. Reports of squatters and drug users, but they turned out not to be true. And word has been going round Edendale that there were major subsidence issues, due to the old mine workings.'

'Yes, I heard that rumour myself.'

'Well that isn't true either,' said Pilkington. 'It's all very unhelpful. That type of story tends to put off a lot of buyers.'

Cooper thought about where the Light House stood. He supposed its original builders hadn't chosen its position for the views. Until the arrival of the Romantic movement, this landscape would have been considered wild and barbaric, so lacking in civilisation as to be devoid of interest. After all, the eighteenth-century novelist Daniel Defoe had called the Peak District 'a houling wilderness'. The heather itself had been despised as a symbol of rural poverty.

No, this had been a practical choice of location. Travellers pa.s.sing over the moors needed somewhere to stop for the night, a place to change or rest their horses. The inn's lights appearing in the dusk must have been a welcome sight to many thousands of people over the years. It was only much later that they came here for the view.

Thomas Pilkington left after handing over the keys to the pub. As his Volvo estate drove away, another vehicle was pulling up to the outer cordon. An unmarked Vauxhall Corsa CID pool car. And surely that was Gavin Murfin at the wheel? Not many officers drove with one hand while eating a sausage roll from the other.

Cooper shook his head. Murfin was probably just curious about what was going on. He couldn't blame him for that. It was why he was here himself. But Gavin's presence at the Light House was the last thing he needed right now. It was like tossing a burning rag into a pool of oil.

He tried making gestures at the Corsa. Go away, Gavin. But Murfin had wound the driver's window down and was having a chat with the uniformed officer on duty. Everyone knew DC Murfin. He'd been in E Division for ever. Within a few minutes, he would know far more about the crime scene than Cooper did himself.

Cooper wasn't the only person who'd noticed the pool car arrive, either. Fry was stomping about like an angry wasp.

'Shouldn't you and your team be somewhere?' she said, approaching Cooper. 'Going over the Pearsons' movements, perhaps? Wasn't that what we all agreed at the briefing this morning?'