Kelly read the notes on the gentleman who was waiting for her in an interview suite. He’d called in because he’d set up an animal hide at the location where he thought he had a pest problem. The Forestry Commission tended the woodland all over the Lake District, and the trees which straddled the A5091 were no exception. She had no idea until now that trees were so vulnerable to attack from disease, rodents and insects. She saw the mighty structures as invincible. The news that they perhaps weren’t was a shock.
Dean Strawbridge was what a Cumbrian might call a twitcher, or a curtain botherer. In other words, he sat in secluded camouflage hides and spied. But not on people, on animals. And a special type of animal: the aggressive and dangerous ones which might cause harm to his trees.
One such hideout was set up opposite the lay-by used by hikers to park their cars before they went for a leisurely walk up to Great Mell Fell.
Kelly entered the room and greeted him warmly. He looked like the outdoor type; he wore heavy boots, which were covered in mud, a long wax jacket, an old green jumper which looked like it had seen better days, and a flat cap. His cheeks were burnt ruddy from outdoor weathering, and he smiled broadly at her, like those attuned with nature were accustomed to.
‘Good afternoon, Mr Strawbridge, thank you so much for waiting, I was out of the office.’
‘No worries, it’s nice and warm in here. I’m not used to it. They gave me coffee.’
She noticed his hands hugging a mug from upstairs. Kelly smiled and pulled out a chair, sitting down opposite him.
‘It’s Dean, please,’ he said.
‘Ok, Dean, let’s have a look at your camera footage, shall we?’
He rummaged around in his pockets and pulled out a USB.
‘It looked like deer damage to me at first, but I know the Morningsides don’t have deer on their land, so I was stumped to be honest.’
Kelly hadn’t come down here to listen to a lesson on herbivore habits, but she listened patiently. One often learnt something from the most random witnesses. Besides, he had a smooth intonation to his voice. It reminded her of her father’s.
‘It’s not my business why you set up a hide there, Dean,’ she said.
She wanted to put him at ease. Poachers operated in the Lake District like everywhere else. It wasn’t her concern. She opened the laptop that was on the desk and inserted the USB. He carried on talking.
‘Deer activity decimates populations of trees. They like to mark their territory and they have a good scratch to remove their antler skin too. It’s my job to monitor the health of the trees on the Morningside land.’
‘I understand that’s the Forestry Commission’s job?’ Kelly asked.
‘Aye, I work for them. Some folks just take the money and plant and fence. I look after them.’
Kelly smiled. ‘That explains all the guards around the trees?’
He nodded.
‘Then I thought it might be grey squirrels. People think they’re soft and cuddly, but they’re a pain in the royal backside, excuse my French. They gnaw the stems to reach the sweet sap, they love it. But if they drink too much of the sugar the tree dies. It’s my job to stop that.’
‘Quite.’ She opened the file from the USB and turned the computer to face him, so they could both see.
‘Can you talk me through this?’
He put down his mug. ‘Aye.’
‘So, the Forestry Commission has responsibility for trees even on private land?’ she asked.
‘Aye, it’s an arrangement going back decades. We regulate private forestry and give advice.’
‘So, you had Samuel Morningside’s blessing?’
‘Aye. I’ve known Samuel for years, though I went to school with his son.’
‘Dorian?’
‘Aye, same. Nice lad.’
Kelly found it curious that a man the same age would refer to his peer as such. It was as if he saw Dorian as younger and certainly not of his era. But then Dean was one of those men who looked and acted older than his years.
‘Does Dorian help you out? I know he likes to check the property too.’
‘Ah, he does. He enjoys it. He sometimes comes to the hides and tells me if he’s spotted bark beetles and the like.’
‘Dorian seems to know every inch of the Morningside land.’
‘Aye, he does that.’
They returned to the footage. It was dark, and difficult to discern what they were looking at, but Dean’s commentary was exemplary.
‘Night vision has come a long way in the last ten years. The software we have picks up electrical current as well as heat. Look, there’s a badger.’
Kelly wouldn’t have had a clue what she was looking at had it not been for Dean’s help. It occurred to her that they could ask him to take a look at the footage of the person who dumped Victor’s car. She followed his finger and made out the shape of a large rodent-looking animal, and then saw its eyes. The shape was white, indicating a heat source.
‘They’re flies,’ he added, pointing at a misty swarm buzzing around the camera.
She concentrated on his explanation and forced herself to be patient.
‘Here we go,’ he said. ‘I saw the appeal for witnesses and when I next checked the hide footage, I found this. It’s dated Tuesday the eighth, this week.’ He said proudly.
She looked at the time. It was three twenty-five a.m. Kelly recalled the footage of what they thought was a woman driving Victor’s car, from the camera at Kitto Beck. Here they were pulling into the lay-by. The figure got out and Kelly knew it was the same person caught on the other camera by the way they moved and their general shape and posture, though they appeared as a white source of heat rather than a fully formed human.
She sensed Dean’s excitement. ‘I read his car registration in the appeal. This is it isn’t it?’
‘It is,’ she said.
‘But that’s a woman,’ he added.
She stared at him. ‘How do you know that?’
Dean paused. ‘Erm.’ He looked at his feet.
‘Dean? Is something wrong? You told me you think it’s a woman, how do you know?’
‘I, erm. Crikey.’
She waited. She was more than a little curious, and he wasn’t going anywhere. ‘I’ll wait until you recall,’ she told him.
He sighed. ‘You catch all sorts on these cameras.’
‘Really?’
‘I don’t watch. I just check them for animals, but, well, you know, I see all sorts. People use the lay-by to meet at night. Men and women.’
The penny dropped.
‘Oh, I see,’ she said. ‘You mean they meet to…’ she raised her eyebrows, searching for the correct terminology. ‘Have sex in the lay-by?’
‘Yes,’ he said with a sigh of relief at not having to say it out loud himself.
‘I don’t watch.’
‘That’s all right, Dean, it’s none of my business. All I’m interested in is you saying this is definitely a woman.’
‘It is. Look,’ he said.
She looked at the screen, hoping she wouldn’t have to witness an illicit hook-up in Victor’s car, though it would give her another angle to work, that was for sure. He forwarded the footage to three forty-eight a.m.
‘What’s she doing?’ she asked.
‘Waiting.’
At three-fifty-two a.m. a second car – a truck – pulled into the lay-by and parked next to Victor’s car. Kelly sat up straight and a tingle went down her spine.
‘Have you magnified this?’
‘Here,’ he said. ‘You want the number plate?’
He flicked some buttons and the picture focused on the vehicle’s number plate. It was readable. Kelly’s heart soared. Then he reverted to the footage. The driver of the truck got out.
‘Look, that’s a man, see the difference in his bulk and gait?’
Kelly did. The figure driving the truck was bigger in stature and frame, and having something to compare their suspect to, it was obvious.
‘I’m no detective,’ Dean said. ‘But something struck me as odd.’
Kelly listened. Dean Strawbridge would be an excellent detective to have on any investigation.
‘That is an electronic device.’ He pointed to the head of the male driver.
She squinted but saw nothing unusual.
He tapped some keys once more and the area around the male’s head magnified. ‘Look.’
All she could see was a tiny squiggle, which to be fair could be a hair languishing on the computer screen for all she knew.
Dean beamed at her.
‘It’s a hearing aid,’ he said.
Kelly watched in amazement as Dean showed her the couple getting in and out of Victor’s car, as if tidying it, and then at five-o-one a.m. the man got back into his vehicle and drove off, and the female disappeared out of sight, to walk across the road. All of it was caught on the Kitto Beck camera.
She turned to Dean and could have kissed him. He might look like a giant oaf, grimy and nocturnal, but he may have just cracked one of the mysteries of this case.