Why had I got so drunk again? It was idiotic. Memories from last night kept punching me in the kidneys, kicking me in the head. I’d let everyone down, including you. Poor Jacob, having to deal with me falling apart, on top of everything else.
I couldn’t seem to think straight. A hair of the dog, that would sort me out. After several minutes, I managed to get out of bed. Downstairs, I had the tiniest nip of vodka, then drank loads of water and necked some painkillers. Hey presto! The world was a marginally better place.
There was a text waiting for me. From Glenn. Saying he’d meet me at the RAF lookout tower at 11 a.m., as arranged. I didn’t remember arranging anything. And was already ten minutes late.
‘Stay, Wiggins,’ I ordered, hurrying to the car. I was unsure of what I’d find at the tower, so thought it was best not to take him.
The tower had its own dedicated turn-off from the main road, created by the RAF. It was still only a single lane, though, and as straight as the other route that I generally took to the marsh.
At the end, I pulled over behind Glenn’s van, careful not to go too far over onto the soft verge for fear of getting stuck. Unlike the lane that we usually came down, there was no car park here apart from the lookout tower’s, and that was fenced off.
As soon as I stepped from the car, calm enveloped me. The marsh was more of a home these days than the house. I felt closer to you here, Beth. The wind whistled around me as if greeting an old friend, as if you were with it.
Glenn jumped from his van and did up his coat. His solid frame and open face were a sight for sore – and probably very red – eyes.
‘You look perkier than I expected,’ he grinned.
‘I don’t feel it,’ I laughed, elbowing him.
We walked over to the seven-foot-high, sturdy chain-link fence that ran around the building and the car park. The chain-link gates were padlocked shut.
‘Climb over?’ Glenn suggested.
My mouth gaped. ‘Er, no, I don’t think that’s feasible.’
But he went a couple of paces back and took a running jump. He easily grasped the top of the gate, pulled himself up and swung a leg over.
‘Blimey, you’re more agile than I gave you credit for.’
He sat on top of the fence and held a hand out to me. ‘Want help?’
‘What if I make it in, but can’t get back out?’
He motioned with his foot to the strutting on the back of the gate. ‘You can use this for a leg-up. It’ll be easier coming out than getting in.’
I wasn’t sure, but didn’t want to appear a complete wimp and, ultimately, we were doing this for you, Beth. I should be the one to go in there more than Glenn, really. So, shaking my head at the prospect, I did what he’d done: backed up a couple of paces, then a couple more and took a running jump, flinging up my hands. He caught hold of one hand and pulled me up while I grabbed hold of the top and pulled myself up with the other. Somehow I wedged the top of the gate under one armpit while cocking my leg in an ungainly fashion. Glenn hauled at the back of my jacket.
When we both sat straddling the top of the fence, we laughed. I panted like nobody’s business and my head pounded, but not as badly as I’d feared, the painkillers working a treat.
Abruptly, Glenn swung a leg over, jumped down and held both hands up to me, inviting me to jump into his arms.
The thought made me feel momentarily uncomfortable. Guilty. I mimicked his movement, but hooked my tiptoes onto the strut then jumped from halfway down the fence.
‘Right, let’s have a look around.’
We wandered about aimlessly, trying to look businesslike.
‘There’s quite a lot of muddy tyre tracks.’
‘I was surprised by that too. Cars, motorbikes and bicycles. Seems like it’s been busy,’ he replied.
We wandered around the car park area, first looking down, then gazing up, neither sure what we were looking for. There was an air of recent use about it. A pile of beer bottle tops made me realise: of course, Jill must be getting her lads to start doing the place up for her. Clearly they had been at it for a while, judging by the amount of bottle tops.
‘I’m going to see if there’s a door open anywhere, or maybe even a window we can squeeze through.’
Glenn disappeared round the corner. He was out of sight for no more than a few seconds when he called out to me. I ran, and there he was, pointing at the ground.
‘Does that strike you as a bit odd?’ he frowned.
Lying on the ground was a pair of what looked like expensive wireless headphones; the good kind that were noise-cancelling.
‘Well… It doesn’t seem the sort of thing Jill would use, but it’s hardly a clue. Maybe one of her lads uses them while he’s doing building work here, and forgot them.’
Glenn shrugged. ‘True. It just seems a bit, I don’t know, out of place.’
It wasn’t the only thing that was out of place. In the corner was a huge stack of empty water bottles. Building was thirsty work, but not that thirsty.
I peered into a window. The place was totally empty, as expected. No cobwebs, though. Turning away, I noticed the thick, heavy blackout curtains; they must have been a leftover from the military.
‘Clues are pretty thin on the ground. Non-existent, in fact. Maybe Jill did mean a person when she referred to “lookout”. If she did, how the hell are we going to find out who they were and what they were looking out for?’ I said.
‘What else could the lookout tower be used for?’ Glenn wrinkled his brow. ‘Could it be a base for smugglers? Just thinking of your theory of Jill as the world’s unlikeliest drugs baron.’
I stuck my tongue out. ‘Some of the creeks are deep enough and wide enough for a shallow boat, maybe, but it would be a squeeze. Maybe… hey, maybe Beth had a clandestine meeting at the tower with James Harvey, or Aleksy Jachowski, or, I don’t know, someone else. Look how easy we found it to break in.’ A thought occurred, making me gasp. ‘What about Davy? His mum owns this place, so it’d be simple for him to get the key; he’s got a car, so could meet Beth and drive her here easily enough, for a date; and his involvement would explain Jill’s paranoia over me knowing about the lookout tower. You said yourself that he’s quite childlike, so…’
‘Wouldn’t he have his hands full with Ursula?’
‘Well, they’re not full-time, are they? I wonder how often they manage to hook up? If he was seeing Beth, it would explain him watching me now – he’s not looking out for me, he’s checking up on me.’
I liked Davy, didn’t want to be suspicious of him. But this theory made sense.
‘Yeah, you’re right, I don’t know what’s going on and I’m not sure we’re getting any closer to the truth. But we’ve got to treat everyone with suspicion,’ Glenn agreed.
We were both floundering in the dark. But I couldn’t give up – not when I was convinced that if I stumbled around for long enough, I’d come across the metaphorical light switch.
‘You look at Davy. I’m going to have a look at Aleksy,’ decided Glenn.