AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Did you see her watching you at the time?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Were you parked very near her café?’
‘No. We wuz a bit along.’
Strangely, Strike thought, she seemed more confident now they were discussing the events that were presumably among the most traumatic of her memories than she’d seemed talking about Chapman Farm.
‘What happened when you got to the beach?’
‘We got undressed.’
‘So you were intending to swim, rather than to paddle?’
‘No, jus’ to paddle.’
‘So why take off all your outer clothing?’
‘I didn’ want Daiyu gettin’ her dress soakin’ wet. I told her she’d be uncomfortable on the way back. Daiyu said she wouldn’ take off her dress if I didn’ take off my tracksuit, so I did.’
‘Then what happened?’
‘We wen’ into the sea,’ said Carrie. ‘We paddled a bit and she wanted to go deeper. I knew she would. She wuz like that.’
‘Like what?’
‘Brave,’ said Carrie. ‘Adventurous.’
These were exactly the words she’d used at the inquest, Strike remembered.
‘So she went in deeper?’
‘Yeah. An’ I wen’ after her. An’ then she sort of – launched herself forwards, like she wuz goin’ to swim, but I knew she couldn’. I called to her to come back. She wuz laughin’. Her feet could still touch the bottom. She wuz wadin’ out, tryin’ to get me to chase her. And then – she wuz gone. She just went under.’
‘And what did you do?’
‘Swam out to try an’ get her, obviously,’ said Carrie.
‘You’re a strong swimmer, right?’ said Strike. ‘You give lessons, don’t you?’
‘Yeah,’ said Carrie.
‘Did you hit the rip current as well?’
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I got pulled into it, but I knew what to do. I got out, but I couldn’ get to Daiyu, an’ I couldn’ see ’er any more, so I wen’ back to the beach, to get the coastguard.’
‘Which is when you met the Heatons, walking their dog?’
‘Yeah, exactly,’ said Carrie.
‘And the coastguard went out, and the police came?’
‘Yeah,’ said Carrie. Robin had the sense she relaxed slightly as she said it, as though she’d come to the end of an ordeal. Strike turned a page in the notebook in which he’d been writing.
‘Mrs Heaton says you ran off up the beach when the police came, and started poking at some seaweed.’
‘No, I didn’,’ said Carrie quickly.
