"One foot, two foot, black foot, white foot." "Three foot, four foot, left foot, right foot." "No one runs as fast as Benny Lightfoot!" "Out goes she!" "One foot, two foot, black foot, white foot." "Three foot, four foot, left foot, right foot." "No one runs as fast as Benny Lightfoot!" "Out goes she!" "Hiya, Tig!" "Shh!" "You'll wake Mam and Dad." "Shh!" "Shh." "Shh." ""Once there were a strange creature called a Nix" ""that lived by a pool, in a cave under a hill." ""For food, he ate whatever swam in his pool" ""or crawled in the mud around it. "" "Do we have to read this again?" ""If Nix wanted to go out, he'd wait till the sun fell out of the sky." ""But sometimes he'd hear voices of kiddies playing in village far below" ""and he'd sneak out in the daytime" ""and find a shady spot on the hillside where he could watch them." ""The one he liked watching best were called Nina." ""Her skin was smooth as his was scaly," ""and she wore her long, golden hair in plaits. "" " Just like yours, Rosie." "I know, Daddy." "Shall we go up to the cave?" "Come on." "Come on, Tig." "Come on." "Come on, Tig." "Tig!" ""One morning, Nina went for a walk up the hill." ""She wanted to pick some flowers for her mam. "" " Come on, boy." " "But there weren't very many," ""'cause the heat had dried up all the ground" ""and baked it so hard that even the grass was brown. "" "Come on, sweetheart." "Time to get dressed." "Sandra and her mum and dad will be here soon." "More." "Come on, boy." ""She climbed higher and higher," " Come on, Tig. "Out of sight, out of reach. "" "Close the window, Rosie." "Maybe I should have joined the Water Board instead of the police." "Now, dear, don't get bitter and twisted." "He gets share options, everyone else gets hosepipe bans." " Derek and Jill are very nice people." " With a very nice car." "And Sandra's Rosie's best friend." "No." "Our daughter's best friend is a little girl called Nina." ""The higher she climbed the more out of puff she got," ""but, finally, Nina stopped." " "At last, she reached the top. "" " Come on, Tig." " "Top of the world, it was. "" " Come on, boy." ""Silent, save for the cries of the pewits and curlews." ""But Nina loved it." ""Then she heard a voice. "" ""The strange, scary voice" ""of the Nix. "" "Rosie!" "Rosie!" "Come on." "Ah, my darling!" "Oh!" "Elizabeth." "Oh!" "Elizabeth." "Hello, Walter." " Tea?" " No, thanks." " Where's Lorraine?" " She's gone out." "I don't like her just having biscuits for breakfast, you know." "I don't like her going out on her own, either." "Oh, she'll only be down t'street." "Kids have to play, Tony." "Oh, sod it." "Lorraine?" "Hey up, Peter, lad." "It's all right." "I like my steaks rare." "You'll need to like them raw at this rate." "Hope you got a licence for that shirt." "Got a drink, have you?" "If you can call it that." "Trouble is with canned ale, the next morning it comes out of your backside like a flock of bloody starlings." "What's up, brown owl?" "Not rub your twigs together hard enough?" "I'll see what you got in your shed." "Lorraine?" "Lorraine!" "What is it, do you think, with men and fires?" " The old caveman instinct, isn't it?" " I suppose." "Mind you, they've evolved a long way since then." "Oh, yes, indeed." "Your white wine, DC Novello, and the best of luck in the CID." "Thanks, Ellie." "Lorraine?" "Lorraine!" "Lorraine!" "Tig!" "Tig!" "Tig." "Come on, Tig." "Lorraine?" "Is she back?" "Tony?" "Then she says, "I'll dance on your grave. "" ""Good," he says. "'Cause I'm planning on being buried at sea. "" "Hey up, Peter." "I didn't know you'd invited the prophet Elijah." "Maybe he's come to read the lesson." "Superintendent Dalziel, Inspector Pascoe, gentlemen." " Can I get you a drink, Mr Raymond?" " No, thank you, Ellie." "I've just supped of holy sacrament." "Quite sufficient for my needs, thank you." "You've been drinking from the deep well of the gospels, have you, sir?" "I've just come from holy service, if that's what you mean." " It is a Sunday, Superintendent." " Amen." "And I called in at HQ on my way home from church." " You're on call this weekend, I gather?" " Oh, it's dead quiet." "Like Aberdeen on a flag day." "Control Room have been trying to get hold of you." "They say you're not answering your mobile." "Hell's flames!" "You know, I must have left it in me suit." "Why, what's going off?" "Child's missing, a little girl. 8:30 this morning." "Well, it's a bit early to panic, isn't it?" "She's from Dendale, Andrew." "When they built the reservoir 15 years back, and they emptied the folk out the valley, a little girl went missing." "Mary Wulfstan." "She was never found." "Then another little girl was attacked." "Betsy Allgood." "But luckily, she got away." "What's up?" "Who's Benny?" "Ghost, maybe." "Benny Lightfoot." "We pulled him in." "Had nothing on him, had to let him go." "Mary Wulfstan's old man, Walter, went bananas." "Told the press what a prat I was." "Made a good story." "What happened to him?" "He disappeared." "That did it for most people." "Especially Walter." "In his eyes, we'd had the killer and let him go." " You didn't agree?" " Well, Benny was a bit odd, maybe." "Two sheets short of a bog roll, you might say, but I didn't have him down as a killer of little girls." "Most people thought he was a monster." "Looks like they still do." "Right, let's get started." "What's the matter?" "Your phrasing was better on the disc." "What have they been teaching you in New York?" "It's the jetlag, it always plays havoc with me song box." "We could work on it, if you can give me the time." "Of course I'll give you the time." "You're my daughter." "You don't want me to sing this at the concert, do you?" " It's why you came home, isn't it?" " That's not the only reason." "I wanted to see you and Chloe." "A young voice like yours isn't suited to Mahler." "Now, I told you that, but you always do what you want." "That's not true." "That's not true at all!" "I'm sorry if it upsets you." "Brings it all back, I mean." "It never went away." "How can a piece of music bring it all back?" "Oh, I'm sorry." "It's good to see you." "And hear you." "Again." "And remember that phrasing." "Chloe, we are rehearsing." " What's wrong, Chloe?" " It's happening again." "elizabeth:" "What?" "A little girl's gone missing on Beulah Height." "Mary's age." "Left foot, right foot." "No one runs as fast as Benny Lightfoot!" "Out goes she!" "Mrs Dacre, I'm Superintendent Dalziel." "Who's this clown?" "And why's he come here dressed like a piña bloody colada?" "I came as soon as I got word." "I didn't waste time changing." "Who gives a stuff what you're wearing?" "Can you find her?" "I'll do everything in my power." "Oh, that's all right, then." "Little lass could easily have turned her ankle." "Maybe she's sitting up there waiting for somebody to fetch her." " Don't be stupid, copper." "Tony!" "No need for all this soft-soap, Mr Dalziel." "We all know what this is about, don't we?" " It's just like last time." " Listen, pet." "I know what you're thinking and why." "But it's too early to be talking about last time." "Okay?" " Karen, lass, I've only just heard." " Mam!" "Oh, look, I can't stand round here doing nowt." "This search of yours started yet?" " Just setting out." " Right." "Where's the dog?" "I dropped him off at the vet." "It's all right." "Start at the stile at the end of Church Lane and make your way up to Beulah Height." "And remember, anything loose on the ground, we want to know about it." "Okay?" "Any questions?" "Right, let's get to it." "I'll make a start over there, turn that way..." "I can't believe this." "Why now?" "We must help, Walter." "Go over that way." " Look!" " What?" "Jack, your father." "He used to be." "He's not any more." "We've got something." "Hundred and twenty yards ahead, to your right flank." "Below the rock outcrop." "Going to check." "Hear." "Lorraine?" "Lorraine!" "Have you found her?" "No, sir." "It's nothing." "Sheep!" "Not long dead, by the looks of it." "Sorry." " Mummy, we're back." " All right, you'll wear out the bell." "Not to mention my ears." "Mummy, look, we had five ice creams, three picnics..." "And chattering 19 to the dozen, I shouldn't wonder." "Three picnics?" "Well, she's got a big appetite, hasn't she?" " Oh, she gets that from her father." " Must dash." "Nice to see you, Ellie." "Bye." "I rather like Derek, don't you?" "Come here, oof, lady." "Mummy, I'm hot." "Can I have a drink?" "Where's your necklace?" "You're not wearing your necklace!" " I lost it." " Lost it?" "Oh, Mummy, I'm so glad to be home." "Oh, don't change the subject." "Where did you lose it?" "That was a present from Uncle Andy." "Look, I've told you twice." "I didn't see her." "She left the house before me or Karen got up." "I know, you said." "Well, what is this?" "I'm her dad, for God's sake." "Aye." " You..." "Mr Dacre!" "You could start a ruck in a monastery, lad." "Nasty things, tempers." "I'll tell you summat, if I had a mind like thine, copper," "I'd grow mushrooms in it." " You don't think he..." " I don't know." "That's the thing with these." "You don't know till you know." "Now then, Wieldy, let's have it." "Owt or nowt?" "Two sightings, cars we can't account for." "Land Rover nobody in the village knows, about eight this morning." "And a blue estate, Volvo maybe, on the Topmore Road an hour later." "Well, get cracking." "Oh, and wind down the search for today." " Right." "Come on, Peter." " Where are we going?" "This is what I wanted you to see." "Where it all started." "Going to solve a lot of water problems for the next century, wasn't it?" " Are those..." " Ruins of the village, aye." "The Water Board had it bulldozed before they filled the reservoir." "But I think I can just make out who lived where." "What were they like, the people?" "That's what I asked the local bobby 15 years back." "Was there somebody, you know, a bit odd?" "He said he didn't know anybody that wasn't." "Families had been so long in the valley they couldn't be uprooted." "You know, just broken off at ground level." "You think all that's got something to do with Lorraine?" " Somebody does, maybe." " "Benny's back. "" "Why would someone kill a bairn, Peter?" "I reckon you know the answer to that." "I'm feeling badly." "Oh, come on then." "Time we're off." "Nice try, kid." " Mummy's still upset about the necklace." " I didn't mean to lose it." "Couldn't you have got your friend Nina to help you find it?" "Don't be daft." "She got taken by the Nix again." "And you'd be sorry if I got taken, too." "Oh, Rosie." "We're going to talk to the Wulfstans." "Maybe get Novello to follow up those car sightings once she's checked the Topmore Road." "Yeah." "No, no, both of them." "Yeah." "Okay." "Wieldy, on second thoughts, tell her to forget the Land Rover." "We'll follow that up." "She should chase the blue estate." "Excuse me." " Hello?" " Stay there." " What do you want?" " I'd like to talk to you." "Well, I'm at my work." " I'm a police officer." " Oh, aye?" "Been a few of yours around last day or so." " What's going off?" " You haven't heard?" "No, I live by meself." "Me and the dog, up the valley there." " It's been all over the TV and radio." " Don't have neither." "A child's gone missing from the village." " Lorraine Dacre." " Little girl?" " When?" " Yesterday morning." "I haven't seen anybody." "I have a photo here." "I haven't seen her." " You weren't out with the sheep, then?" " Not on a Sunday." "Saw a car." "When I went out stretching dog's legs over there where yours is." "What kind of car was it?" "I don't know." "Big blue thing, foreign." "Ever been back to Dendale, just to take a look?" " Why do you ask?" " Just wondering." "Dendale was a paradise, Mr Pascoe." "Then it became paradise lost." "What would I want to look at now?" "Now they're draining the dam, you can see the ruins of the houses." "The little school, too." "Are you still teaching?" " Did you teach Benny Lightfoot?" " I taught all the kids in the valley, my own included." "What'd you make of him?" "When he was little, he had a fall and they put a metal plate in his skull, so people assumed that he was daft, but he was as bright as a button." "Then his dad died." "And he became a loner." "His mum took him and his brother to live with old Mrs Lightfoot and then she announced she was off to Canada, to a new life." " Benny wouldn't go." "And what happened?" "They took off, let him stay." "He withdrew into himself." "Spent all his time on his own, mostly in the hills." "He was a strange boy." "Most folks thought he was the killer." " Your husband included." " Well, he was wrong." "That's something we never agreed upon." "Oh, I don't know." "Maybe he was right." "Nobody knows, do they?" "He certainly attacked Betsy Allgood." "That's Elizabeth, our daughter, she's rehearsing for the concert." " I didn't know you had another child." " I didn't." "Elizabeth's adopted." "She's Betsy Allgood, as was." " Thank you, very much, Mister..." " Allgood." "Jack Allgood." " Broken in, have you?" " Uh, no." "Just casing the joint." "Can't fool me." "With a suit like that, you've got to be on the other side of the law." "I paid 200 quid for this." "You were robbed." "Backside in pants are that shiny, I can see me face in them." "I think you were wearing it last time we met." "You got a good memory, as well as a sharp tongue." "I'd not mistake you, Mr Dalziel." "What, even after 15 years of Tetley's and second helpings?" "I'm a Greenalls girl, meself." "I'm not sure I would have recognised you." "You were a bit, er..." "Fat." " Fat arms, fat legs, fat face." " Well-made, like me." "Ah, I can see you now, Inspector." "Uh, Superintendent now." "Oh." "He thought it began Papa 348." "He wasn't sure." "I'll run it through the computer, see what we get." "You might as well head back here." "The girl's parents have my deepest sympathy." "Especially if they're relying on you and your colleagues to recover her." "Yeah." "Well, uh..." "Where were you yesterday morning between 7:" "OO and 9:" "OO?" "Oh, I'm sure you already know." "Somebody saw the car." " I went for a walk up Beulah Height." " Can I ask why?" "My firm has a research unit out on the Denby Road." "When I'm there, I usually take the chance to go for a walk." " Yesterday was Sunday." " I know." "I trained as an engineer, Superintendent, and one of the first things they taught us was the days of the week." "Why?" "Has Sabbath-breaking been made an indictable offence in Mid Yorkshire?" "No, but if excessive use of irony was, you'd get life, I reckon." "All right." "I dropped in, picked up some papers and then I went for a walk up Beulah Height." "Did you see anybody at all?" "A few people, yeah." "A long way off, down by the water, where the ruins of the village have started to show through." "Fascinating!" "If rather ghoulish." "Like viewing the skeleton of our old life." "Yeah." "Well, thanks for your help." " Oh, by the way." " Mmm-hmm?" "Did you see the graffiti in the village about Benny Lightfoot?" "What do you think about it?" "Very little." "Somehow, he's not a real person." "Not any more." "To be honest, I hardly ever think about him." "Somehow, I find that hard to believe." "All right, then, here's what I think!" "Do you know what I think?" "We would all have been spared a great deal of anguish if you had done your job!" "Properly held on to him when you had the chance!" "You never wondered what happened to him?" "Oh, I used to." "I used to hope he'd died in pain." "These last few years, we've hardly seen anything of Elizabeth." "She's been in either New York or Milan or..." "I miss her." "When she comes home, we have this ritual." "I always cook her an old-fashioned Sunday dinner and she pretends to love it." "This time, I wanted to do something special, so I went back to Dendale for the first time." "There's a place there I've known since I was a child, with bilberries as fat as brambles." "I picked a basketful." "And then I saw a figure, a boy as thin as a rake." "He turned and saw me." "I..." "Well, he smiled and waved." "I dropped the basket and ran." "You thought it was Benny Lightfoot?" "All this time, I knew." "I could see people looking at me and hear them thinking, "Oh, thank God it's yours, not mine." ""Thank God it's not mine. "" "And I'd think, "Take care." "Put your arms around them," ""because it isn't finished yet." ""It can happen again. "" "And it has, hasn't it?" "Right." "Thanks for that." "Let's go." " Where to?" " You've struck oil." "A man called Geordie Turnbull owns a blue Volvo estate." "Registration starts P348." "Why does that name ring a bell?" "When they built the dam, he was one of the contractors." "Drove a bulldozer." "He was questioned when Mary went missing." " Was he a serious suspect?" " Not really." "He could have done it, but there was no hard evidence." "Only reason we pulled him in was locals pointing the finger." "He wasn't liked, then?" "Everybody thought he was a grand chap, till trouble hit." "Then it was loyalty, not liking, that counted." "Everybody wanting to believe it wasn't one of their own." "I can't believe you're doing this to me again." "We have to follow all lines of inquiry, sir." "You know that." "And I hope you catch the pervert responsible." "But you people, you drag your mucky boots through people's lives." "You never think about the mess you leave behind." "Last business nearly finished me!" "Sarge..." "I found this on the backseat." "And this in the boot." "What's up?" "George Robert Turnbull, I must caution you." "Right." "Got the wet tea towels at the ready?" "He helps run a football club in the village." "Runs the kids to away games." "He says the shoe must belong to one of them." "And the ribbon?" "There's a team for girls as well." "There would be." "Why can't they stick to mud-wrestling?" "All right, Geordie." "I've read your statement." "And I have to say, I haven't seen such a pile of crap since I watched Newcastle in the Cup final." "So why don't you tell us what you were really doing yesterday morning?" "Just the headlines." "You can dot the Ps and Qs later." "I thought I might see her before she went to bed." "Oh, she was dead on her feet, asked to go to bed." "I hope she's all right." "You know, she seems hot." "I might keep her off tomorrow." "Does she seem hot to you?" "She's all right." "Right, we've done the fells for now." "The boss wants the buildings hit again." "Every farmhouse, barn, byre, hencoop, pigsty..." "Garden shed." " Yes, garden shed, outside privy, to be turned upside-down." "Okay?" "All right, go on, then." "Nina!" "Nina?" ""She climbed higher and higher... "" "Nina!" "Nina!" "Where are you?" "Rosie?" "Rosie." "Oh, God." "I'm inquiring about Agnes Lightfoot." "Okay." "Forensics haven't been able to match either the shoe or the ribbon." "They didn't belong to Lorraine." "Can't say I'm surprised." "Andy will have to let Geordie go." "He can him till the 24 hours are up." "What's the point?" "We've nothing on him." "We've got nothing on nobody." "Hello?" "She's alive?" "Sorry, could you repeat that?" "Right, you can go." "This is the second time you've done this to me." "You keep getting up my nose, Geordie." "Do that and you're bound to get sneezed on." "Next time, I'll sue you!" "What is it you're not telling us?" " I'll find out in the end, you know." " Oh, I'm sure you will." "But that'll probably take you another 15 year." "I won't hold me breath." "See where he goes, Ivor." "But be discreet." "El, was that you calling me?" "I was talking to someone." "What?" "Ellie." "How is she?" "She's unconscious." "And they're doing tests." " Where is she?" " She's just in there." "But they say we should wait!" "Rosie, love?" "It's Daddy." "I'm here now." ""Nina knew the voice." "It was her dad." "She called to him, "I'm coming, Dad." "I'm coming. "" ""No,"said the Nix. "You stay here with me. "" "I hope you're the Good News Fairy." "What's up?" "I've just heard from Peter." "Rosie's been taken into hospital." "She's in a coma." "Meningitis." " There's been a development here." " Not now, Wieldy." "Not just this minute." "It's important, sir." "Right." "Go on, then." "Inspector Pascoe found out Mrs Lightfoot's still alive." "She's in a home." "Get Ivor onto it." " And what about..." " Everything else can wait." "I need a few minutes alone, Wieldy, okay?" " Yes, Sarge?" " I've got a job for you." "I want you to check out an Agnes Lightfoot at Wark House Nursing Home." "This better not be more harassment." "What can I do for you?" "Hey." "You up there." "That line you shoot." "Suffer the little children and all that." "It's time to show you're not all mouth and no trousers, okay?" "She'd better come through this." "Do you hear?" "I'm warning you." "You must be getting desperate." "Talking to yourself." "Talking to God." "One's about as much use as the other." "Tried it, have you?" "I've tried everything in me time, Andy, from psychotherapy to rebirth and then back again." "But religion's just about the barmiest." "What you doing here, then?" "Checking out the acoustics." "They're pretty good." "I take it you haven't found the girl, then?" "No." "Are people saying it's just like last time?" "Some of them." "And is it?" "A child we can't find." "Crime we can't pin down." "We've even had a sighting of Benny Lightfoot." "What?" "Chloe reckons she saw him Saturday." " Did she not mention it?" " It's not possible." " How come?" " Well, Benny's..." "He's been missing for 15 years." "Surely he's..." "Dead?" "That's not what most people round here think." "And what do you think?" "I have an open mind." "You don't, evidently." "To that kind of mumbo-jumbo?" "I put away childish things long time since." "You saw Benny yourself all those years since." "When the reservoir was filling up, when he attacked you." "Aye." "Me cat took off one night." "After me dad kicked her across the kitchen." "I reckoned she'd gone back over to the old place, so I went after her." "Maddie!" "Maddie!" "Where are you?" "Maddie!" "Maddie!" "Suddenly, I heard something." "It was him." "Benny." ""Betsy Allgood,"he said." ""You came for us. "" ""No!" I said." ""I came for me cat. "" "He grabbed onto my arm so tight," "I thought he was going to break the bone." "Then his face came down next to mine." "I could feel his breath on my face." "His lips wet against my neck." "He said, "I don't want to hurt you, Betsy. "" "And then he must have slackened his grip on Maddie, 'cause all of a sudden, she twisted and flew out of his arms, raking his face with her claws." " Betsy!" " He screamed, and I took me chance." "Betsy!" "I scooped up Maddie and I ran up that hillside like a bat out of hell." "Betsy!" "Benny's cries following us all the way home." "Betsy!" "And you still hear them?" "Had your share your troubles, didn't you?" "Lost your friend and that." "Just the beginning, wasn't it?" "Your mam." "What was it, an overdose?" "Is that when you started whittling your arm?" "Happy days." "You've got guts, I'll give you that." "It's only 'cause of the singing." "Without that, I'd have..." "I might have finished up like me mam." "And all that dreary Mahler stuff, dead bairns, what's that all about?" "Sorry I'm late." "Superintendent." "Looking for divine intervention, are we?" "I'll leave you to it, then." "Maybe I'll sing for you another time." "Right." "What am I going to do with you, eh, boy?" "Come on, then." "Blast it!" "Tig!" "Here, boy!" "Agnes?" "Agnes, love?" "She's been like this the last few days." "In and out, but mostly out." "She comes round every so often?" "Oh, aye." "But she's not really with it, you know." "Agnes' bible, that is." "Always poring over it, poor soul." " I'm sorry she's unwell." " I reckon it was the excitement." "She had a visitor Friday, first one in years." "Young chap, came in a white camper van." "He didn't give his name, by any chance?" "No." "But when I showed him in, Agnes recognised him." "She took one look at his red hair and smile and called out his name." "What was it?" "Benny." "Yes, she called him Benny." "Where are we going, eh?" "Where are you taking us?" "Anybody at home?" "You've got visitors!" "Aye." "I heard you coming 10 minutes since." "Mr Allgood." "You probably don't remember me." "Oh, I'd not forget you, Mr Policeman." "Nice little place you got here." "A bit smaller than the spread you had over there, though." "I don't have a family to keep, just me and the dog." "Sorry to hear about your wife." "Elizabeth's, uh..." "Betsy's done well for herself." "Has she?" "My officer DC Novello said that you've been very helpful about that car." "Owt come of it?" "Maybe." "Maybe not." " You must miss the old place." " What's there to miss?" "Well, folks still say that Dendale was a marvellous place." "Paradise." "It were no such thing." "No better than any other place man settled, maybe worse." "When the waters rose, they came like a flood to drown out the wickedness." "And did they?" "Drowned something, maybe." "The wickedness survived." "Is that one of your fellas, is it, running up and down the Heights like a loon?" "What's he up to?" "Wieldy!" " Sir?" " What are you doing?" "I think I might have found something!" "Oh, Tig." "Look, I'm not having a go at you personally, love." "I know." " But no one's telling us owt any more." "It's been two days now." "We don't know." "Don't say it." "Please." "It's not the way it's supposed to be." "You bring them into the world, love them, then you die and they live." "That's the way of it." "But if she goes first, where's the meaning in that?" " You can't go on like this." " I can't stop!" " How could we go on if..." " She won't." "I've not been much of a father." "Please don't." "Well, I wasn't there for her, was I?" "When it mattered." "Was I?" "She is going to be all right." "She loves you so much." "You're her dad." "Agnes said she saw Benny Lightfoot." "She's at death's door, poor old soul." "Some folks see angels, others see long-lost grandsons." "I faxed the home the photo of Benny from the files." "The matron said the man who went to see Agnes was the spit of him." "Do you reckon Benny Lightfoot kills a girl 15 years ago, disappears off of the face of the Earth, then suddenly returns to kill another?" "We've had two sightings of someone who looks very like him." "Yeah, a senile old woman and an emotionally fragile mother of a dead child." " And me." " You what?" "Mrs Saltaire said this man, who may or not be Benny Lightfoot, arrived in a white camper van." "Earlier on, when I left Geordie Turnbull's place," "I passed a white camper van." "Sir?" "Preliminary path findings, death caused by a blow to the head." " The skull was fractured." " Nowt else?" "No sign of any sexual interference." "The Dacres have identified the toys and comics found in the cave." "It was obviously Lorraine's den." "Right." "So what do you want to do now?" "Keep an eye on Geordie." "I don't know why or how or what it means, but there's clearly a link between him and the man in the van." "You said yourself you thought he was hiding something." "Okay." "But God help you if it leads nowhere." "You'll be sorry you ever troubled the midwife." "And what's all this stuff here?" "Uh, from a sweep of litter bins around the village." "This is from the lay-by in the Highcross Moor Road." "Nothing very interesting." "I thought the cross might have been Lorraine's, but it isn't." "Nothing at all." "All right." "Let's call it a day." "Okay, then, Sarge." "Right, Bill, that's it." "We're on our way home." "Hello, love." "Andy." "Come here." "It's okay." "No, it isn't." "It will be." "Here." "It was only washed last week." "Where is she?" "In there." "Peter's with her." "He's in a bad way." " How do?" " Hi." "She looks peaceful." "There's a crisis coming." "That's the way of it, apparently." "I heard you found the body." "I keep asking why." "There's too many mysteries, lad." "Where do we come from, where do we go to?" "But I reckon she'll be with us a lot longer." "She has too much spunk to go under." "I'm going for a coffee." "Want one?" "No." "Come on, then, little one." "Is it the same cross?" " You sure?" " I should be." "It used to hang around me mam's neck." "When did she lose it?" "Oh, on Sunday." "Oh, she spent the day with the Purlingstones." "Where did you find it?" "Down the Highcross Moor Road." "By Beulah Height." "Radius, ulna and I think these are carpal bones." "A small male or adolescent." "Where's the rest of him?" "That's what I'd like to know." "What was this place, anyway?" "The Heck." "The Wulfstans' old house." "Right." "Get the waders, would you, Wieldy?" "I fancy a plunge." "And can you get a message to Superintendent Dalziel and DS Wield?" "Of course I'll sit tight." "Just make it quick, okay?" "They're coming out." "How do, Geordie?" "Why don't you introduce me to your friend?" "Wait!" "Hey, hey!" "Well, this would have been the kitchen, by the position of the walls." " What's that?" " It's a ring." "I think this might be the door to the cellar." "Give us a hand." "Open sesame." "Get your goggles on and get down here." "Look, I keep telling you, right?" "I'm not Benny, okay?" "My name is Bobby." "And anyway, it was my money." "What the hell is going on here?" "You've got the wrong guy." "elizabeth:" "Hello, Dad." "Betsy?" "Is that you?" "What are you doing here?" "I was just on my way to see you." "And I'm Elizabeth now." "Aye." "You don't look like a Betsy any more." "How have you been keeping?" "I heard you weren't too grand." "That were years back." "You never wrote." "I'm not a letter writer." "And what would I talk about?" "I don't know." "Why have you come back to this place?" "To sing, in the festival." "I've got a good voice, you know." "And it'll get better." "I'm going to travel the world, make a name for meself." "Shame it's Wulfstan, not Allgood." "I'm glad to see you." "Why'd you give us away, Dad?" "Huh?" "Why did you get rid of us?" "It weren't like that." "And to Walt and Chloe, like I was some kind of Christmas present." "I thought you'd have a better life." "And I were right." "You used to say I was no good to man nor beast." "A son was what you wanted." "Or if it had to be a girl, a pretty little blonde thing like Mary." "I didn't deserve you." "And that's the truth." "It were me that were no good." "To you, your mam or anyone else." "Why did she kill herself, Dad?" "Leave it, lass." "I know she was upset about Mary, but even so..." "No more, Betsy." "I'd better go." "I've got to get ready for the recital." " Maybe you'll come down and hear us?" " I don't go to the village much." "I'd like you to." "If you can manage it." " This is a lovely spot." " Aye." "It's a special place." ""Alas, poor Yorick!" and all that." "Okay, I'll tell him." "Novello's hooked a fish." "Benny Lightfoot." " I don't think so." " She's pretty sure." "So am I." "I'm holding what's left of Benny Lightfoot in me hands." "Look, there's the metal plate." "Peter?" "Her temperature is down." "I think we might have turned a corner." "How do, Ivor?" "So this horse goes into a pub." "Barman takes one look at him and says, "Why the long face?"" " Sir?" " What?" " This chap we picked up..." " Ah, yes." " Benny Lightfoot." "Where is he?" " In the back room." "He looks like him but he says his name's Bobby." "Bobby Slater." "He's got a passport in that name." " Canadian passport?" " How'd you know?" "He's Benny's younger brother." "Bobby was his name." "He went to Canada with his mother when Benny refused to go." "You didn't bust the ghost, Ivor." "You busted the ghost's brother." "After we got to Canada, things didn't work out real well, right?" "Mom and this guy she married didn't get on." "He hit the booze." "She hit the booze, then they hit each other." "She died last April." "Was she in touch with old Agnes?" "They never really got on with each other." "Well, Mom never really got on with anyone." "When she hit the bottle, like most days, she'd go on about Grandma's fortune, how she deserved her cut." "Fortune, Agnes?" "She was as poor as a church mouse." "Mom figured she got a whole lot of cash from the water guys." "Compensation for that spread of hers, eh?" "So I scraped together a few bucks and came back to see the old lady." " Lay hands on her dosh, you mean?" " No." "I wanted to come see her." "Talk to her about Benny." "Find out what the hell really happened to him." " What did she say?" " Same as you guys." "Thought I was Benny." "Then she brought up the money thing." "Said she was glad I'd found it, used it to get away." " What did you say?" " That I wasn't sure I got it all." "Smart." "She said she'd put it in a tin chest under the eaves, where she'd always hidden her money." "All 60 grand." "So you began wondering who'd laid hands on it." "Well, Grandma hadn't got it." "I was pretty damn sure Benny hadn't run off with it, either." "Safe assumption." "What did you do next?" "When I was with Grandma, I saw this book she had about Dendale." "The photo book." "Right." "So I went to the local library to check it out." "And I found this picture of the cottage, and a bulldozer knocking it down." "With the name G Turnbull plastered over the side?" "Right." "Come on, Geordie, sing." "But don't make it the Blaydon Races, eh?" "Course I took the money, man." "Which young lad wouldn't?" "Big tin chest with tenners tumbling out of it, like." "And I made good use of it." "Didn't spend it on booze or women." "Built up a business with it." "But I've paid for it nonetheless." "Rocky Marciano rearranging your face, you mean?" "Nah." "You thinking I killed Lorraine." "But I didn't." "And neither did that poor Benny, wherever he is." "So what are you going to do now, eh?" ""And just as she was beginning to give up hope," ""another pair of hands seized her from above." ""And soon she was being pulled this way and that," ""like the rope in a tug-of-war game at the village fair," ""as her father and the Nix fought for her. "" "Peter." "Rosie?" " Mummy." " Hello, darling." "I had a funny dream." "Did you?" "Can I have a cheese sandwich?" " I'm just a bit puzzled, that's all." " Hang on in there, Ivor." "Before the night's out, I'll draw you a diagram." " Where are we going, sir?" " To hear some high art." "I know you think when I hear the word culture" "I reach for me truncheon, but it's not true." "I think Julio Iglesias has got a lovely voice." "All right, Walter." "Let's get this over with, then." "Look what's under here." " You found it!" " Uncle Andy did." " He brought it for you." " He's clever." "Some people say." "You must have dropped it when you stopped off for breakfast." "Remember that?" "Rosie!" "Come on." "I was looking through Derek's binoculars." "I saw the Nix taking Nina." " Rosie." " He took her and put her in his cave." "Did you tell Derek?" "Come on." "Don't be silly." "They couldn't see it, only I could." "What did he look like, sweetheart?" "The Nix." "I don't know." "That's him." "That's rotten old Nix." "Fifteen years back, in Dendale, on the other side of Beulah Height, a little girl, a friend of mine, went missing." "Now another one's gone." "I'm singing these songs for them." "# I often think" "# They have gone out walking" "# And soon they'll come homeward" "# Laughing and talking" "# The weather's bright" "# Don't look so pale" "# They've only gone for a hike" "# Up dale" "# Why, yes" "# They've only gone out walking" "# Returning now" "# Laughing and talking" "# Don't look so pale" "# The weather's bright" "# The wolf has come, confounded" "# By gods on high, surrounded" "# They will rest" "# They will rest" "# As in their mothers' arms" "# As in their mothers' arms" "# Arms #" "elizabeth:" "I know it wasn't easy to be here." "Thanks, Chloe." "Smashing, that." "I like a good ballad when it's sung with feeling." "I'm knackered." "Right." "Why don't you all take a pew and I'll begin." "It's time to get this show on the road." "Who's going to start?" "Inspector Pascoe, uh, why don't you give us a kick-start, eh?" "Mr Wulfstan." "Is there anything you'd like to add to your statement about your visit to Denby on Sunday morning?" "Well, as I told Mr Dalziel," "I parked the car in the village here." "And then I went for a walk along the Corps Road, and up the ridge toward Beulah Height." "Oh, I stopped on the col for some time, looking down into Dendale." "And then?" "And then I saw a man walking up toward the summit." "A man?" "You never mentioned this in your statement." "Why not?" "Because it was Benny Lightfoot." "Walter." "That must have been a real shock for you, Walter." "Especially as you knew beyond any shadow of doubt that Benny was dead." "I knew no such thing." " I thought I saw him." "I saw him, too." "The day before, on Saturday." "Sorry, love." "You saw a man, but it wasn't Benny." "It was Benny's brother Bobby, come home from Canada." "So, what did you do after you saw him?" "I went after him, up the ridge." "He disappeared." "Then you saw somebody else, didn't you?" "Below you." "You saw a little girl." "Come on, Tig!" "Mary." "I saw Mary." "Like she was all those years ago." "Come on, Tig!" "Mary?" " Come on, boy." " Mary!" "Mary?" "Mary!" "Mary!" "Mary!" "Mary!" "When I got down beside her," "I saw that she wasn't Mary and I saw that she was dead." "And what did you do then?" "Well, I picked her up and I started to carry her down." "Then that dog started to bite my ankles." "I kicked it a few times and he fell a little way down the slope." "Then I noticed this hole by the edge of a rock." "I saw that it must be the little girl's den." "There was a hairbrush in there." "An old doll." "Well, I laid her there." "I thought it would be a good place while I went for help." "Then I started thinking what that might mean, telling her parents and I hadn't the strength for that so I..." " I blocked the entrance." " Walter!" "All I was doing was giving myself time to think." "Well, someone saw you." "Saw all of it." "Well, I was preparing to come in tomorrow." "I've been putting my affairs in order for some while now and..." "I just didn't want to spoil Elizabeth..." "My elder daughter's big day, here." "Anything else you want to confess while you're on?" "Like why you've taken to doing that walk the last few weeks?" "You already know, don't you?" "You're not as stupid as I thought." "You're not the first person to make that mistake." " Have you found him?" " What's left of him." "Well, I used to go up to Dendale when Mary had gone." "I used to think she might still be there." "Lost, frightened." "And one night I did see someone, but it wasn't Mary." "It was Benny." "I took him." "It was you?" "You took him?" "I thought Dad..." "I know I should have brought him in and handed him over to you, but I couldn't trust you not to let him go again." "You chained him in the cellar." "Tell." "All I wanted was for him to tell me what he'd done with her." " But he wouldn't." "No!" "Whatever I did," "I suppose he thought once he'd told me, I'd kill him." "I swore by everything that I held sacred, by the memory of Mary herself, that I wouldn't." "I'd let him live if only he'd tell me..." "If only he'd talk, but he wouldn't." "Why?" "Why wouldn't he?" "For the very simple reason that he couldn't." "Benny Lightfoot never killed your daughter." "But you killed him." "I..." "I went away on business for a couple of days." "It rained heavily." "When I got back, I went over." "The water had risen, the cellar had flooded." "I thought he must be dead but... then I heard he'd attacked Betsy." "So I thought he must have escaped, got away." "All these years, I have wondered was he alive or dead?" "He was alive." "But not for long." "How he must have struggled to break clear, in the dark, as the waters rose." "Think about that." "You did that to him." "elizabeth:" "That'll do." "Leave him alone now." " Did you kill your daughter, too?" " I said that's enough!" "Betsy Allgood." "Who would've credited it, eh?" "Little Betsy Allgood turning into a star." "I have a way to go yet." "Oh, but you'll get there." "What's to stop you?" "You've come back here, sung your songs, made your peace," "settled everything that needed settling." "Well, nearly everything." "You did see Benny." "Like you always said." "But he never attacked you, did he?" "He couldn't." "He was chained up in the cellar." " With the water rising." "Please!" "I need your help, Betsy." "Go and get help." "He couldn't move." "Help me." " Betsy, go get help!" " He begged you to help him." "Help me!" "Help me, Betsy!" "Reached out his hand to you." "Get help!" "Betsy, please." "Help me!" "But you did nothing." "With Benny gone, nobody would suspect anybody else of killing Mary." "So you grabbed your cat." " Slammed the hatch shut." " Help me!" "Ran all the way home to your mum and dad." "Betsy!" "Betsy!" "Betsy!" "I was scared." "I wasn't sure what I'd seen." "You never told a soul." "Not even your mother." "Not even when she took her own life." "You kept your silence, and your secrets." "How you let a man die to protect the man you loved most in the world." "The man who gave you away." "Dad." "Dad!" "Dad?" "Dad!" "Dad?" "Dad!" "He's not in." "But I think I know where he might be." "No!" "No!" ""Dear Elizabeth... "" ""I nearly did this years back, like your mam." ""But I thought that would've been too easy." ""The only way I could see to punish meself" ""were go on living," ""rub your nose in it, that was what I thought." ""But all it did was cause the death of another lass." ""I'm glad you saw my special place. "" ""This is where she's buried. "" "Mary." "Mary." ""I loved her so much, that little thing," ""and I snuffed her out." ""I'm sorry." ""Dad. "" "I used to watch him when Mary came over to play." "Looking at her, smiling at her, touching her hair." "He never used to do that with me." "Afterwards, I heard 'em rowing." "Mum and Dad." "I sat on the stairs listening to 'em, trying to work it out." "She knew." "That's why she killed herself." "Yeah, well, it's finished now, for good." "Yeah." "Will you leave us alone now?" "I'd like to stay here a minute." "I don't think I'll come this way again."