She stood up when he came in, then sat down again suddenly, her legs wobbling and unable to support her properly. She looked relieved when she heard his name.
‘Poppy,’ she said. ‘No one calls me Miss Mellor.’
She was a tall, athletic-looking girl with dark hair, quite pretty in a way, with long hands moving restlessly against each other on the table, her fingers twisting a set of rings. She’d draped a cream jacket casually over the chair and was wearing a white T-shirt with an esoteric design Cooper couldn’t place without staring too closely.
‘Poppy,’ said Cooper, sitting down opposite her. ‘I met a lady at the weekend-’
She nodded. ‘My great-aunt Caroline. She lives at Bowden.’
‘Did she mention me to you?’
‘Yes. It’s amazing that she remembered your name really. She can be quite vague. You must have made an impression on her.’
Cooper looked at the plastic cup. The coffee had gone cold and a grey skin was forming on the top. It looked disgusting.
‘Would you like me to get you another one of those?’ he said.
‘No. Thank you.’
‘I don’t blame you.’
He put the cup aside and sat back. She seemed to be relaxing a bit more, but it would be a mistake to push her too hard.
‘Take your time, Poppy,’ he said. ‘Just get it clear in your mind what you want to tell me. There’s no rush.’
‘Oh, I’ve thought about it already,’ she said. ‘I know what I want to say. It’s about Rob.’
‘Rob Beresford?’
‘Yes.’
‘He’s a friend of yours?’
‘Yes.’
‘He was part of the scheme, wasn’t he? I mean, the whole performance at the Corpse Bridge with the effigy and the noose.’
Poppy looked crestfallen. ‘He didn’t do much, you know. In fact, he didn’t do anything in the end.’
‘So what was his role?’
‘He was supposed to be the person who found the effigy,’ she said. ‘He deliberately didn’t play any other part. He had no contact with the others beforehand, so that he would just be an innocent person stumbling across the dummy.’
‘Why didn’t they just leave it for some genuinely innocent person to find?’
Poppy shook her head. ‘It might not have been found for weeks, especially if the weather turned bad. And they were worried who might find it. It could have been somebody who didn’t bother to report it. It could have been a child. They didn’t want to leave that to chance.’
‘So the next step was going to be making sure it got as much publicity as possible, I suppose?’
‘Yes.’
‘They were going to take photos, I imagine?’ said Cooper.
‘Of course. Carrying a digital camera would have been a bit too suspicious, but Rob was going to take photos and a short video on his iPhone, then pass them on everywhere he could.’
‘Local papers?’
‘Yes, but Facebook and Twitter too. The video would have gone on YouTube. They were hoping to go viral, he said.’
‘It would certainly have drawn attention to the cause.’
Poppy nodded. ‘That’s what they figured. There was no harm to it really.’
‘But it went wrong. What happened?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘And Rob doesn’t know either. He wasn’t there. Like I said, he had no contact with the others beforehand. They weren’t even supposed to have each other’s numbers on their phones, just in case. They know you look for things like that.’
‘Yes, we do,’ admitted Cooper.
‘But Rob recognised Sandra, obviously. He didn’t see how he could claim otherwise. You would have found out. There was no point in him pretending.’
‘We’ll need to talk to Rob directly,’ said Cooper. ‘He’ll have to give us a statement.’
‘I know. But I didn’t want you to go along thinking he’s a suspect. He isn’t.’
Cooper noted that Poppy Mellor seemed to be under the impression that Sandra Blair was murdered. Did she actually suspect Rob Beresford of being responsible? Was that why she’d felt compelled to come in and tell this story on his behalf? Not so much protecting the innocent, as standing by the guilty?
Well, nothing could be taken at face value — even someone who seemed so genuinely well-intentioned.
‘And what was your part in his scheme, Poppy?’ asked Cooper.
‘Me? I didn’t do anything. Rob wanted me to. I thought it was a good cause, protesting against the earl’s plans for the holiday cottages and selling off the church. And the car park, of course.’
‘Car park?’
‘On the burial ground at Bowden. He wants to concrete it over and turn it into a parking area for the holiday lets.’
‘I don’t think he can do that,’ said Cooper.
‘Well, it’s what they say.’
‘Perhaps they do.’
Cooper thought it sounded like a touch of exaggeration, a bit of added propaganda to make the plans sound even worse and cause that extra edge of outrage. Concreting over a graveyard? Who wouldn’t object to that?
‘When the group first got together they just talked about things,’ said Poppy. ‘Letting off steam, I suppose. But then they decided to walk all the old coffin roads, as a symbolic gesture. It was on one of the walks they had the idea of a bigger protest. Something more dramatic.’
‘Who actually suggested it?’
‘Rob says he can’t remember.’
‘We’ll ask him again, of course.’
‘He doesn’t trust the cops. But he might talk to you.’
Cooper smiled. Well, that was a compliment, he supposed, to be considered not truly a cop.
‘Anyway,’ said Poppy. ‘I couldn’t do it. I was supposed to be there that night, according to the plan. But I got scared. I sat in my car for a few minutes and then I drove away and went home.’
‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Poppy.’
‘I bottled out. That’s what Rob would say.’
‘But you’ve talked to Rob since?’
‘Oh, yes. He texted me after it all happened and we met up the next day to talk about it.’
‘On Friday.’
‘Yes. I tried to persuade him to come in and talk to you, but he wouldn’t do it.’
‘He won’t be happy about you telling me this, then,’ said Cooper.
‘No, he won’t. But it’s for the best. I’ve thought and thought about this, and I’m concerned for him. He didn’t do anything wrong, you see. But I’m frightened there are other people in that group who are much worse. From what Rob says, they might be violent.’
‘Do you know who the other group members are? Do you have any names?’
She shook her head. ‘No, I wasn’t that closely involved. I just knew Rob.’
‘I see.’
‘He’s a good guy,’ insisted Poppy. ‘Really he is. Rob isn’t guilty of anything, except trying to protect other people.’
29
When Poppy Mellor had gone, Cooper thought back to his conversation with Rob Beresford that early morning near the Corpse Bridge. After Halloween night he’d been dog-tired or he might not have missed so much.
While he sat waiting in the police car at the Corpse Bridge, Rob Beresford must have had plenty of time to think things through and consider his position. It would have been obvious to him the victim would soon be identified. The fact that she was known to him would emerge during the investigation. If he hadn’t mentioned straight away that he recognised her, it would have looked bad for him when the facts came out. It would certainly have put him under suspicion. Only the guilty made a secret of something like that.
So Beresford had definitely made the sensible decision, coming straight out with it. He must have been worried when Cooper failed to ask him the right question. It was easy in those circumstances to start thinking the police knew more than they actually did. Perhaps Rob Beresford had given Cooper more credit than he deserved. When Beresford blurted out that he knew the victim, it had been one of those moments when you grasped your courage in both hands and took an irrevocable step, when you made a decision there was no going back from. It had almost worked for him, too.