His Second Chance

Chapter Fifteen

I sat at the kitchen table with Jack and Anouk while Chloe made the tea. We had banished Elliot upstairs to his room and Archie had been camping in his man-shed since we'd returned from the hospital.

Anouk hadn't said much, and I didn't blame her. Jack hadn't said much either; he was waiting for everyone to take a seat so he could explain properly what was going on, and what needed to be done. Chloe finally came to sit down, handing everyone their drinks. Anouk thanked her quietly, her voice quivering.

"So, what have you got to tell us?" Chloe asked, looking across at Jack.

"Can we free him?" Anouk asked.

"Well, I'll start from the beginning," he said, clearing his throat," Three months ago, a container - similar to the one found with Guinness inside - washed up on an abandoned coastline seventy miles away from your little cove. By the time is was reported and the local police had reached it, there was nothing in it, the smugglers had already cleared it of any evidence. A month later, another washed up at a beach even closer. Again, this one was reported, sooner than the first, and because of the nature of the first, we were called down."

"Just you, or did you go too, Anouk?" I asked.

"I was sent out first with a new employee," Jack said.

"Oh, DI Cade?" Anouk asked. Her tone was a cold one; she obviously didn't like this new detective.

"Yeah, that's the one," came the reply," He's very keen, was so desperate to get going and solve his first crime."

"Is this the one accusing Louie?" Chloe asked.

Jack nodded as he continued," When we heard about the third one, we all rushed down to the cove. Thank goodness you were there otherwise we wouldn't have found anything."

"So what did you find when you looked over the containers?" Chloe asked.

"The first one, nothing," Anouk answered," It was reported too late and by the time we got there, the smugglers had cleared any evidence, but the second one was closer to us so we managed to get down there before they could clear it all."

"And?" I asked," What did you find?"

"Nothing in the container, but marked in the sand was a hoofprint," Anouk said," They obviously ran out of time and assumed that the tide would wash it away."

"Did you get a picture?" Chloe asked.

Jack nodded and pulled out a file from nowhere. He opened it, pushing a few photos across the table. I looked down at them with Chloe. It was a singular hoofprint with a ten pound note sitting next to it.

"You guys know a lot about horses, can you tell us anything?" Anouk asked.

"It's a big horse, like Guinness," I said quickly.

"I agree," Chloe said, giving me a small smile, before pointing. "Do you have a closer picture?"

Jack pushed another photo closer. We both looked closer, although I wasn't sure what she was looking for.

"Was this sand really soft and fine, like the stuff you get a Camber Sands, or thicker?" she asked.

"Thick, it was almost like clay," Anouk replied," Why?"

"Here, you can see the horse was wearing shoes," she said," Those dents there, you can see the nails coming through."

"Could we follow up on that lead?" Anouk asked.

"I doubt it, they probably would have replaced them as soon as they'd reached their destination," she replied," Don't you have any CCTV footage?"

"The places are so remote there's no CCTV around for miles," Jack replied.