CHAPTER 69
Before and after that chat with Ross, I had spent some time working out possible combinations of activities for the police group, which led to some deep discussions with Ricky. He was absolutely serious about the whole thing, which gratified me.

“Simple, Enfys, isn’t it? All those lectures about adventure sport as a mental health treatment, and here we are putting the theory to work. I know you’ll be doing the same, but it’s going into a notebook, diary thing. How are we going to work this if one or more of them has bigger issues?”

I shrugged.

“Face that as and when and if, Ricky. Let’s do the smile thing, and I was thinking that this might be like that guidebook pic Matt showed us. What we see now doesn’t tell us what happened before, ah?”

“Aye… and Saturday night?”

“I was thinking of the folk club, down the Cow”

He snorted.

“Thought you were going to be nice to them!”

Sod.

“Yes, and letting them laugh at and with each other should help”

The party arrived in a small coach, and I helped Ross and Sue show them to their rooms as Ricky sorted their parking. Bright and light, Hiatt. A few were staying in cottages over the road, and I quickly gathered they were married couples. They all looked exhausted, and it was clearly not just from the trip. One, a slim blonde, looked my way as I showed them around, and her eyes didn’t look dead, that absence of life that fatigue brings, but lost. Debbie had been absolutely right in her warning.

Whatever breaking point they had, it was somewhere behind them. One younger woman turned her head as she followed Sue to her room, and as her hair moved I caught a hint of a large, puckered scar right across one side.

Not good. Not good at all.

I spotted what was obviously Inspector Patel, a wiry Asian-looking man with a very flattened nose, and raised my eyebrows in silent query as Sue introduced our team to the new guests. He gave a tiny smile, and silently mouthed the words ‘Thank you’.

As I finally set off to start my ride home, I saw the big man who had been driving the bus, leaning against the wall with his eyes shut. He looked at me as my boots crunched in the gravel, and smiled.

“You Enfys, then? I’m Hywel”

He had a strong West Wales accent, and I must have let my surprise show, as he held out his hand to me.

“Old friend of Steph, aye? And I know that Annie as well. Sang at her wedding, me and Dad. My cousin was this lot’s old boss”

“Ah! I was wondering how you knew me. Not really expecting someone I didn’t know to know me, sort of thing. Sorry!”

He let out a long sigh.

“No need, love. Tell me: how much do you know about what they’ve been through?”

I nodded, slowly. I already knew most of it, of course, but let the client tell it their own way.

“A bit. Guns and dog-fighting, wasn’t it?”

A nod, then a shake of his head.

“More than that, love. Paedos and shit. Tell me; did you know the Roberts? Out to Pont Cyfyng?”

“Lots of Roberts here”

“Carwyn and Angharad?”

“Oh hell!”

The case had raised a small flurry of excitement in Capel some months earlier, not really touching Bethesda, village life being what it was. Rape, in short. Hywel was nodding again.

“Blake, he’s the one married to Diane, who I know suggested this place, he was at the trial, the Roberts one. That cousin, this lot’s old boss? Mrs Roberts is her mam in law, so I have what they call skin in this game, aye? I think you already knew about the kiddy fiddler, but there’s more. They can tell you, if they want to. I would just like a promise you’ll look after them”

I looked at him, wondering if he understood exactly how much pain he was himself clearly suffering.

“Do my best, Hywel. Promise”

“Aye. Annie and Steph said you were a sound woman. They’re all off to the pub in a few, but I am going to walk down the road a bit. Watch the water. Be good if I could grab a bite here later, if that’s OK”

“Not the pub?”

“No. Let them have some time to themselves, as a team. They don’t need outsiders tonight”

“Give me a minute, then”

I went back into the office, collaring Ross.

“Turns out the driver’s a friend of a friend. He wants to leave them in their own company tonight. Can we sort him a meal?”

“Of course, girl. More on your mind, from that look”

“Yes. Remember someone called Carwyn Roberts?”

“Fuck! Sorry; inappropriate. Not that case as well?”

“Sort of, yes”

“Christ on a crutch. Definitely need to cut slack, then. Not literally, but you get my point. See you in the morning, then? Got you and Ricky lined up to take them out, those that want to climb. You can take them down to Little Tryfan”

“Fine by me. Forecast seems fair for somewhere higher, though”

“Yes, but this group is for complete newbies. Assessment for any harder stuff, okay?”

“Okay. I will see you in the morning, then. Oh---transport?”

“Minibus, with Ricky. Their bus and driver are off to Caernarfon. Oh—and Saturday night”

“Yes?”

“That idea of yours, about the pub trip? I ran it past Vern, and he spoke to Roger, and we’ve done some horse trading over tourist groups going off to Ffestiniog, and he will give us drivers for Saturday night. Our buses, so we will need a volunteer to ride shotgun. I know you’ll hate the whole idea, but, well, yeah?”

“Fine, as you already knew! I’m off home. Bye for now”

I slept badly that night, seeing the eyes of that blonde in my memories, and I missed Alys terribly. The alarm took me by surprise, telling me that I had actually been asleep, and as the little Honda whined up the hill to Idwal, I was grateful for the lack of wind. Toprope them to the left hand ledge, then possibly do the flake route with the extra-long 15mm rope. That would be a real drag… let Ricky do that one… Or maybe a rope of three to the first ledge, then up to the top, enough room on the stance…

No, woman. Get them there, see how they feel, let them set the pace. Healing time, not coaching session.

After a quick look at the basics in a classroom, the group divided, and we handed out the packed lunches after fitting some harnesses. Hywel was cheeky, as some of the party stood by his coach.

“Got that vegan lunch I ordered?”

Sod him, I thought, and gave it back.

“Couldn’t find any sliced vegan, but we’ve got some tuna, some ham and cheese…”

A snort of laughter.

“Steph was right about you, then. Where you off to?”

“Gwern y Gof Uchaf”

“Fine. I know that. All aboard the Skylark, aye? Bright lights and big city time”

There were four for me and Ricky, and I gathered the older two were the woman who had initially sounded me out and her husband, the one involved in the rape trial. One of the younger pair was the girl with the scar. I let Ricky do the talking as we rolled along the A5, pointing out peaks and landmarks as we went. There was space by the farm entrance, so we picked up our well-filled rucksacks and set off. By ‘rucksacks’, I meant one for each member of the party, because there was no way two of us were going to carry the whole lot of kit to the crag when we could offer it as a learning experience. Over the stile, up the slight hill, across the flat rock outcrop, and then round to the foot of the crag. The Woodruffs were, of course, sitting at the base.

Geoff’s cheeriness struck me as utterly false, but he was trying, and at least I now had a fuller understanding of what was going on.

“Wotcher, you lot! We thought some of you might end up here! Lovely day for being silly, isn’t it?”

Steph gave him a one-armed hug.

“First place I ever took him climbing, this is. Lots of memories round here. Gives us a chance to agree what we’re up to Saturday night, as well”

The younger man in our party, Jon, tried to look and sound angry

“Some of us are doing things with boats. Why not ambush them?”

Steph snorted.

“Bloody stupid game, that! You can drown in that stuff! Air I can live with”

Geoff was chuckling, his head shaking as he looked at his wife with the deep affection I knew always lived in them both.

“Yeah, even when it’s all she has under her bloody feet. We’re not stopping here long, anyway. Off round the Slabs for some longer stuff”

Jon was still pushing

“Slabs?”

Geoff’s face was even worse than Jon’s at guile

“Oh, a little way down the road. Nice walk. Like this place, just a little longer, and a much easier way down off the top. You’d like it!”

Oh you lying bastard! I had to turn away to hide my smirk.

We went through the rituals of donning the harnesses and basic safety instructions, while Steph ambled up the slab using friction and ripples, which is really easy on that rock, but still fun. I gave some final words before we actually got moving.

“Don’t reach up too high, ah? Your arms will get all weak, what we call ‘pumped’. Keep them down at shoulder height. Trust your feet. Ignore that one with the red hair, she’s a teasing cow!”

Steph called down.

“I heard that, Enfys!”

“You were meant to! Oh, you been speaking to Roger and Vern? About Saturday? The Cow, ah?”

“Hang on. I’ll just put something in, otherwise he’ll fret… There. Runner on, love!”

An “OK!” came from Geoff, and she turned sideways, her head resting on one hand, its elbow on the rock.

“Yeah, love. He’s doing a couple of minibuses for us. Be room if you want to come along”

“Ah, Ross is ahead of you! Done a deal with Vernon at the Pinnacles. Got a load of tourists want to go off to Gloddfa Ganol and Portmeirion, be back late. He’s got a couple of drivers spare, but needs the buses, ah? Vern’s saying to use ours, so someone has to go along to make sure nobody breaks anything”

Geoff started laughing at my last words

“Let me guess, girl: you volunteered? How’s it go: it’s a crap job, but you’ll take one for the team?”

Steph snorted, and carried on upwards, followed by Geoff, and Ricky and I tag-teamed below the left hand ledge, one to toprope, the other to ensure people were tied on properly, and to release them after they were lowered down. We then did some silly toprope stuff below the big ledge, mainly to let them see how small a useful hold could actually be, and then we started taking them right to the top using the extra-length ropes, which give tremendous rope drag, that being the reason I left those leads to Ricky. Once all four were at the top, I quickly soloed up to collect some of the bits the pupils hadn’t been able to extract, and then we went up the water-washed rock steps to the easier descent path. As the younger woman, Lexie, made her move, the wind caught her hair, and revealed the whole of her scar.

Shit, it was big, a groove across one side of her skull. Once we were on easier ground, I asked her.

“Lexie, sorry if I am being personal, ah? But what on Earth happened?”

She looked down, before giving me a rueful smile.

“I got stupid, love. You know what we all do for work?”

“Um, aye. Coppers”

“Yes. We have had a bit of a year, and this is all a bit of… This is letting some steam off, this week, finding ourselves, destressing. I got shot, simple as that”

“Cachu!”

I simply couldn’t hold that word back. I knew so much of their story, but seeing that scar so clearly really knocked me sideways. She just nodded, clearly understanding the word

“Yes, it was. Should have kept my head down, really, but it means I won’t be in the frame for a remake of Breakfast at Tiffany’s any time soon!”

“You OK now, though?”

She grinned that time.

“It’s like the climbing, Enfys. Had my team around me, all interlocked, inter-reliant, if there’s such a word. Lots of important stuff you can never do alone, isn’t it?”

Understanding stood up in front of me, smiled, and slapped me in the face. I dropped my voice.

“Would I be right in thinking that you are… If I say my girlfriend is away at the moment, that isn’t a come-on, but I am right, am I not?”

She nodded.

“Sort of came out when I started with this lot. Not sure, me, not at first, then I met Lisa, and, well, I suppose I must be bi. Doesn’t matter, though. Not the only one here, all loved up. Blake and Di there, and Jon, of course”

“With the blonde girl? The one off canoeing?”

She burst out laughing,

“God, no! With Rhys, the man with the scar on his face! Candice is…”

She looked away towards Tryfan, and I caught Diane looking back at us, a puzzled expression emerging.

“Enfys, the rest don’t know this, apart from Sammy, the boss. And don’t look at Di; I’m teasing her. She thinks we’re flirting. Let her do that. Lisa, my girl, she’s due here Friday evening, and she’s being driven up by another colleague”

Once more, a study of the Heather Terrace, before she turned back to me.

“I nearly died, Enfys. I was really, really stupid. I ended up in hospital, and I had time to think. This lot, they are still breaking. Candice is possibly the worst of all of us, because… No. Not going there. Man that’s driving Lisa up is Barry, and he is as damaged as she is. They’ve been keeping it quiet, but Sammy knows, and me, and the rest will find out when he gets here. So shall we have some fun, just to get their minds off the horrors? Nothing too difficult”

“What are you suggesting?”

Another long look away, and then she turned back to me, her eyes almost squinting.

“I think I really love Lisa. First time in my life it’s been more than lust, and I never expected it to be with a girl. You love your girlfriend?”

“She’s called Alys, off in Australia for a year, part of her degree, ah? Yes. No doubts there”

“Then, if you don’t mind, let them see us flirt a bit, just until Lisa and Barry get here. Give them something to think about other than dead dogs, men and kids”