Their caravan was still parked up at the Hayfield campsite. The site was quiet in October and Cooper soon found the Warburtons’ pitch. They had a brand-new Swift Conqueror 630, with four berths and a toilet and shower room at the end. It was nearly eight metres long, and inside it was furnished better than many homes he’d been into in Edendale. Parked alongside it was a Nissan X-Trail in vivid yellow.
‘I’m surprised to find you still here,’ said Cooper when he was sitting in the caravan with a mug of tea. ‘I thought you might have gone back to Manchester.’
‘The pitch was booked for a week, and paid for,’ said Sam Warburton. ‘So we thought we might as well make use of it. There are lots of things to do around here, and places for us to go. We like living in Didsbury, but the Peak District is special to us.’
‘And life doesn’t stop, does it?’ said Pat. ‘The rest of us have to carry on.’
The couple were still dressed as if they were about to go for a walk at any moment. Cooper could see their boots and hiking poles standing in an open cupboard, along with their waterproofs.
‘When did you arrive in Hayfield?’ he asked.
‘On Saturday morning,’ said Sam. ‘The day before the walk.’
So the Warburtons had been there for the whole weekend. Was that a detail missed in the initial statements?
‘What did you do on Saturday?’ he asked.
‘We visited Castleton.’
‘After lunch at the No Car Café at Rushup,’ added Pat.
‘I know it,’ said Cooper.
Pat Warburton explained that they liked it at the No Car Café because you couldn’t get to it by road, though there were facilities for washing your bike or tying up your horse. Drivers had to park in the layby on Sheffield Road and walk five hundred metres down to the café. It created the feeling of remoteness they liked.
Cooper nodded. ‘So you weren’t in Hayfield at all?’
‘Not during the day,’ said Sam. ‘We got the caravan on site, then unhitched the car and went off for lunch.’
‘What about in the evening? I imagine you might have met up with some of the other walking-club members?’
Sam Warburton glanced at his wife. It seemed this was a subject they didn’t like talking about quite so much. Pat fiddled with her glasses, as if they were uncomfortable on her face.
‘We called on Darius and Elsa,’ she said in the end. ‘We had a bit of supper with them at their house.’
‘Was anyone else there?’
‘The two girls, Millie and Karina. They were staying at Trespass Lodge.’
‘And there was Jonathan,’ said Sam. ‘Faith’s brother.’
‘A strange young man,’ said Pat with pursed lips.
‘Was he staying there too?’
‘Apparently. It was very good of Darius to put him up at the lodge. None of us know him very well.’
‘And he was very quiet,’ said Sam. ‘Hardly said a word all through supper. The girls didn’t like him. They thought he was a bit creepy.’
‘Did they tell you that?’
‘They told me,’ said Pat. ‘They mentioned it as we were leaving.’
‘But it was just because he was so quiet,’ said Sam. ‘He came over as rather sullen.’
‘And no one else was there?’ asked Cooper.
‘No. We met the rest next morning.’
At least that was consistent with the statements made by Millie Taylor and Karina Scott, as well as Jonathan Matthew. A cosy gathering at the Roths’ house the night before the walk. Jonathan seemed like the odd one out, though. Was it really just a generous gesture of Darius Roth’s to offer him accommodation at Trespass Lodge?
‘There was nothing very exciting about the conversation,’ said Pat, as if anticipating Cooper’s next question. ‘It was just small talk, catching up on what people had been doing. You know the sort of thing. Millie and Karina talked a lot about their courses at MMU. They’re studying tourism management. Millie mentioned a subject called “Tomorrow’s Tourist”.’
‘And Darius?’
‘Darius? He’s a very good listener.’
‘And that was all you did, just ate supper?’
‘And had a few drinks,’ said Sam. ‘Since no one was driving, you understand.’
‘We were very restrained,’ said Pat.
‘I thought there might have been some kind of meeting of the club that night,’ said Cooper.
‘What, like an AGM?’ said Sam with a laugh. ‘It’s not that kind of club. We don’t elect officials and vote on resolutions. It’s all very informal.’
‘I see.’
Cooper switched the subject and asked the Warburtons how they’d become part of the New Trespassers Walking Club, and when they’d met the other members of the group.
‘We just latched on somehow,’ said Pat Warburton. ‘They seemed like a nice bunch. How was it we met them, Sam?’
‘It was on an official guided walk with the Peak Park rangers,’ said her husband.
‘Oh, that’s right.’
‘We did the walk on the anniversary of the Mass Trespass one year. Mind you, it wasn’t this group we met.’
‘It wasn’t this group?’ repeated Cooper, puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’
‘It was quite a different set-up back then. The Roths were there from the beginning, of course. Darius and Elsa. But the rest of the group has changed. Faith and her brother weren’t part of the club at that time, for a start. Nor Sophie and Nick, or the students.’
‘Or the young man who works at the airport,’ said Pat.
‘Liam. No, he wasn’t there either.’
‘How long ago was this exactly?’ asked Cooper.
‘When we joined up with the group? About six years, I suppose. Is that right, Sam?’
‘I reckon so. It was a different time of year too, though. April, because it was on the anniversary of the Trespass.’
‘So members of the club come and go,’ said Cooper. ‘I thought it was a more stable group than that.’
Sam Warburton laughed suddenly, and Cooper looked at him more closely. What had caused that reaction? Was it the word ‘stable’?
‘No, almost all of the present members came along after us,’ said Pat, frowning at her husband.
Cooper mentally ran through the list of names in his head.
‘So, apart from the Roths themselves, the only people who were part of the group then and still are now would be...?’
‘The Gould brothers,’ said Pat. ‘Theo and Duncan.’
Her husband smiled. ‘Very interested in the natural landscape, they are. There’s more to Kinder than just the Mass Trespass, you know.’
‘Have you kept in touch with any of those previous members? Do you know how we could get hold of any of them?’
The couple looked at each other.
‘Why, of course not,’ said Pat. ‘What use would that be to you? They weren’t there with us on Kinder.’
‘We’re just trying to cover all the angles,’ said Cooper. ‘If you think of anything that would help us get in contact with them, please let us know. Such as where they lived or where they worked, for example. Anything you remember might be useful.’
‘All right. But people come and go, like you say. We don’t always know very much about them.’
‘I understand.’
‘We’ll be dropping out ourselves soon,’ said Sam Warburton. ‘Even without this tragedy, it would have been time.’
‘Oh? Why?’
‘We’re getting a bit old for it.’
‘Well, he is,’ put in Pat, pointing at her husband.
‘Getting up onto Kinder,’ he continued, ‘that’s a young people’s game, isn’t it? It’s a long haul from the car park at Bowden Bridge. Some of the going gets a bit rough, and the track is steep. Even that first bit up White Brow nearly kills me now. It’s the knees, you know.’