LITMIR.BIZ

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      ‘Fine. Tell me anyway.’

      ‘People see her in the woods around the village. A girl dressed in white, old-fashioned clothes. Supposedly, if she sees your face, you’re going to die.’ She lowered her gaze. ‘Which is clearly not true.’

      ‘So she’s a child who lives in the village?’

      ‘She’s not a real child. The whole Pale Child thing is a myth. I don’t know why Esther even brought it up.’

      ‘Did Violet see this Pale Child?’

      ‘Of course not. I don’t know why you’re even asking about this.’

      I wrote ‘Pale Child’ in my notebook and underlined it twice, then looked up and said, ‘Okay, tell me about the threats you mentioned earlier.’

      Anna’s leg jiggled up and down before she stilled it with a hand. ‘You obviously know who Violet is. Her videos?’

      ‘I know she’s famous for videoing herself cooking meat-based products in a bikini.’

      Anna sighed. ‘Maybe we used her, you could say.’ She fiddled with a loose thread on her vest-top. ‘I’ve been wanting to start a blog for a while, to debate this stuff. Meat, the environment, welfare, etc. Violet helped. She got us attention. I never knew it could be … dangerous.’

      ‘Okay, you’d better tell me from the beginning.’

      ‘It’s all so polarised now, like everything. I wanted to have an intelligent discussion. We set the website up – The Great Meat Debate – and put videos and posts on it. Discussions about the ethics of meat, and about how we’d designed the abattoir. Gary does stupid strength challenges with vegans. Lifting vans and ripping up books or whatever. I mean, that wasn’t part of the intelligent debate, but people love that kind of thing. As for Violet … well, Violet’s just Violet, and she brought us most of our visitors.’

      ‘You’ve had threats?’

      ‘Yes. I never expected that to happen. It’s not like we’re doing anything bad, but we attracted a load of attention. You know what it’s like – sometimes the more ethical meat producers come in for more vitriol. As if it’s almost worse to be nice to the animals before you kill them. People can’t seem to handle that. Like that farmer who let kids meet the turkeys at Christmas. It’s irrational, but there it is. We get a lot of haters. Especially a group called the Animal Vigilantes. Do you know them?’

      I nodded. They’d been on our radar for a while. They wore clothing printed with a design that made it look like their skin had been removed and you could see their insides. They looked like meat. And their violence levels had been escalating.

      ‘Daniel can tell you more,’ Anna said. ‘He was really worried about it, and he tried to look into the Animal Vigilantes and who was behind them. Maybe he was right to be worried. He said they were getting more aggressive. And he thought they might follow through on their threats.’

      ‘What kind of threats did they make?’

      She swallowed. ‘They said they were going to slit Violet’s throat.’

      I left Anna Finchley and made my way through the grey corridor back into the scorching heat outside. This was not our usual kind of missing teenager. For some, going AWOL was practically a weekly occurrence and the police a free taxi service. Violet wasn’t one of those. Besides, someone had threatened to slit her throat.

      A man was walking down the verge of the lane, heading away from the abattoir. He was bashing at the undergrowth with a long stick, the effort showing in the sweat soaking his shirt under the armpits and down his back. I called to him, and he jumped and spun round. It was Gary. Anna’s brother who’d found the watch earlier.

      I pointed at his stick. ‘You can leave that now. We’re doing a search. It’s best you don’t do it.’

      Civilian searches were appalling evidence-manglers. I mentally noted where Gary had been hacking at the undergrowth, just in case he’d been deliberately destroying evidence. He’d already manhandled Violet’s watch.

      ‘Whatever,’ he said.

      ‘Can I ask where you were last night?’

      ‘In bed at home.’

      ‘Can anyone verify that?’

      ‘My wife can.’ Gary smacked his stick against the ground again, contrary to my instructions. His attitude made me suspicious. For people who had never been in trouble, your typical questioned-by-the-cops look was a mixture of terror and the eagerness of the schoolkid at the front of the class with their hand up. Gary didn’t have that look. This one was hanging around the bike-sheds and claiming the cigarettes belonged to his mate.

      I looked at his stick and he let it drop to the ground.

      ‘I don’t know why Anna’s giving you this I’m so worried bullshit,’ he said. ‘She bloody hates Violet.’

      ‘Anna hates Violet?’

      ‘Yeah. She thinks Violet’s a pain in the arse. Always moaning about the way things are done.’

      ‘What kinds of things?’

      ‘Everything. Violet knows best. The way we clean, the way we process the meat, even the way we kill the pigs.’

      ‘Does that cause conflict?’

      ‘You could say. Not my problem though. I’m just the minion, aren’t I? Anna’s the boss.’

      So was that the tension? Gary didn’t like his sister being his boss? I had to admit, it was an unusual set-up, practically guaranteed to offend any fragile male egos involved.

      ‘Anna employs you?’

      He opened his mouth as if to speak, then shut it again. ‘Yes.’

      I softened my stance and gave him a conspiratorial smile. ‘It’s never easy working with family.’

      ‘No. And stuck in this shithole.’

      I wanted to know why he would stay at the abattoir, working for his sister, if he hated it so much, but I sensed it wasn’t the time to get the truth out of him. Thankfully, when it came to criticising Anna, he was happy to spill all.

      ‘Do you think Anna might harm Violet?’ I asked.

      Gary laughed. ‘God, no. Anna wouldn’t have the balls to do that. She’s not what you think, you know. She makes out she’s this tough country girl, so at home running the abattoir and hanging out with proper farmers, but you know what she wants? To live in the city, surrounded by poncy art galleries and theatres, where she’d never have to smell pig shit again in her life. But will she admit it? Will she, bollocks! Anyway, that’s not your concern. It’s the animal rights lunatics who’ve hurt Violet. I just think Anna should drop the Oscar-winning performance of being all upset about it.’

      That was quite a speech to blurt out spontaneously. I didn’t comment – it’s best to let people carry on when they’re mid-rant. But he didn’t say any more.

      ‘Tell me about the animal rights lunatics,’ I said.

      ‘You know they’ve threatened to kill Violet?’

      ‘Who threatened to kill her?’

      ‘Idiots online. Posting sicko stuff about her. But they’ve had a go at all of us. Come to think of it, maybe that’s what Anna’s upset about.’ He let out a sharp laugh. ‘She’s not worried about Violet – she thinks it’s her next.’

      ‘What exactly have these people said?’

      ‘Called us murderers. Said they’d come and slit our throats. Messed-up shit.’

      That did sound messed up, even by internet standards. ‘Did you take it seriously?’

      ‘It’s hard

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