Sheila Kennett lived at Chapman Farm with her late husband until the 1990s.  Strike finds her name in the census information for the Farm and asks Robin to arrange an interview with her (Ch 13).

Sheila Kennett, now aged 85, lives in Coventry in a ‘shabby’ bungalow.  Sheila is a tiny old woman with thinning grey hair worn in a bun. She has dark eyes of which both irises showed marked arcus senilis and were enlarged by powerful bifocals. She is slightly stooped and wears a loose red dress and navy slippers. She has a hearing aid, a tarnished gold wedding ring and a silver cross around her neck (Ch 16).

Sheila tells Robin that Chapman Farm was called Forgeman Farm when she and Brian first lived there, and that at that point it was more like a commune. She recalls Rust Anderson and Harold Coates being there and added that Harold Coates was a ‘nasty man’. She said that she and Brian didn’t know ‘what was going on’ and that they were busy growing vegetables and looking after pigs and chickens. Sheila goes on to say that she remembered Strike being there with his mother Leda and his sister (Ch 16).

Sheila remembers Mazu being born and her mother Ann leaving not long afterwards. When the police arrived at the farm and questioned everyone Sheila and Brian decided to leave. Mazu asked them to return a couple of years later, and some of the original people were still there, such as Coates and Anderson. She said Jonathan Wace was there with his girl Abigail and that Mazu had a daughter, Daiyu (Ch 16).

Sheila says that she and Brian were happy at first, but then bad things started happening, mainly instigated by Mazu.  She tells Robin what she recalls about Daiyu’s drowning, and about her husband’s death at the farm, becoming quite upset (Ch 16).