Riddled on the Sands (The Lakeland Murders) (6 page)

But this sift was different. There was something black and heavy in the bottom of the sifter, and it looked man made. He thought it might be a bit off the tractor, so he called Sandy over.

She took one glance into the sifter and swore loudly, twice.

‘Where did this sand come from? Which of us gave it to you?’

‘You did, I think.’

‘For once in your life use your brain, Ian. Was that sand from me?’

‘Aye.’

‘Right. Down tools everyone, and let’s get out of here. We need to have a talk about this.’

‘What is it, Sandy?’

‘Call yourself a squaddie? It’s a bullet, you dick. And not an old one either. Have you touched it?’

‘No, ‘course not.’

‘Right. Well it looks like you’ve just earned yourself the gold forensic package.’

‘Does that mean I get to stop sifting sand?’

‘No. It just means that I’ll be buying the beers tonight.’

Jane Francis had already left the office by the time Andy Hall arrived.

‘Where is everyone?’ he asked Ray Dixon, following up with ‘and why are you here so early?’ before Dixon could reply.

‘Ian’s up at HQ looking at his half-sand, half-tractor combo. Apparently Sandy Smith has been peeling paint over the job. Grown men have been blushing at her language. And Jane’s gone out to follow-up on a fire from last night. Nobby marked it as suspicious.’

‘Are the Fire Service looking at it?’

‘Nah. The Station Officer told Nobby he must have been sniffing their foam again when he asked.’

‘Charming. There’s nothing like a bit of co-operation, and that’s nothing like a bit of co-operation. And what are you on with then, Ray?’

‘Ian got me to look at Jack Bell’s mate, or at least the other fisherman who was out on the Bay at the same time as him last Friday night.’

‘Really? Have you spoken to him?’

‘Aye, yesterday. He was a bit jumpy, maybe, but that could be about anything. Ian didn’t have him down as a killer though, and nor did I.’

‘Quite right too. Other than slaughtering various fish and ocean going creepy-crawlies there’s absolutely no evidence that anything fishy has happened.’ Hall paused for the laugh that didn’t come. ‘Pound to a penny it’ll turn out to be an accidental death, and the Coroner will get all huffy about us wasting public money recovering that bloody tractor.’

‘Waste of time you reckon then, boss?’

‘I do. I had a text from Sandy Smith on my phone this morning that took me about five minutes to decipher.’

‘And when you did you wished you hadn’t?’

‘Well it broadened my vocabulary, let’s just say that, which takes some doing given that I’ve worked with you lot all these years.’

‘We didn’t all have the benefit of a university education, boss.’

‘You’ve done all right for yourself, Ray. And before you ask, again, no I haven’t heard anything from Personnel about my request to keep you on. And like I keep saying, don’t get your hopes up. We’re skint, and in case you hadn’t noticed this place is half empty anyway, and there’s barely an officer over fifty left.’

‘Aye, I know.’

‘Anyway, does Bell’s fishing buddy have form? Please tell me he does.’

‘No, nowt. Do you want me to keep digging?’

‘Go on then, but just until Sandy and her chums have finished with the tractor. Assuming that nothing turns up, and you don’t find anything either, then we’ll just put it on the back-burner until the body turns up. Then we can take another look if we have to, but we won’t. This is an accidental death, pure and simple. Absolutely sod all to see here.’

Jane was glad to have got out of the office before Andy could stop her. She knew that he had that fisherman’s death down as an expensive waste of time, so he’d be keen that everything else they were doing was from the current caseload, and it wasn’t like she didn’t have plenty to do. The problem was, she really didn’t fancy any of the things on her list.

As she drove to the address she’d been given by Charlie Coward she wondered if she was losing a bit of enthusiasm, because until a few months ago she’d have been at work ‘til all hours. Pre-holiday blues perhaps? She hoped so, because she didn’t want it to be her relationship with Andy Hall. Because his work rate wouldn’t slacken. It hadn’t when his wife had left him and the kids and it wouldn’t now, and that was one of the things she admired about him. When he walked through that door in the morning he just blocked everything else out. Of course she knew him well enough now to understand how much the break up had hurt him, and still did, but no-one at work had even commented on that. Maybe they hadn’t noticed any change in Hall, or perhaps they didn’t think it was even worthy of comment. Divorce among coppers seemed like par for the course, so maybe that’s why it hadn’t seem to surprise anyone. Except DI Andy Hall, of course.

So Jane told herself to focus, even if this did look like a total waste of time, especially when she was parked up outside the house. Because apart from a partially collapsed garage, and a few puddles of water, there really wasn’t much to see.

‘Andy’s barbecues do more damage than this’ she said, pulling the keys out of the car’s ignition. Then she looked at her watch. Was it too early to call on a family that had been up half the night? Absolutely it was, if the family in question was of the law-abiding kind. But the O’Brians didn’t come into that category, so Jane opened the door and walked up the path, smelling damp cardboard and a sweet smell that she couldn’t quite place. Maybe they’d kept the kids’ guinea pigs in the garage.

Jane was still smiling when she knocked on the door. But by the time it was answered her smile had faded.

‘Do you know what time it is?’ said Gary O’Brian. He was big man, and he looked tough, even in his boxers and a heavy metal t-shirt. But he stepped back and Jane walked in to the house.

‘What do you want? The kids are both upset. Lost their bikes and all their outdoor toys, didn’t they.’

‘Sorry to hear that, Gary. I wanted to ask you about the cause of the fire. It was in the middle of the night, so Nobby Styles doesn’t see how it could have been kids.’

Gary didn’t look concerned, or convinced either.

‘Nobby knows nowt. Bloody kids are up ‘til all hours round here. They don’t go to school, see, some of them.’

‘So you think it was kids?’

‘Maybe. Fireman’s top man said he thought it might have been electrical. But I don’t now, do I? I was spark out, like. Clear conscience, that’s why.’

‘Why might you have been targeted?’

‘How do you mean, targeted?’

‘Well, there are plenty of other garages, aren’t there? Plus sheds and what-not. So why would they choose yours to torch? Have you fallen out with anyone lately?’

‘Me? No way. Bloody heart of the community, me.’

Jane looked doubtful, and Gary noticed.

‘What, don’t believe me? Sheila, get in here, love.’

When she came in Sheila looked as if she’d had no sleep, and Jane found herself regretting knocking.

‘You tell her. Have we got any enemies?’

‘Enemies?’

‘Aye, enemies. Anyone who’d want to set our garage on fire, like.’

‘Don’t be daft. Electrical fault it was, wasn’t it?’

‘Aye, that’s what I said. No-one would do that to us.’

When one of the kids appeared at the door, grabbed her mum’s leg and half hid behind it, Jane started to feel really guilty. And she very nearly didn’t ask her final question.

‘So, Gary, have you been up to any of your old tricks lately?’

He didn’t answer, but gestured to his wife, who picked up the child and left the room.

‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘Have you? We all know you, Gary. A bit of bottom-feeder, pushing to kids I’ll bet.’

‘Bollocks. I’ve never supplied kids with anything, not even a bit of dope. Ask anyone, they’ll tell you. And I’ve not been in trouble for ages. I’m a family man.’

‘Your last conviction was only nine months ago, Gary.’

‘Like I said, ages. Now if you don’t mind I’d like to get a bit of shut eye.’

‘Of course. But you don’t mind if I have a look at your garage, or what’s left of it?’

‘Why would you want to do that? There’s nowt out there but mess. It’ll probably be ages before the Housing Association comes round and takes it away. Bloody useless, they are. Always late cutting the grass round here, they are. I don’t know how many times I’ve phoned up about it.’

‘Have you thought about doing it yourself?’

‘You what? With what, like? Bloody mower was in the garage, weren’t it? And anyway, it was bust.’

Jane smiled. ‘I’m just going to have a look round, then I’ll be on my way, all right?’

‘And if it’s not all right?’

Jane looked back at him and said nothing. It wasn’t like Gary to make a fuss. He knew how the game was played, she’d say that for him. For the first time since she’d knocked on the door Jane felt that her time might not have been entirely wasted.

‘Aye, all right then’ he said eventually. ‘But don’t touch anything, mind. And the fire boys said it’s not safe to go inside. It might collapse at any minute.’ He paused. ‘So on second thoughts, you be my guest DC Francis. Do go where you like, love.’

Jane took her time when she was outside. If nothing else it would annoy Gary O’Brian, who she was certain was watching her from the upstairs bathroom. But he was right, the garage did look like it might collapse at any moment. The roof timbers looked heavy, and the whole thing seemed to be leaning to one side. It wasn’t worth taking any risks.

So from the outside Jane tried to make out what the contents of the garage were, but the firemen had given everything a thorough soaking. She could see a big old bench down one side of the garage, pretty charred but recognisable, but no sign of the kids’ bikes.

She walked round the side of the garage and looked at the door. It seemed solid and old, but there was a big, hefty padlock on it. Jane walked up to it, and gave it a tug. It looked very new, and a bit over-the-top to protect a couple of kids’ bikes. As Jane turned to leave she was almost certain that she saw the bathroom curtain move.

Three hours later Ian Mann was sitting in Superintendent Val Gorham’s office with Andy Hall. It wasn’t turning out to be as bad as he expected.

‘So you’re saying that someone shot Jack Bell’s tractor, and presumably him as well, with a military assault weapon of some kind?’ asked Gorham.

‘Possibly assault weapons plural ma’am’ replied Mann. ‘Sandy Smith and her crew are still sifting through mountains of sand, but we’ve got ten slugs now, and given where they were found on the tractor they were either fired in two bursts and either the shooter or the tractor moved between the bursts, or we’re looking at two simultaneous bursts from different weapons. We won’t know for sure until ballistics have done their work.’

‘No chance that the bullets had been there for ages I suppose?’

‘No, Sandy is quite sure about that. She says she can’t say for absolute certain that it was Friday, but she can say it wasn’t more than a few days ago. No signs of corrosion at all, she says. But she can confirm that the bullets hit before the tide washed over the tractor for the first time.’

‘No sign of the body?’

‘No ma’am. Coastguard says they’re surprised.’

‘I’m not’ said Hall. ‘We have to assume that Bell was killed out on the Bay, and we have to assume that he died of a bullet wound, and more likely multiple wounds. If I was the killer and I had a vehicle, whether a 4x4, boat, hovercraft, helicopter or whatever it was, I’d uplift the body, weigh it down, and get rid of it further out in the Bay. The killer or killers probably couldn’t get rid of the tractor that night, and anyway they probably wouldn’t want to.’

‘Why not, Andy?” asked Gorham.

‘Because they knew we’d find the tractor, and that it would support accidental death as the cause of Bell’s disappearance.’

‘Yes, but what about all the bullet holes?’

‘They’d have known that the tractor would be under water long before we even started looking for it’ said Hall. ‘If it hadn’t been for Ian’s outstanding Police work we’d never even have recovered the tractor, let alone subjected it to forensic examination. There’s no other evidence on or around the tractor, Ian?’

‘Not so far.’

Hall nodded. ‘I wonder if it might be worth having the area around where we found the tractor examined, maybe with metal detectors.’

‘Maybe’ said Mann. ‘The Coastguard has the exact GPS co-ordinates of where the tractor was found, so we could make a guess as to where any shooters would have been standing. But as to finding any physical evidence, like shell cases, I’d have thought there’s sod all chance.’

‘Did you take any pictures of the tractor before it was moved?’