Web of Lies by Sally Rigby (classic novels for teens txt) 📗

knew it, the skip and the side of the car had collided. The car was a write-off.’

‘Why are you being disciplined if it was an accident?’

‘It’s unofficial. My sarge is doing it to teach me a lesson. It doesn’t help that I keep being late for work.’

‘You said you were a poor timekeeper, but I thought you meant outside of work. Why don’t you set your alarm clock?’

‘I already have a mother, I don’t need another, thanks.’

Really? Was that a Freudian slip?

‘And I’m not ready to be one,’ he said, tossing a glance in her direction and grinning.

‘Sometimes … well, often … I sleep through my alarm,’ she said, totally disarmed by his response. ‘Sorry, you’ll get used to me and my big mouth. Lucky for you we’re not going to be working together for long.’

‘Why do you want to be part of this investigation, if you believe my cousin’s mistaken in her view of her husband’s suicide?’

‘Isn’t it obvious? There’s no end in sight to my desk duty and I hoped helping you would be a chance for me to get out and do something worthwhile. The whole point in me joining the force was to make a difference. I don’t want to be a glorified receptionist for my entire life.’ She clenched her fists and banged them on her legs.

‘I thought you’d only been on desk duty for a short while.’

‘Well, whatever,’ she said, waving her hand dismissively. ‘Turn right here, it’s a shortcut.’ He drove them down a windy country road. ‘Now take a left into Gumley Road. The body was found in the top car park. We’ll go there first and then call in at the pub beside the lock to have a word with the landlord to find out what he knows. According to the file, he wasn’t questioned before and you know what these places are like. You can get to know a lot through informal gossip in these close-knit locations. I don’t suppose you hung out with locals when you were at the Met and in a big city.’ She paused. ‘Here’s the car park.’

He drove in. ‘Where exactly was Donald’s body discovered?’

‘On the wasteland over there.’ She pointed to the far side of the gravelled area.

He parked beside it and she walked on ahead, with him following.

‘You wouldn’t even know a body had been found here,’ Clifford muttered as they got further in.

‘It’s been a month already, which is long enough for everything to get back to normal. Follow me,’ she said, heading deeper into the grassed area. ‘According to the report, the boys who found Witherspoon’s body were playing within eyesight of their parents’ car. They disappeared over there.’ She led them towards a clump of trees.

‘I thought you hadn’t been to the scene.’

‘I spoke to Twiggy about it earlier today. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him about you and me working together on the case. It’s not going to get out.’

‘Didn’t he wonder why you were asking?’

‘I told him I’d come across the case when I was filing and wanted to know more. I ask a lot of questions anyway so it didn’t alert him to anything being odd.’

‘In the report you gave me, it mentioned that Donald’s car was found in Foxton village, near the pub. Why not leave it here?’

‘It’s pay and display and no overnight parking. Perhaps he didn’t want to be found immediately. Or …’

‘If it wasn’t suicide, the killer didn’t want him found,’ Seb said, finishing off her sentence. ‘So someone else could have driven his car there.’

‘Or he left it there himself and then walked here to commit suicide,’ Birdie said.

‘Did Twiggy give you any other useful information?’

‘Nothing that wasn’t already in the report. He did mention the young boys who found the body, and how traumatising it must have been for them.’

‘Do you know whether they were offered counselling?’

‘There’s nothing about it in the file, but I’d have thought social services would have arranged it for them. Do you want to interview them?’ She hoped not. Surely there wouldn’t be anything to gain from it.

‘No, we don’t need to. I don’t expect they’ll be able to tell us anything other than what we’ve already got from their original interviews. It would have been hard enough for them to deal with without us dredging it up again.’

Not to mention, it would be difficult to set up an interview without alerting any of the services.

They came to a clearing where the grass was flattened.

‘This must be where he was found,’ Birdie said, scanning the area. ‘There are still some blood splatters around the place.’ She pointed to a tree dotted with specks of blood. ‘You’d have thought the rain would have washed them away.’

‘The leaves are acting as shelter.’ Seb picked up a long stick and pushed away at the surrounding grass. ‘If the gun went off between seven and nine in the evening, what are the chances of someone hearing it?’

‘This car park gets busy during the summer, which this wasn’t, or when the weather’s good. If there was anyone around up here they’d have heard. They wouldn’t in the lower car park or by the lock, as they’re too far away.’

‘So, if no one reported hearing a gunshot, then most likely the weather wasn’t good.’

‘I’ll check to make sure but, yes, that’s right.’

She continued scanning the area, but there was nothing out of the ordinary that captured her attention.

‘Do you have an evidence bag with you?’ Clifford asked.

‘Always,’ she said, pulling one out of her jacket pocket and handed it to him. ‘What have you found?’

‘An old cigarette butt. It was buried under the leaves. It may or may not be important, but worth taking anyway. I’m fairly certain Donald didn’t smoke.’

‘You know I can’t send it to forensics for testing?’

‘I know’ he said dropping it into the bag. ‘Are there any CCTV cameras around?’

She glanced around. ‘It doesn’t look like it but I’ll find out. The land is owned by the council,