Death on the Lake by Jo Allen (early reader books TXT) 📗

Other people suspect it and they’re the ones looking for evidence. All I’m doing is trying to keep you from compromising their investigation.’

He waved the disclaimer away. ‘Right. And had you thought it might be all about Robert Neilson?’

She stared at him for a moment. ‘Well, if he’s up to no good I imagine other people would know it, apart from us. Where there are winners in business there are losers, and losers make enemies. But that doesn’t explain who killed Goodall.’

‘For my money, almost certainly Robert.’

‘That’s very interesting,’ she said, after a moment. ‘But I need to know a lot more than that before you get me involved. Come back to me as soon as you’ve got something a bit more concrete.’ She turned and headed back down the corridor.

Summarily dismissed, Jude went back into the incident room and turned his mind to a press statement. He’d camped out in his preferred place, in front of the white board in the incident room. It was late and the place was all but empty. Faye was right and there wasn’t a lot he could do until they’d gleaned all the evidence they could from the scene, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. On the other side of the room, Chris Marshall was standing next to someone’s desk in deep conversation. There would be witness statements to collect and collate, CCTV cameras to check from the station, an appeal for information from the public to see if anyone had seen anything suspicious, information from the grave and the area around it. And now he’d need to make sure there was a visible police presence in the dale long beyond the clearing of the crime scene, to reassure the local community.

He picked up a marker pen from the desk and added Ryan’s name to the board. Two murder victims for certain, possibly more, and nothing to link them but the location in which they’d been found.

‘Okay, Jude?’ He’d been so deep in thought he hadn’t noticed Doddsy coming in, carefully closing the door behind him. ‘This’ll keep you going for a while.’ He unloaded a pizza box onto the desk. ‘I’ll be heading off shortly. I had an early start and I’ve another one tomorrow. What an unholy mess, eh?’

‘It’s all of that.’ Jude took one last look at the board, and all it did was puzzle him more. He was sure, in his heart, that Robert Neilson was responsible, if he wasn’t the actual killer, but he couldn’t see how to make the leap from gut instinct to fact.

Instinct. He was getting as bad as Ashleigh. Next thing he’d be turning over the cards and looking for answers there. He flipped open the box and ripped into a slice of pizza. ’I take it there’s nothing more to be done down in Martindale?’ he said, with his mouth full.

‘Not today.’ Doddsy checked his watch. ‘I’ll pop back down tomorrow and see what’s going on. The body’s on its way to Carlisle now. PM tomorrow morning. I imagine you’ll want to go.’

It was one of the least appealing parts of the job, but had to be done. ‘Faye’s arranged a press conference at eight. I’ll go along after that.’

‘Becca’s parents are going up to the hospital tomorrow to give us a positive ID.’

‘Okay. Thanks for the warning. I’ve spoken to the authorities in Australia and asked them to break it to his parents.’ Strictly speaking they should wait for the official ID but there was no real doubt.

‘And have you told Becca?’

There was a moment’s silence. ‘No.’

‘Don’t you think she’ll expect you to?’

Becca expected a lot of him, even now he owed her nothing. ‘Her parents can tell her, if they haven’t already. I’ll be here late tonight. I’ve other things to do. And no doubt she’d only accuse me of behaving inappropriately again.’

‘She’s going to be withdrawing that complaint, if she hasn’t already.’ Doddsy checked his watch. ‘I’m going to head up and update Faye on my way out. I’ll be in sharp tomorrow. I can head back past Becca’s place, if you want.’

Jude felt a wave of relief. He should’t feel any obligation to Becca after the way she’d treated him but he did. ‘Thanks, mate. Yeah, you get on.’

‘Fine. I’ll be in sharp,’ said Doddsy, for the third time.

‘You can take the briefing meeting if I’m up at the PM.’ Jude sighed, aware his bad temper was getting the better of him, that his frustrations with Faye’s attitude and his anger at the way Becca seemed so suddenly to have turned on him, when the years should have put a gloss of distance on their relationship, were holding him back from what he was doing.

‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

Doddsy passed Tammy on the way out. She offered him the curtest of nods and came straight over to Jude. ‘We’re nowhere near finished down in Martindale, of course. I’ve left a couple of guys down there working on it under lights. But I wanted to pop by the office and pick some stuff up on my way home. I guessed you’d be here.’

‘You know me. I never rest.’ He tried to make light of it, but it was a struggle. Maybe, after all, Becca was right and he just gave the job more time than he could afford. He spent long enough checking the hours everyone else worked, for their own welfare as well as the cost implications, but he never bothered keeping a check on his own.

The look she gave him was sympathetic. ‘Yeah, I know how it is. I thought since I was here I’d brief you on where we are so far. No forensics, of course. Not yet. We’ll get those later. But I daresay you’ll stay awake late fretting about it, or you might as well have all the information I’ve got to play with.’

‘Go on.’

‘I think you’ll have seen the key thing. Whoever killed him had obviously disposed of the body in the