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

‘Yes.’ Jude nodded. ‘And to go back to the earlier question of the first weapon. That’s answered there, too. What we found in the cottage — what Becca found — was that someone had been in there. There had been some kind of a struggle. A gun had been fired. The ballistics report isn’t in yet, but it’ll almost certainly be the gun that was found in the grave.’

‘I don’t suppose we have the forensics, either.’ Chris sighed. ‘Obviously we know Goodall was in there visiting the old guy, but that was a while ago. And Becca Reid, obviously. It’ll be interesting to see who else had been in there.’

‘Goodall was there all right,’ said Ashleigh, ‘and recently. The rest of his kit was upstairs. He’d made himself comfortable in there for a few days, by the look of it.’ After George’s death she’d taken a look upstairs in the cottage, just to reassure herself that her instinctive concerns about he case were false. She’d seen nothing untoward but one thing had struck her — the sweeping completeness of the view from the bedroom window.

‘George didn’t do stairs, as far as I’m aware,’ said Jude, with a sigh. ‘He hadn’t done them for years. But it would make sense if fake Ryan, as I suppose we have to call him, had been in to the house. He could have crept in there when he needed something, helped himself to food, that sort of thing. There would be no problem if he didn’t mind not having the lights on at night.’ He paused. ‘I’m kicking myself we never searched it, but why would we? It was locked. We can’t go breaking down the doors of every empty house on the off chance there’s murderer hiding in there.’

Ryan had had a key in his pocket, Tammy had said. A quick check would show whether it was the key to George’s cottage. ‘Do we have any idea yet who he is?’

‘I’ve emailed the fingerprints through to Kelly in Adelaide, They’ll run them through their database. If he’s been ID’d Down Under that’ll come up pretty quickly. DNA and dental records will take a bit longer, and I’ve sent them a photo.’

‘How long do you think he’d been there. Do we have any idea?’ Ashleigh asked.

Jude shook his head. ‘Tammy can’t tell. I know what you’re thinking, though. About George.’

‘Yes. I walked around the house, though I didn’t see anything, but I wasn’t looking for anything. Ryan certainly wasn’t camped out there at the time. But he may have come in for shelter in that really heavy rain there was the night before George died, and George heard him. And perhaps then Ryan had the idea of coming back when the place was empty.’ Even as she thought about it, she regretted how quickly she’d checked the place; but once George had gone she’d been keen to catch up with Jude. He wasn’t the only one kicking himself over a small action not taken.

Jude considered. ‘George always had a short fuse. I can see him getting so worked up his body couldn’t take it.’

If that was the case, it was probably as well for him, given what they thought Ryan was capable of. At least it had been a relatively peaceful and natural death, and at least he’d had Becca with him. But still Ashleigh was frustrated at what she must have missed.

‘What about his phone records?’ Doddsy looked to Chris, who flipped up another note.

‘Not a huge amount, but something. These came through quickly. Was it your charm, Jude? Made friends with the intelligence guys at last?’

Jude shook his head. ‘I asked Faye. She must have leaned on them.’

All four of them shared a wry smile. The intelligence unit were never in a hurry at the best of times, let alone at weekends. There was a lot to said for labelling everything you did as secret so that no-one ever knew what was there that was more important.

‘Go on then,’ prompted Ashleigh. ‘What do they say?’

‘There are two phones. One’s his personal phone, bought in the UK a couple of months ago and registered in the name of Ryan Goodall, probably using forged documents. It’s the phone he used to contact his supposed family. The second is much more interesting. It’s a burner phone.’ He paused for a moment. ‘When I was on the beat, we busted a guy who made a business out of these things. For drug dealers, mainly. A nice number that could be tracked to a place but never to a person. This one has been quiet for a while, so it looks as though someone has been waiting for a while to use it. One number, no name in the contacts. I expect that number goes to a similar phone, meant for one person and one only. There’s an exchange of texts between them.’

‘Is there a drug connection, do you think?’ Jude leaned forward, alert. ‘What did the messages say?’

‘It might be drugs. They might just have picked up the trick from the county lines guys. That’s for smarter people than me to work out. But whatever’s at the root of it, the calls make it clear what Ryan was up to.’

‘Go on.’

‘There aren’t many messages, and we’ve yet to trace exactly where Ryan was when he sent them, but it’s pretty clear why he was there. There are references to a target. There are references to Robert’s movements, when he’ll be in the dale and when he’ll be away. When Miranda will be there, when his PA will be there. When the twins will be there. They were tracking the movements of the people down at Waterside Lodge.’

Jude sat back. ‘Is there anything there that indicates when Robert was on his own?’

‘No. Miranda or the twins were always there with him. You reckon it’s Robert they were after?’

‘Could be.’ Jude shook his head.

Ashleigh knew exactly what he was thinking. If Robert suspected anything, Ryan could have