A Thoughtful Woman

by K T Findlay

  ‘Just how strong is her motive?’ asked Eric.

  Peregrin laughed. ‘Five years ago I’d have said massive! But she’s mellowed over the years, and really does appear to have let it go. She never even mentions Holmes, Thomlinson or Harland when she talks about Graham. She just focuses on the positives in life.’

  ‘How about her being able to carry Holmes’s body?’ asked Susan.

  ‘She’s got that bloody great Range Rover, so there’s no problem with that carrying a body!’ said Peregrin. ‘On the other hand, she’s quite a light build, and he was a hefty bugger. I can’t see how she’d manage to lift him into it. Plus it’s a stonking big V8 with a growler of an exhaust. She’d have wakened half the street with it while dropping the body!’

  ‘So she’s unlikely to have done it?’ asked Tony.

  Peregrin remained silent, waiting for the others to speak.

  ‘Unlikely.’ said Susan. ‘For a number of reasons.’

  ‘I agree.’ said Tony.

  ‘Me too.’ added Eric.

  ‘That’s a full set then.’ said Peregrin. ‘So, Selina.’

  ‘We know bugger all about her sir.’ said Tony.

  ‘I’ll try and call her again today.’ said Peregrin. ‘We know she’s a relatively light build, but strong. She’s got creative flair, and under Helen’s guidance at least, can carry things through. We don’t know about opportunity, or motive though.’

  ‘Anyone who can do what she did to another human being is capable of anything!’ Tony stated bluntly. ‘Perhaps she’s a psychopath?’

  Peregrin shook his head. ‘Miss Helen is switched on enough to spot a psycho, I would have thought. She wouldn’t have anything to do with Selina if she had even a hint of that. It’s too easy to really harm someone in her game.’

  ‘But without any actual information on her, Selina has to remain a person of strong interest.’ persisted Tony.

  ‘I agree.’ said Susan.

  ‘Okay.’ said Peregrin. ‘So, onto Thomlinson.’

  Tony picked up his papers again.

  ‘Peter York and Ursula Sidcot have absolutely nothing to do with Thomlinson.’ he looked around for any dissent.

  ‘We have Sally, Emma, Tim, Alan and Alf who would have an interest in Thomlinson as well as Holmes. Otherwise there are loads of people from his police past who held grudges, and from his debt management activities at Alf’s shop, but we haven’t identified anyone with a strong enough motivation to kill him.’

  ‘Sally’s alibi checks out with Felicity, and with Hilary. Emma and Alan were in Ipington and can prove it, and Tim is in Barbados. We’ve so far drawn a blank.’

  Peregrin steepled his fingers together and rested his elbows on the table.

  ‘There’s something else we need to factor in here. So far we’ve been focusing on the things that tie Holmes and Thomlinson together. That’s right and proper, but what if we throw Terry Walker into the mix? What if he was actually the first victim? Both Thomlinson and Holmes were involved in that one too. Is the killer simply going through a list of cases where they think that those two tweaked the scales of justice? Maybe it has nothing to do with a specific case, or if it does, we may not even know which one it is. They could be hitting cases other than their own, knowing we’d focus directly on the people closer to the dead men.’

  The table fell into silence once more as the others digested the idea.

  ‘That would make a much bigger list to wade through.’ said Tony glumly. ‘With all the high ups attention on the case now, this could get uncomfortable!’

  Peregrin laughed. ‘True… True… All part of the game my boy!’

  A knock at the door interrupted their discussion. It was Senior Investigating Office Goodwin, and he looked grim.

  ‘You lot had best get out to Wesser Bech. A woman has just called in another body.’

  19 Ground cover

  ‘Oh fire… truck!!!’ swore Felicity loudly as her bleeper went off.

  ‘Trouble at mill?’ asked Alison.

  Felicity nodded. ‘There’s been another one. Peregrin’s going to pick me up at the club house in a few minutes.’

  Hilary brought out a score card she’d been secretly filling in. ‘Well girls, we’ll have to play a three ball, for which I happen to have a card right here. I’m sorry you’re being called away Felicity, but on the upside, it means I’m now winning!’

  Sally and Alison laughed.

  ‘Cow!’ said Sally with a grin. ‘We’ll soon peg you back.’

  Alison glanced behind them. ‘I was going to suggest we let the two chaps behind us play through, but they’ve spent more time in the rough than on the fairway, and if we’re down to a three ball I doubt we’ll hold them up anymore.’

  Freddy, listing in through his “ears”, silently thanked Alison for this piece of decision making. He and James had had to play the worst games of their lives to avoid pressing the women too hard. It would do wonders for his handicap…

  Felicity played to the end of the hole and walked grumpily back to the clubhouse to meet Peregrin. He drove her home to change and collect her kit, before going on to Wesser Bech where he parked with the other cars at the end of the road.

  Tony came to greet him. ‘This is Mrs Charlotte Telford sir. She’s the lady who found the body.’

  A highly distressed, short and tubby lady was twisting her hands together at the start of the walking track out of the village.

  Peregrin introduced himself and the team, then got down to business. ‘Where exactly is the body Mrs Telford?’

  She pointed down the track. ‘Out there near the river mouth. It’s my first morning in the village! My new neighbour told me about this lovely track, so I was out walking Hamish, came around the corner by the river and there he was! Just lying there! Well, I thought he was a drunk, what with him having no clothes on and all, so I kept my distance, but Hamish insisted on going in for a closer look and wouldn’t listen to me, so I had to go in myself like, frightened to death I was in case he was some kind of loony!’

  The words streamed out of her, seemingly without end and Peregrin seized the brief pause to ask a question.

  “Hamish?’

  ‘Hamish is her dog sir.’ said Tony. ‘A wire haired terrier I believe.’

  ‘That’s right love, a lovely wire haired terrier, poor little bleeder, he never asked to see no dead body, he’s been quite beside himself ever since, jumping around, wanting to play, I said to him “Hamish you just quiet down!” but he wouldn’t Inspector, I had to grab him by the collar to drag him off, and use his lead until I was right round the corner coming back here to call you, which I did as soon as I got home, after I spoke to Mrs Baker next door on account of her telling me about the track and all, and she said “Call the police love”, and I said to her that’s just what I’m going to do.’

  She paused for breath.

  ‘And that’s what I did do and all.’

  She looked at him for approval.

  Peregrin felt slightly battered by her onslaught, but managed to congratulate her. ‘Excellent Mrs Telford. You did exactly the right thing.’

  Behind her, Tony was grinning like a loon. He’d had the pleasure of her company for a full quarter of an hour before Peregrin had arrived, and was glad to see someone else in the firing line. Peregrin looked at him pointedly.

  ‘Well Mrs Telford, could you lead Tony here down the track to where you found the body? Felicity and I will follow behind with the rest of the team. Can you stay off the track itself though, in case you destroy any evidence?’

  Tony’s jaw dropped in disbelief, but he caught himself before she turned around to face him.

  ‘I will so Inspector! Come along young man, you’ll have to mind your feet, it gets a bit uneven and rocky here and there, and Mrs Baker says the wind can kick the dust into your eyes something terrible, but that’s not so bad I says to myself, I can just wrap me hankie around my nose if it gets too bad, which it hasn’t this morning, I’m only sa
ying in case it does you understand, have you been a policeman very long, you look so young to be a policeman, but then I suppose getting older does that to a person like me, everyone seems young after a point, you wait young sir, it’ll happen to you too, just mark my words…’

  Peregrin gave the pair of them a head start, waiting until the constant stream of noise abated to a tolerable level. Then with a huge grin he turned to the rest of the team. ‘Now listen up you lot. Be very careful where you put your feet. We have no idea about entry and exit paths for this, and we don’t want to disturb things anymore than necessary. Keep in a single file behind me as much as possible, in the grass here off the track itself. Tommy and Sandra, can you please stay here and stop any curious locals coming down here after us?’

  The last remark was directed to the two uniform officers, who nodded their understanding.

  ‘And Bert,’ he said to the third uniformed officer, ‘you come along with us.’

  A pleased Bert stepped up smartly. ‘Yes sir.’

  ‘Excellent. I’ll need someone to bring Mrs Telford back once she’s led us to the body.’ Peregrin grinned at the suddenly dismayed face of the young officer. ‘Cheer up lad. “Into each life some rain must fall”.’

  Contrary to Mrs Telford’s dire warnings to Tony, the grass was easy under foot, with only the odd rock here and there to disturb the even tenor of the walk.

  The Gelt river mouth was about forty feet from side to side. Peregrin stopped and looked intently at the strip where the current of the river and the waves of the sea fought for supremacy. The water there was not only choppy, but dirty, filled with a mixture of the detritus brought down by the river and the flotsam of the sea.

  ‘We might need to come back and look at that folks.’ he said to the others. ‘Mrs Telford said he was naked, and if he is, where are his clothes? Out there perhaps? Who fancies a swim?’

  The rest of them looked back at him, stony faced.

  ‘Oh the youth of today.’ he said sadly. Then he grinned. ‘Come on, let’s see where they’ve got to.’

  He’d allowed Tony to get a good hundred yards ahead by this time, but he and Mrs Telford had come to a halt and her interminable chatter was once more coming through loud and clear.

  ‘You see, it’s just like I said, there he is all naked with no clothes on, and my goodness, even a married woman like myself has no place to look, except for the fact that he’s all on his side there, which is pretty modest, but I told myself Charlotte my girl, you just don’t stand over there or you’ll get a right eyeful, and do you know young man, I did! Shocking!’

  Peregrin came to a halt next to her and looked down at the body of a young man, just as naked as Mrs Telford had promised.

  He shook her hand. ‘Well thank you very much Mrs Telford. You’ve done a terrific job. We’ll take it from here. We try to have as few people as possible around a crime scene, so if it’s alright with you I’ll get Bert here to escort you back to the village.’

  Mrs Telford looked disappointed. ‘You don’t want me to stay in case you need something? I can be very helpful, Mr Telford was always saying how helpful I was to him, right up to the day he died and everything, including polishing the handles on his coffin, and the vicar says to me Mrs Telford, I don’t know what you’re going to do with yourself, and I says to him that there’s always someone who needs a helping hand and I just goes looking for them–’

  Peregrin cut across her as gently as he could. ‘I believe you Mrs Telford, I really do. But to preserve the evidence as much as possible, we have to minimise the number of people. You can see all your footprints around the body already, and we don’t want any more if we can help it.’

  She took instance offence.

  ‘Well! I was just doing my duty–’

  Peregrin held up his hand helplessly. ‘You misunderstand Mrs Telford. I wasn’t complaining. I was just trying to explain why we don’t want any more disturbance if we can help it. You’ve done very well this morning and I’m grateful.’

  She looked at him for a very long time, a full five seconds in fact, and then she was off again.

  ‘All right inspector, I understands what you means, Bert and I’ll go back to the village, come on young man, now you’re even younger than Tony there! Goodness me, what made you want to be a policeman, eh, well never mind, I dare say you enjoy it when the weather’s nice like today…’ and off she led the disconsolate Bert, away from the body, ultimately leaving them in a blissful silence.

  ‘Bloody hell.’ said Tony. ‘I can’t imagine how her husband stood that day after day!’

  Susan smirked. ‘He might have been just as bad you know.’

  Peregrin watched as the forensics team and Felicity got to work alongside each other.

  Plaster moulds were taken of all the different footprints, especially Mrs Telford’s but the forensics man wasn’t sanguine. ‘All of these are at the very least twenty four hours old. You can tell by the weathering around the edges. I’d say there’s up to two dozen different people, all of them walking up past this spot and back down again. None of them come over to where the body’s resting. And come to that, I don’t see any prints of bare feet. Not even drag marks.’ he pointed to the body’s unclad feet.

  The man was lying on his side, in a foetal position facing away from Peregrin. With the forensic teams guidance, he worked his way around to the other side so he could see the face.

  ‘Well, well, well. Bob Harland.’ he said softly.

  Susan’s ears pricked up. ‘The boy who killed Emma Nixon’s husband?’

  ‘The one and the same.’ replied Peregrin. ‘Well, for all that she and her boy make a point of having excellent alibis, this does rather point to them. Can you see if he’s got a ring of glue round his neck Fliss?’

  Felicity bent down and then raised a thumb in confirmation. ‘Bingo.’ she said.

  Peregrin rubbed his hands. ‘Okay, Tony and Eric, I want you to go back down to the river mouth, then comb up the side of the river, past this spot and on to the bridge. I want you to look for anything at all of interest, but keep a special eye out for his clothing. Maybe whoever it was dumped them too, and maybe they didn’t. We have to look. Susan and I will look around here.’

  After the boys went off, Peregrin led Susan over to where a forensics lad was about to take the moulds of some tyre tracks.

  ‘There’s just the one car been down here in the last week I’d say.’ said the man. ‘These prints here. They’re new, almost as new as that mad woman’s foot prints. You can tell by the crispness of the edges.’

  Peregrin looked at them carefully.

  ‘So, a Mini, or something very similar.’

  ‘How do you know that sir?’ asked Susan.

  Peregrin pointed to various bits of the print as he explained. ‘You can see the width of the tyre. It’s pretty narrow, so it’s a small car. Now, look at that particular mark in the mud. You can see it repeated there, there and there. That’s a damaged tread, marking the mud every time the wheel goes around.’

  He looked at her. ‘Do you remember your geometry equations?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘Well, the distance between these marks means the tyre has gone around once. That’s the circumference of the wheel. We know that the circumference of a circle equals 2piR. So if we divide the distance between the tread marks by 2pi it will give us the radius, double that and we get the diameter of the wheel, which in this case is tiny. That’s a Mini’s wheel we’re looking at.’

  She blinked uncertainly. ‘You mean I’m going to need to use all that maths stuff as a grown up? I thought I’d kissed it all goodbye when I left school!’

  Peregrin laughed. ‘The more you know in this job, the easier you’ll find it. Now come over here. What do these tracks tell you?’

  Susan looked carefully. ‘There are two sets of tracks.’

  ‘Excellent. So it must have been the same car in both directions. Now, what else can you tell me?’

&n
bsp; She frowned. ‘It came down the hill, turned left, and stopped. Then it backed up to where the body is.’

  ‘Where there are no foot prints other than Mrs Telford’s, and of course the wee dog’s. That tells us the killer must have a way of getting the body out of the vehicle, onto the ground without having to leave the vehicle themselves. We can tell that they didn’t simply slam on the brakes to do it because the tyre tracks are even, with no skids or deeper ruts. What else?’

  Susan shrugged. ‘Then they went back up the way they came down.’

  Peregrin looked at her intently. ‘That’s correct, but you can tell me more. How specifically did it go up that hill?’

  ‘What do you mean sir?’ she asked in puzzlement.

  ‘If it was you, how would you drive up there?’

  She frowned. ‘I’d just point the nose into the road and drive up.’

  ‘And did this one do that?’ he asked softly.

  She looked again.

  ‘No! It must have reversed up. You can see the tracks closely replicate the tracks on the way down! The front wheels do big curves as they corrected the steering, and the back wheels do smaller, tighter turns! They reversed up!’

  ‘Excellent! First class Susan. Now, why might they have done that? It would have been very tricky, because that’s a narrow track, with quite a few twists, and it’s very steep. Why put themselves to all that bother?’

  She thought again. ‘So the headlights didn’t shine up into the sky?’

  ‘That’s one possibility for sure. Any other ideas?’

  The light slowly dawned. ‘For grip?’

  ‘For grip indeed. Which makes it even more likely that it’s a Mini we’re talking about here. It’s a small, light car, front wheel drive with tiny tyres. If you take it up a steep track with a slippery surface, there’s a good chance the front wheels will spin. On a track like this, that means you might get the car stuck and not be able to go up or down again. Very bad news if you’ve just dumped a body out of it! But if it reverses up, then the weight’s over the front, giving more grip, so less likely to spin the wheels. It’s more difficult to steer, but you’re more likely to get to the top okay.’