Riddled on the Sands (The Lakeland Murders)

by Salkeld, J J

  ‘And the local gossip? Come on, Ray, spill. I know you’ll have been chatting up the old dears.’

  ‘And the young ones too, mate. Wife pissed off years ago because she was pissed off, he’s a bit of a boozer apparently, and always has been. Seemed to have lost interest in the fishing job, but lately he’s been back into it. A bit sporadic by the sounds of it, but he’d been out a few times a week recently, even occasionally when Jack didn’t bother. Couple of people mentioned that.’

  ‘All right’, said Hall, ‘well done everyone. Now get off home, and get right back into it in the morning. With a bit of luck Jack’s body might wash up somewhere on the next tide.’

  Hall asked Jane if she could spare him a minute.

  ‘It’s about this arson, the Perkins one. Gorham wanted to see me about it. Perkins has been in complaining loud and long. Mainly about us, apparently.’

  ‘The little shit. And he got to see the Super? He must be persuasive.’

  ‘I’d say he bribed her with one of his baubles, but of course he doesn’t have anything left now.’

  ‘There’s a nasty streak to you, Andy Hall.’

  ‘It’s been a long day. Joking aside, whoever sent that letter to Perkins has just earned themselves our full attention. Or rather, your full attention, Jane.’

  ‘You want me to come off the Bell case? Come on Andy, it’s just a bloody lock-up that’s gone up in smoke.’

  ‘I know it’s not crime of the century, but it does deserve CID time. Sorry Jane, but for now you’re off the Bell investigation. If and when there are developments then we’ll see, but give this a day or two first.’

  Jane was inclined to argue the toss. But she stopped herself because she wouldn’t have done so three months ago, so why should she now? But it was an effort, and it showed.

  ‘OK, will do. And we’re linking the letter to the fire, then?’

  ‘Not set in stone, but yes, I am. Neither of us seriously believes in co-incidences like that happening. So why do you ask?’

  ‘Just that we had another garage fire in town, early Tuesday morning. So is that a co-incidence, or not?’

  ‘Yes, I heard. A bit of a waste of time though, by all accounts.’

  Jane ignored his last remark. She was more likely to do that these days he’d noticed, but he didn’t mind. When they walked into the office, whether they’d arrived in parallel or in series, they both slipped comfortably back into their long-standing professional relationship. At least Hall found it comfortable. He wasn’t absolutely sure about Jane.

  ‘So whose garage was this? Any connection with friend Perkins, do you reckon?’

  ‘You know the family, we all do. The O’Brians.’

  ‘Tell me Gary was inside when it went up. Tell me that cocky bloody smile has been singed off his face at the very least.’

  ‘No such luck. Main casualties were the kids’ bikes, apparently.’

  ‘So maybe no connection at all, then? In which case chalk that one up to co-incidence.’

  ‘You’re just making the facts fit your prejudices, Andy.’

  ‘It’s the secret of good policing. Ray Dixon taught me that. But point taken, you’re right, let’s not make any assumptions. I know you wouldn’t anyway. That’s what all these policy, procedures and protocols are really for anyway, to stop naughty old coppers like me from going off piste every five minutes.’

  ‘So you want me to look at the O’Brian’s fire too? Along with the letters and the one at the Perkins’ garage?’

  ‘Yes, and all the other arson, including minor ones, in and around town in the last twelve months. Maybe just make that six months actually. Because if our letter writing friend did torch Perkins’ garage he certainly isn’t one to let the grass grow, is he? The ink on that bloody letter was barely dry before Perkins’ garage went up in smoke. And tell you what, Jane, ask the boffins up at HQ to do a search, and see if either this Force, or any other come to that, has logged letters like that. The style was so distinctive.’

  ‘OK, I’ll make a start in the morning. But you know we’ll wait weeks for anything back from HQ. They’ve lost half the analysis and records teams in the last six months.’

  ‘Really? Well just ask nicely, and maybe reduce the area to just the county, and a manageable time period as well. Twelve months or something. Now, I’m off home. You coming too?

  ‘Give me two minutes and I’m all yours.’

  ‘I may well take you up on that, Jane.’

  Thursday, 20th June

  Ian Mann was hot, thirsty and he was getting grumpier by the minute. The PCs who were clearing up the rest of the door-to-doors in Flookburgh seemed incapable of making even the simplest of decisions without asking him what they should do.

  And yet the day had started so well. He’d been for a long run before dawn, and watched the sky turn blue over the Langdales as he pounded along Cunswick Scar, and he’d barely turned on his mobile phone when he got a call from a Coastguard in Lancashire, saying that a body had washed up. Mann gave a description, and the Coastguard said that it sounded right.

  ‘I’d say the body’s been in the sea for a week or two, so I can’t be absolutely sure.’

  ‘Are you aware of any other MISPERs that it might be?’

  ‘No, nowt like that.’

  Mann had been in and out of the shower in under two minutes, and in the car headed south inside ten. He was passing Preston when the phone rang again. This time it was an Inspector from Lancashire.

  ‘It’s not your body, I’m afraid.’

  ‘How do you know, sir?’

  ‘The pathologist is there, along with our SOCO team and it didn’t take them long. He had ID on him. He’s a deck hand from a container ship, went over the side ten days ago, but quite a bit south of here. So unless your man was from the Philippines then we can be pretty sure it’s not him. And by the way, he doesn’t look he’s been used for target practice, either.’

  ‘Bugger.’

  ‘My sentiments exactly, Sergeant. I’ve just deployed the full SOCO team and their assorted hangers on, and all for nothing. My Super’s going to chew me up until I look like our Philippino friend. And he’s not a pretty sight, believe me.’

  It was late morning now, and Mann had almost decided to head back to the station. He wasn’t doing any good out here, beyond acting as a counsellor for a load of wet-behind-the-ears PCs. But before he pushed off he thought he’d have a quick word with the uniformed Sergeant who was on duty that morning, just as a courtesy.

  So Mann was strolling along the main street, which was mid-week quiet, when he had a sudden sense of someone behind him, already close and getting closer. Mann swiveled, ducked at the same time, and reached round and grabbed the arm that was just about to touch him on the shoulder.

  ‘Still got it I see, Sergeant Mann.’

  It took Mann a split-second to recognise the other man. He was completely familiar, but out of context, here on Mann’s territory, he seemed unfamiliar somehow. As if he’d come from another place, another time.

  ‘Captain Rae. Fancy meeting you here.’

  Rae smiled. ‘You’re right, Ian, it’s not a co-incidence. Is there somewhere we can talk?’

  ‘Give me ten minutes. I’ll meet you on the foreshore. Just walk down here for a hundred yards, then take the lane on the left. Is it just you?’

  Rae nodded. ‘Still a cautious fellow, I see. But then a trusting nature is much the same as a stupid one, isn’t it? You were a loss to the unit, I still say that. But yes, it’s just little old me.’

  Mann watched Rae walk away, then he phoned Andy Hall.

  ‘Development?’

  ‘Aye. You could say that. I’ve just met a man in Flookburgh who comes from my old mob. Still with them when I last heard, though he might have moved over to the funnies. You never can tell these days.’

  ‘Which lot?’

  ‘Don’t know.’

  ‘Anything you want me to do?’

  ‘Nothing you can
do, Andy. If you phone one of their contact numbers and ask questions you’ll just get stonewalled, though you’ll probably be buzzed by all the drones on your way home tonight.’

  Hall laughed. ‘Name for this bloke?’

  ‘James Rae, Captain. Or at least he was. Meeting him on the foreshore in ten minutes.’

  ‘Got it. Real name?’

  ‘Yes, as far as I know. I’ll call you when I’ve spoken to him, OK?’

  ‘Fine, and thanks for the heads up. You’re a careful bloke, Ian, make sure you stay that way.’

  ‘You’re the second person to say that to me today. But yes, in my experience it pays to be careful.’

  ‘You want me to send a babysitter, then? Maybe get one of the coppers on door-to-door to go with you?’

  Mann laughed. ‘Sorry, mate, but Rae wouldn’t exactly shit himself if you sent the entire bloody Constabulary.’

  ‘What about Val Gorham?’

  ‘All right, but she’d scare anyone. I need to make another quick call, see what I can find out about what Captain Rae is up to these days.’

  ‘OK, but call me as soon as you’re done.’

  Mann half thought about coming at Rae from a different direction, but he didn’t know the ground well enough, and there wasn’t time to do a recce. And anyway, what harm could the bloke intend him? Mann was pretty sure that they were still on the same side. So as he walked down the barely surfaced lane that the tractors used Mann felt surprisingly relaxed. But he was still as alert as he’d ever been.

  Rae was waiting, and he seemed to be alone. But Mann knew that looks could be deceiving. So he banished those thoughts, and held out his hand. They sat on a rock, looking out at the Bay.

  ‘Nice’ said Rae.

  ‘Aye. God’s country, this is. Those Tykes don’t know shit. Where are you from again, Captain?’

  ‘Sussex.’

  ‘Oh aye. But you didn’t come for a holiday like, did you? I assume this is business.’

  ‘Very much so. I assume you’ve made a call or two.’

  ‘Aye, you’re still working with the old mob, looking after drug interdiction ops. Going well too, I hear.’

  ‘Satisfying work, Ian, you’d enjoy it. You always were a bit of a moralist as I remember. And yes, we’ve had a couple of decent results. But where are my manners? We should talk about you.’

  ‘This isn’t a date, Captain.’

  ‘Still as dry as ever, I see. I just wondered how you enjoy life with the Police, that’s all.’

  ‘You’re not on a fucking recruitment drive, are you? I’m a bit long in the tooth now, mate.’

  ‘Nonsense, you’re just a year or two older than me. We’d have you back in a flash. But no, we rely on old mates to contact us if they’d like another go. A couple of your contemporaries have come back recently, in fact. There are opportunities, you see.’

  ‘I’d heard. So what do you want, Captain Rae?’

  ‘It’s Jimmy, you know that. It’s about the job you’re on, this fisherman and all these inconvenient bullet holes.’

  ‘You are well informed, Jimmy. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised about that, though. What about him? Don’t tell me you have an interest in Jack Bell?’

  ‘Never heard of him before in my life. He’s of no interest to me whatsoever.’

  ‘Really? So what’s all this about then? If we’re off the record you can level with me.’

  ‘You, my friend, are the only person I could even think about leveling with. Tell me about your boss.’

  ‘Andy Hall? Christ, you can’t be interested in him. Clever bloke. Very, very clever. But I’ve seen him in a fight, if you can call it that.’

  ‘I’m not interested in his skills, Ian. I want to know if he’s trustworthy. Do you trust him?’

  ‘Aye. More than I’d trust you, anyway.’

  ‘With your life?’

  ‘What the fuck is this, Jimmy? We’re not the plucky French Resistance all of a sudden, are we?’

  ‘No, we’re not. And pithily put. All right. What I’m going to tell you is for your ears and that of your immediate boss only. You’ll soon understand why.’

  ‘Fine, whatever. Just get on with it. I’m getting piles here, sitting on this bloody boulder.’

  ‘As your contacts so accurately informed you we’ve been kept busy, on the home front as it were, by a number of significant drugs cartels, responsible for the importation of upwards of 80% of Britain’s Class A drugs. It seems to be a bit of a growth industry, even in these straightened times. And our own MO is much the same as in your day. Carry out informal hull inspections on the target vessels when they’re outside British waters, shall we say, stick homing devices on them, track them until they get here and then pay them a proper visit, when they’re safely in our territorial waters, of course.’

  ‘Aye. I did a few myself, remember?’

  ‘I do indeed. Wasn’t it you who kicked a cabin door down and came face to face with a crewman reading a book about British special forces?’

  Mann laughed. ‘No, that was Taffy Edwards. He said the bloke kept looking at him, then back at the book. Couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.’

  ‘Happy days. Well, the thing is, we’ve been encountering a bit of an operational problem lately. Two or three of our target vessels have been motoring along merrily, just about to cross the line as it were, and they’ve veered off at the last minute, out of our jurisdiction. Does that suggest anything to you?’

  Mann thought for a second.

  ‘There’s a leak. But you can’t think it’s one of our lads, I mean one of yours?’

  ‘Of course I don’t, Ian. Never happened before, and it won’t happen now. No, it’s someone else, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘We have no idea, not really. Because there are, to use your term, a lot of suspects. You’d be surprised how many civilian agencies, Police, Coastguard, HMRC, a couple of others, have to be kept in the loop when we’re planning an op these days. I’m just a bloody filing clerk, most of the time.’

  ‘Look, Jimmy, I’m sorry to hear about this, but I don’t see how it connects to what’s happened here. It doesn’t sound as if you can help us at all.’

  ‘But when someone starts mowing people down with Russian-made assault weapons your thoughts do turn to a drug connection?’

  ‘It’s a line of enquiry certainly, but what makes you so sure where the weapon or weapons came from?’

  ‘An educated guess, that’s all. The short answer is that I don’t know how it connects. I don’t know anything about your man Bell, and that’s the truth. But what I do know is that we think the source of the leak is from this sector, that’s anywhere from Liverpool to the Solway.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘We don’t for certain, but the vessels that have changed course at the last minute have all been headed to ports over in your very lovely neck of the woods. So it seems like a sensible assumption. There are some Whitehall warriors who have the whole picture of course, and they could be leaking selectively to cover their tracks. That would be clever, but it seems more likely that the information is coming from someone on the ground.’

  ‘I see. So what do you want me to do about it?’

  ‘Be aware, and let me know if you come across anything in the course of your investigation that might help us identify the source. Would you do that?’

  ‘The old phone number?’

  ‘That’s the one. Just say it’s for Jimmy.’

  Mann nodded. ‘OK, but I’d like something in return.’

  ‘A commemorative tea-towel perhaps?’

  ‘Nah, I’ve got a dishwasher. I was thinking of information.’

  ‘You want to know if we’ve got any solid reason to connect what happened out there to drugs and organised crime?’ Mann nodded. ‘The short answer is no. The longer answer is that drugs do come in to the UK by boat, and it happens in this sector, that’s a given. We’ve intercepted vessels just a few mile
s from here in the past. Plus it would appear that a member of the local peasantry has been mown down by people with access to considerable firepower. Your cartridge case was steel, I understand, not brass?’ Mann nodded again. ‘We have been engaged by people using similar weapons and ammunition in the recent past.’

  ‘Brief engagements, I imagine?’

  Rae didn’t smile. ‘Our reputation does seem to precede us rather, for better or worse, so yes. Your average drugs runner, especially if he’s from a military background, tends to realise quite quickly who we are, and that he’s as well not to irritate us. So they tend to cease fire, and try to dump as much of the gear, as I think you call it, before we manage to board them.’

  They sat and looked out at the Bay in silence, both reliving similar memories.

  ‘So can I leave this with you, Ian? Brief your boss if you must, but that’s it.’

  Rae stood up, and held out his hand. Mann stood and they shook.

  ‘One other question’ said Mann. ‘Are you, or any of the lads, hanging around up here for a bit? From now on, like?’

  Rae smiled. ‘I wasn’t surprised when you became a copper, Ian. You always did have a knack of finding the right question.’

  Rae turned and walked away. Mann knew that there was no point in repeating the question.

  When Rae turned back up the lane, and disappeared from view, Mann called Hall.

  ‘Are you alone?’ he asked. It was just like old times, and he was far from sure that he liked it.

  Gary O’Brian wanted to make a good impression. There weren’t many pictures of the kids in the house, so he propped a couple of school photos on the mantlepiece. Sheila had tidied up, and offered the young reporter from the local paper a cup of tea, but she’d refused. So Sheila sat down next to Gary, and smiled. He was telling a story that she’d heard a million times before about when he’d met one of Take That in a bar in Kendal, and told him how shit their music was. Sheila hadn’t found it funny the first time, but she’d always liked Take That anyway. Gary didn’t seem to have noticed, and the reporter didn’t seem very interested either. At least, she wasn’t writing anything down.