by Robert Innes
Blake nodded. “Well, congratulations. They’re not the easiest of places to run.”
“Oh it’s not too bad round here.” Robin said. “The most trouble I’ve had, as it happens, is from Craig and Daniel.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” Robin placed the glass back and leaned against the bar.
“There’s been a few times when they’d been in here being, well, you know. Boisterous shall we say? They used to go boxing together and you know what lads like that can be like. Had to ring you lot a couple of times. They got taken in for a night or two for, what you call it, drunk and disorderly.”
Blake nodded again as he thoughtfully sipped his pint. He wondered that if Craig and Donaldson were such troublemakers that it meant that Daniel had managed to accumulate a few enemies up to his death.
“You must get to see quite a lot of the village’s laundry being the local landlord?” Blake asked, pulling his ecig out of his pocket. “Do you allow this in here?”
“Yeah, as we’re quiet.” Robin said, waving a hand. “You could say that, yes. I mean, the Donaldsons, they’ve got a fair few stories to tell as a family.”
“Go on?” Blake offered, sucking the ecig, being careful not to blow the vapour in Robin’s direction.
“Well, they weren’t too bad before Brian, that’s the dad, was killed in that car crash.”
“Daniel’s dad?”
“Yeah. Oh that was just tragic.” Robin sighed. “I remember the night it happened, he’d been in here. He was in a proper state. He said he’d been arguing with his missus, Helen, that’s Daniel’s mum. I mean she’s always had problems with drink and, well. Other stuff, you know.”
“Drugs?”
“Well, I don’t know for sure.” Robin said, holding his hands up. “But that’s what everyone thinks. Anyway, that night Brian was in here and was really knocking them back. In the end, I had to tell him he’d had enough. Course, I didn’t know that he then got into his car. Took a bend too fast and that was that.”
Blake shook his head. He had very little sympathy for anybody who got behind the wheel of a car in that state.
“Turned out he’d been on his way to see this other woman. I don’t know who she was. But, safe to say she was a bit on the side. Anyway, the family just sort of broke down after that. Helen got worse, the daughter, oh what’s her name, Vicky. She got arrested and locked up for breaking into Jai Sinnah’s corner shop and beating him up. And now with this horrible business with Daniel, well. I dread to think what this will do to them. It’s just been disaster after disaster for them.”
According to Patil, when Blake had briefly spoken to her on their way back from Halfmile Farm, Helen Donaldson had been just as unresponsive as Gardiner had said she would be. She had apparently been lying face down on the sofa when Patil had arrived, an empty bottle of vodka lying on the floor next to her. Patil had spent most of her time there trying to stop her from choking on her own vomit.
Blake shuddered. He had seen plenty of families disintegrate like that over the years and it unnerved him as to how easy it was for it to happen.
Blake spent another hour or so in the pub before deciding to call it a night. He had managed another two pints before leaving and as the crisp night air hit him as he zipped up his coat outside, he realised he was actually feeling quite drunk. It was hardly surprising as he had not eaten since Jacqueline’s breakfast that morning and had had a couple of broken hours sleep the night before at the most.
As he wandered home, he saw a young man and woman kissing in the threshold of one of the houses. She giggled coquettishly into his ear and as Blake approached, she opened the door and they both disappeared into the house, the door slamming shut behind them. Blake rolled his eyes cynically. He remembered a date Nathan and he had been on that had ended in a similar manner, except they literally had fallen into the house and Blake had ended up nearly cracking his head open on a coffee table. It should have been a sign in retrospect but Blake had always worn rose tinted glasses as far as Nathan was concerned.
As he arrived home, his mind returned to the wedding invitation that was currently in pieces on his living room floor somewhere and a huge surge on indignation soared through him. Why would Nathan do that? Was it not bad enough that he had broken his heart? Forced him to move away from everything he knew? No, he felt that he had to rub it in a bit more by asking Blake to watch him get married to somebody else.
Blake slammed the door behind him and flung himself into the chair in the living room, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He wanted to speak to Sally so that she could talk some sense into him, make him laugh or at the very least bring him back from the conclusion that all other men were the scum of the earth.
But as he flicked through his phone book, he came to the ‘N’s. Nathan’s name and number stared at him. Before he could stop himself, his thumb had hit the call button.
The next morning, Blake darted into the living room. He was running late for work. He looked around everywhere for his shoes that he had apparently kicked off his feet with drunken wild abandon the night before. His head was throbbing. How had he gotten so drunk on three pints of beer? Could he really not handle his alcohol anymore? He saw one of his shoes poking out from the coffee table and thrust the wrong foot into it. He decided that he blamed the countryside. Even its beer didn’t agree with him.
He finally found his other shoe and quickly finished getting changed, glancing at the clock as he did so. He had ten minutes to get to work and his hangover was feeling worse with every passing second. He felt like he had the morning after consuming all those gins with Sally before he left. He pushed the terrifying thought that he was getting older out of his head and started trying to focus on what he was going to do that day.
The first thing he wanted to do was speak to Craig Samuels. He got the feeling that he could shed more light on what Daniel Donaldson got up to when he wasn’t with Harrison better than anybody else. Harrison ticked all the boxes of the victim in the typical domestically violent relationship – did what he was told, took the beatings and asked no questions. It always saddened Blake when it was just as simple as that. The abusers were able to do whatever they liked and come home knowing that they could smack any guilt out of themselves and onto their partner.
Someone had been pushed to their limits though. There was somebody out there who Daniel Donaldson had gone too far with and he was now laying in a mortuary for his troubles. The problem with people like Donaldson wasn’t the lack of motive from anybody, it was finding the culprit who felt they had more motive than everybody else and then, in this case, managing to kill him in such an impossible way. The thought of trying to work out exactly how made his head hurt even more.
He patted his pockets looking for his mobile then saw it lying on the floor by his living room chair. Immediately a flashback from the night before hit him. Closing his eyes in dread he picked it up and looked at the screen. A voicemail message was waiting to be heard. He sighed, then played his messages:
‘One new message. Received today at 7:33AM.’
The next voice was an angry sounding Irish one he knew all too well.
‘I’m guessing your head hurts quite a lot today and you know what? Good. Who the hell do you think you are, calling me up and hurling abuse on my answer phone? You’re a mess when you’re drunk, do you know that Blake? Yeah, you’re hurt, but do you know what? Big deal. Grow up. You can just tear up that wedding invite because –‘
He didn’t need to hear any more. He deleted the message and groaned loudly. Despite the severity of his hangover, he remembered every word he had ranted into his phone last night and very little of it had been polite, in fact most of it had been borderline abusive. Nathan’s accent had always been one of the things Blake found most attractive about him but it had been the last thing he wanted to hear that morning.
Stuffing his phone into his pocket with a heavy sigh, Blake thrust his foot into his other shoe and went to work.
>
Blake’s mind whirred as he drove towards Craig Samuels’s car garage on the outskirts of the village. His hangover was mercifully starting to dissipate but the fogginess in his brain was still there, as was the feeling of what a complete idiot he was for ringing Nathan. It would probably be a good idea to delete his number so he didn’t end up giving a repeat performance.
“Sir? I think we just passed it.”
“Hm?”
Blake looked in the rear view mirror as the garage rapidly got smaller behind them. “Oh, was that it? Not very big, is it?”
“Nothing is round here Sir.” Patil laughed.
When he had finally arrived at work, Mattison and Gardiner had already been sent out to deal with some trespassers further up the hill so Patil was left as his accompanying officer to interview Craig Samuels. After yesterday, Blake had been relieved to work with somebody new. Patil seemed bright and capable and had asked Blake lots of questions about the case before they’d set off so that she was fully up to speed and Blake felt that she had genuinely taken it all in. If Gardiner was the odd one out in a station full of officers like this, then Blake felt he could probably cope fine in the long run.
“Have you had many run-ins with our young Mr Samuels?” Blake asked Patil as he parked the car near the garage.
“A couple.” Patil said. “Mainly just being drunk and disorderly. You’ll get to know who to keep an eye on for what around here before too long.”
“Was he ever with Daniel Donaldson?” Blake asked her as they got out of the car.
“Only once.” Patil replied. “They were giving a couple of guys a bit of trouble outside The Dog’s Tail one night. It was Craig mostly though.”
The first thing they saw as they walked into the garage was a pair of legs sticking out from underneath a Peugeot 204. Blake cleared his throat. “Craig Samuels?”
The sound of metal tinkering underneath the car stopped. The figure underneath the car pulled himself out and looked up at them
“Yeah?” He snarled.
“Craig, we’d like to ask you a few questions about your friend Daniel Donaldson?”
“Go on then.”
“Could you sit down?”
Craig rolled his eyes then threw the spanner he was holding on the floor, got up and went and sat down at the desk leaning back arrogantly in the chair. “Go on then.”
“How well did you know Daniel?” Blake asked him.
“I grew up with him pretty much.” Craig replied. “Went to the same school.”
“You went boxing with him didn’t you?” Blake said, leaning back against the car with his arms folded.
“Yeah, for a bit. He was better with his fists than me though.”
“Yes.” Blake leant back in a similar fashion to how Craig was sitting. “So we’ve been led to believe.”
Craig scowled at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How much do you know about his relationship with Harrison Baxter?”
Craig narrowed his eyes, then shrugged. “I knew they were…you know.”
“What?” Blake asked innocently.
Craig glared at him sullenly. “I knew they were together.”
“Did Daniel ever talk to you about any aspect of the relationship?”
Craig shrugged again. “Like what?”
“Like any violence in the relationship?” Blake offered.
Craig didn’t answer. He just scowled and once again shrugged.
“Craig?”
Craig glared at Blake. “Yeah, I suppose. I didn’t know that much though.”
“Did you ever see Daniel hit Harrison though?” Patil asked.
Blake could see, despite the bravado, that Craig was feeling distinctly uncomfortable.
“Look,” He snapped. “I’m not gonna sit here and slag off one of my best mates, especially as he only died yesterday.”
“I’m not asking you to slag him off,” Blake replied. “But this is a murder inquiry so I’m afraid we need to know whatever you knew about Daniel so that we can find out who did this to him.”
Craig sighed huffily. “So.” Blake repeated, slowly. “Did you ever see Daniel hit his boyfriend?”
There was a long pause before Craig gave another sulky shrug. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“Yeah, you suppose.” Blake nodded, standing up from the car and walking across the garage towards him. It wasn’t like him to use intimidation tactics when interviewing a potential witness, but he rather got the impression that Craig didn’t think that the domestic violence was a major issue because it wasn’t between a man and a woman. He leant against the desk Craig was sat at and looked down at him. “How many times did you see Daniel be violent towards Harrison?”
Craig looked up at him, jigging his leg up and down in an agitated fashion. “A couple of times.”
“What did you see?”
Craig sighed, apparently deciding to be truthful so as to get this awkward line of questioning out of the way. “First time we were out at the Tail -”
“The Dog’s Tail public house?”
“Yeah.”
“Go on.”
Craig shifted in his seat. “We’d had a bit to drink, me and Dan. Actually, Dan was wasted. Harrison was whining on about needing to get back so that his Dad didn’t have a go at him or something and Dan, I dunno, he just lost his temper.”
“So what did he do when he lost his temper?”
Craig looked down at the ground, his leg bobbing up and down again. “When we got outside, Dan pushed him against a wall by his head and told him to shut up. Then he shoved him away again.”
“Was that all that happened?”
Craig hesitated. “That time, yeah.”
“And the second time?” Patil asked him, crossing her arms.
“Look,” Craig said standing up. “I don’t know anything about how he was killed. If you think that Dan knocking his boyfriend about is that important, shouldn’t you be bothering him instead? I’ve got work to do today!”
“Yeah and you can get on with it when we’ve finished asking our questions.” Blake replied. “So, sit down?”
Craig muttered to himself moodily and then sat down again. It was like trying to ask a teenager to do the washing up.
“What happened the second time?”
There was a long pause before Craig finally said “You know those break- ins at the farm?”
Blake frowned. “Yes? What do you know?”
“Look, I don’t know all that much. But I think Dan might have known the lads doing them.”
“And what gives you that idea?”
“I went to meet him one night before boxing. Dan and Harrison were arguing about something as I was walking towards them. Harrison said something like…I dunno…’do you know who’s doing it?’ Or something like that.”
“And he was talking about the break-ins?”
“I don’t know for sure. But then Dan had his hand round Harrison’s neck and was all like ‘That’s between my mates and your dad,’ or something.”
Patil and Blake looked at each other. “Why would it be between Dan’s mates and Seth Baxter?” Blake asked, confused.
Craig shrugged. “How should I know? I don’t even know if that’s what they were talking about.”
Blake bit his lip and thought. Was it possible that Seth had arranged for some of Daniel Donaldson’s friends to break into his farm? Why would he do that?
“Look, I’ve told you all I know.” Craig snapped sulkily. “Can I do my job now?”
Blake looked down at him thoughtfully. “For now, yes. We’ll be back if we have anything else to ask you though. Don’t plan any trips anywhere.”
Craig retorted sarcastically but Blake wasn’t listening, instead strolling out of the garage and pulling his ecig out of his pocket. Was he on the right train of thought here? He leant against the car and stared in the distance, inhaling on his vape.
“Sir?” Patil said as she approached him. “What do we make of that
?”
“Did you get from that that Seth Baxter arranged for his farming equipment to be stolen?”
“Sounded like it.” Patil nodded. “If that’s what Harrison and Daniel were talking about when Craig overheard them.”
“But he built that shed in response to those break-ins.” Blake frowned, thinking out loud. “He built the shed that Daniel Donaldson was somehow shot in to keep people from stealing his equipment.”
“So if he wanted the thefts to happen, why build the shed?” Patil pondered.
“Well.” Blake murmured thoughtfully. “Either I’m being incredibly dim or Seth Baxter has been incredibly clever. Or possibly both.”
They climbed inside the car and Blake started the engine. They needed to get back to the station so that he could fully chew this over. Things were starting, very slowly, to add up.
Harrison was sat in an interview room at the police station with his head in his hands. No sooner had he woken up that morning, praying that the day ahead would be easier than the one before, Gardiner and Mattison had arrived at the house, asking him to come down to the station to ‘assist with their enquires.’ Despite Sandra’s protests, Gardiner had led him to the police car and driven him here, without giving him any indication about what they were going to ask him. All Harrison knew was that Gardiner wasn’t anywhere close to being as comforting and reassuring as Blake. In fact, he rather felt like he was being treated like a suspect.
His thoughts were broken when the door to the interview room opened and Gardiner and Mattison entered.
Gardiner sat at the table and glanced up at him. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” He said, not sounding in the slightest bit apologetic at all.
Harrison didn’t reply. Gardiner leant across the desk and pressed a button on a tape recorder that was lying on the far side.
“Interview commencing at 11:34, present in the room are PC Michael Gardiner and PC Billy Mattison. Also present is Harrison Baxter.”
Harrison glanced at Mattison who just looked down at the floor.