Pale Horse, Dark Horse (The Lakeland Murders)

by Salkeld, J J

‘What would you know about it?’ asked Bose sharply, before adding quickly, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.’

  ‘That’s OK. I understand that this must come have a big shock to you and your daughter, to the whole family in fact. Now, how can I help you? You do understand that enquiries are ongoing?’

  ‘What enquiries? Rita said that her car wasn’t even examined for DNA, or other forensic traces.’

  ‘That’s right. I’m afraid that the nature of the offence was judged not to warrant the cost. But we are making enquiries. Crime was detected before CSI was on the television, Mr. Bose.’ Jane smiled, but it wasn’t reciprocated.

  ‘Like what? What enquiries would those be?’

  ‘An officer has interviewed the staff on the Windermere Ferry, and CCTV has been recovered and examined. We’ve also made enquiries at Hill Top, where your daughter stopped. Where she was attacked.’

  Bose looked slightly mollified, but only slightly. ‘And? Have you identified the man who tried to rape my daughter?’

  ‘The CCTV was inconclusive. A camera does record the cars coming onto the ferry, but the deck itself isn’t covered. So we don’t see who it was, no.’

  ‘But you can identify and interview the people in all those cars. Surely you can do that? One of them must know something, must have seen something, at least.’

  ‘That would certainly be possible, in theory. But you do realise that there’s no evidence to suggest that the offender intended to rape your daughter? Even if we do make an arrest, there’s no likelihood of a very serious charge being brought.’

  Bose jumped up. He was a small man, and overweight, but Jane still had her hand poised on the panic button under the table.

  ‘What do you think he was trying to do, then? Recruit her into the Girl Guides or whatever it is you call them? A man hid in my daughter’s car, and when she stopped he grabbed her from behind. He had her round the neck, and I don’t know where else, didn’t he? He only ran off when he realised that she’d stopped at that National Trust place, what’s it called?’

  ‘Hill Top. It’s clear that an offence was committed, Mr. Bose, but even if we do arrest the man responsible there’s absolutely no possibility that he’ll be charged with a serious offence, because he didn’t actually commit one.’

  ‘Don’t give me that, young woman. His intention was obvious. He intended to rape my daughter.’

  ‘I do understand your concerns, Mr. Bose, but I’ve had a look at the file, and enquiries have been made. They are ongoing in fact, so the matter is certainly not closed.’

  ‘Someone must have seen the man at this Hill Top place. My daughter was screaming, and he ran off. That’s hardly an everyday occurrence. Did you say that you made enquiries there?’

  ‘Yes, an officer did make enquiries. There was no relevant CCTV, and none of the staff remembered seeing the incident.’

  Bose was still standing, looking angrier by the second. Jane hoped that he wouldn’t end up getting nicked, but she knew that’s what would happen to Bose if he so much as touched her.

  ‘Are you saying it never happened?’ he said.

  ‘Of course not. We believe your daughter, absolutely everything that she told us. It’s just that no-one working at Hill Top saw what happened, that’s all.’

  ‘What about the visitors? Rita said that there were people everywhere. Packed, the place was.’

  ‘I’m sure that’s right, but we simply don’t have the resources to try to find all of them. Half of them are probably on their way back to Japan by now, anyway.’

  ‘Japan, why Japan?’

  ‘Because the Japanese love Beatrix Potter. The books are used in the teaching of English, I believe. So lots of the visitors would have been Japanese tourists.’

  Bose didn’t look remotely interested in this cultural insight.

  ‘What rank are you, young woman?’

  ‘Detective Constable. I mean Detective Sergeant, I’m a Detective Sergeant.’

  ‘I see, so what are you going to do about this? Are you simply going to let this man strike again?’

  Jane had no intention of answering that. ‘Has Rita been able to improve on her description of this man? That would certainly be helpful.’

  ‘So it’s all her fault now, is it?’

  ‘Not at all. It’s just that her description is rather vague. A white male, aged between twenty five and forty five, medium height and build. Brown hair, quite short. Wearing jeans and a dark jacket. That doesn’t narrow the field very much, I’m afraid.’

  ‘She didn’t get a proper look at him, that’s all.’

  ‘I understand. There’s just one thing that no-one seems to have asked, when your daughter was interviewed, and I wonder if you might be able to help me with it today, since you’re here?’

  ‘If it does any good then yes, of course. I’ll help in any way I can.’

  ‘I just wanted to know if your daughter has had any unwanted attention from anyone over the last year or two?’

  ‘You mean at home?’

  ‘Yes. Where you live, at college, at the school that Rita teaches at. Anywhere, really.’

  ‘Of course not. My daughter’s not that kind of girl.’

  ‘No, of course not. But there’s been no-one that you’ve been suspicious of?’

  ‘I’m very suspicious of every boy she meets, Detective Sergeant. But Rita made it clear to me, a very long time ago, that she is English, not Indian, and that she will live in the same way that you English girls do.’

  Jane let it pass. It was nice to be called a girl, anyway. She stood up, and noticed that she was several inches taller than Bose. He seemed to notice it too.

  ‘I hope this has been of some help, Mr. Bose. And do feel free to contact me at any time. But there’s no need to come all the way up here, phone or email is fine. It might take a bit of time for me to come back to you with an update, and it’s best that I contact you because I might be off-duty if you contact me, but I promise I will come back to you, whether we make any further progress or not.’

  ‘Further progress? What progress have you made so far? None, as far as I can see. But what are you going to do to catch this man?’

  ‘As I explained, we have been making enquiries. And, as I’ve also said already, we’ll let you know as and when we make any progress. We really can’t do any more than that.’ Jane walked to the door and held it open. Bose showed no signs of moving.

  ‘Would you at least talk to Rita?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Bose, but that’s not going to be possible. I don’t know if you saw it on the news, but a body was discovered yesterday, and I’m afraid myself and my colleagues will be pretty tied up on that case, for a little while at least.’

  ‘Was the body Asian?’

  Jane smiled. ‘Come on, Mr. Bose, you know that’s not relevant. Your daughter got a very nasty fright, and she was undoubtedly the victim of an assault, but we’ve got a man in a shallow grave with half his insides blown away, and worms crawling out of his eye sockets. I hope you’ll understand that the colour of what’s left of his skin isn’t the primary issue here.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. But what if Rita came here? What if I brought her? Would you be willing to talk to her then?’

  Jane didn’t reply immediately, so Bose went on.

  ‘Please. It would mean a lot to us. We both know that this man will strike again, and soon. Just half an hour, that’s all. And if you decide that there’s nothing more to be done, then I’ll accept that.’

  ‘Leave it with me, Mr. Bose. No promises, OK? But if I can talk to Rita then I will. But one thing. If we do meet I’ll need to talk to her alone, without you being present.’

  Bose nodded, and held out his hand.

  When Jane got back to her desk she looked at the clock, and wondered if she had time to finish the report. She decided that she didn’t, so she made a cup of tea and read the Bose file again, more slowly this time.

  DCI Andy Hall sat
at an empty desk in the incident room at HQ and sensed that, even though the investigation was only just beginning, the urgency was missing somehow. And in truth he wasn’t feeling it either. But then this was more like a cold case than anything else, and he expected the pace of the investigation to be that bit slower as a result. But he didn’t want to convey that impression to the team, because he knew that levels of energy and rate of progress were very closely correlated.

  He went over his presentation as the room filled up, thinking carefully about the tone he wanted to set, and at eleven on the dot he walked over to the projector and called for quiet.

  ‘Good morning, everyone. I’ll keep this short, because you should all have received the same reports and emails as me. And I’m sure you’ll have read them as carefully as I have. I just wanted to give a bit of context, suggest some lines of enquiry, and open things up for questions and comments. For those of you who haven’t had the dubious pleasure of working with me before I just want to say welcome, and to encourage you to speak up with any thoughts and ideas you have. I don’t care if your bright ideas take us nowhere, that’s not a problem. So make your contributions in the knowledge that they will always, always, be appreciated and, where possible, followed up. OK, let’s make a start.’

  Hall pressed the button and the first few slides, showing the unidentified body, were projected fully six feet across, one after another. Hall hadn’t enjoyed glancing at them on a laptop screen, so he didn’t turn round now.

  ‘Here’s what we know so far. Male, aged about 30, height just under six foot and stocky build, died of a single shotgun wound, or possibly two, and the body has been in the ground between around eight and about fourteen months. They’re hoping to narrow that down a bit more for us, but don’t hold your breath. No ID on him, relatively expensive chain-store clothing, the details are in the file, and although he did have several tattoos they’re too far gone to be able to identify. But we do know where they were, and their approximate size. We’ve also recovered a large gold chain, worth a couple of thousand pounds at today’s prices, with a Birmingham Assay mark from 2004. So while we can’t absolutely exclude robbery at this stage it’s quite possible, or even probable, that it wasn’t the motive. And in case any of you haven’t read that far down the initial PM report yet, and Ray I’m looking at you, we can forget about dental records. There’s no evidence of any dental work whatsoever. The teeth weren’t in great condition apparently, but there was no trace of any work having been done. We’ll have the DNA and the toxicology through later today. He may be on the database, but let’s not count on it. And there’s no chance of any prints, I’m afraid. So, let’s talk about the MISPERs, then.’

  Hall waited for the groans to subside.

  ‘I know, I know, but we have to start somewhere. DS Jane Francis, who many of you know, will lead a team of three on that. Let’s do eighteen months to eight months ago to start with, and start local, by which I mean the county, and work out. The usual drill. DS Ian Mann will take charge at the locus, and will head up door-to-door in the local villages.’

  ‘How long until we’ve got a picture of our man, boss?’ asked DC Ray Dixon, ‘one we can show Joe Public, I mean?’

  ‘That’s being worked on now. We should have something mocked up by this afternoon, so make a start in the villages as soon as you have it. Now, Sandy, have you got anything to add?’

  ‘The pit was about four feet deep, and dug by hand. Possibly two people involved.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Give me a fucking chance, Andy. I was coming to that. We’ve been able to look at the spade marks on the outside of the pit, and they differ slightly. The one on the west and north sides are longer than the other two, but not by much. It might just be that the digger got tired as they went on of course, but we don’t think so.’

  ‘A man and a woman then?’

  ‘Possible, but far from certain. We can’t be sure how wet the soil was when the grave was dug, so it’s impossible to estimate the force used with any accuracy.’

  ‘OK, understood. One thing I don’t understand though, Sandy.’

  ‘Only one? I’d have expected more.’

  Hall smiled and held up his hand to silence the others.

  ‘How come the grave wasn’t spotted before?’

  ‘Now that, Andy, is a surprisingly bloody sensible question.’

  ‘Can you come up with an equally sensible answer?’

  ‘Better than that. I can tell you exactly what happened. Your killers, or whoever put chummy in the hole at least, were very methodical. They skimmed the grass off first with their spades, then dug the hole, then put it all back. I’m guessing now, but it might well have been in the spring of the year, because the grass would have been quite long, and it would have knitted back together quickly after. And that fits in with the dates the Doc gave us. So I’d say April to June last year would be favourite.’

  ‘OK, Sandy, that’s great, thanks. Tonto, anything to add?’

  Greg Barnes, aka Tonto, didn’t look best pleased. Hall had a feeling that Sandy Smith had rather stolen his thunder.

  ‘Nothing much so far. We’ve got a team fingertip searching the site now, but I don’t hold out much hope.’

  ‘What about the spot they chose to bury the body?’

  ‘Now that is interesting. I’ve only done a quick survey so far, but I’d say it’s just about the best place to choose to avoid being seen from the lane. Certainly they wouldn’t have been swept by any passing headlights. Of course, if they’d just gone another twenty yards they could have been in the field next door, and that drops down towards the river quite quickly. So they must have preferred to use the Long Meg site for some reason, unless they literally buried the victim where he fell.’

  ‘Thanks, but either way it looks as if Long Meg was chosen, so why?’ asked Hall. ‘Not some sort of occult thing, surely? He was shot after all, not eaten by a goat.’

  ‘Maybe there’s some kind of occult connection, I wouldn’t rule it out at this stage, but like you I doubt it’ said Tonto. ‘And I was wondering if our killers might be brighter than the average shotgun-wielding psycho, and knew that the site was Scheduled. Our killer was just unlucky that the County Archeologist signed off on that dig. I called her earlier, and she said she very nearly didn’t. But she was curious about the trace that the Prof and his students got from their geophysical survey.’

  For the first time since the case had begun Hall had that feeling, and he welcomed it back like an old friend. Tonto was right, he could just feel it. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t want to know. He just knew that he could forget any occult angles.

  ‘Yes, Tonto, nice one. That’s a really helpful insight.’

  Tonto looked happier, and Hall saw him glance across at Sandy Smith.

  ‘Anyone else?’ said Hall. ‘Thoughts, questions, ideas?’

  ‘Could he have been a traveller?’ asked Ray Dixon. ‘It’s probably not politically correct, but he does sound like the type, like. Muscley from all that two-inch thick tarmac laying on pensioners’ drives, big gold chain, bad teeth. Oh yes, and found dead in a shallow grave with a shotgun wound.’

  There was some nervous laughter.

  ‘Ray, if you weren’t already as old as the bloody dinosaurs and about to be equally extinct, I’d have to send you on yet another course. All you’ve done there is lined up a few lazy stereotypes, and then jumped straight to a conclusion.’

  ‘Not quite, boss. Look at the timing. It’s Appleby Horse Fair is this week, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, I think so. But so what?’

  ‘Our stiff could be exactly a year old, couldn’t he? This time last year is right in the middle of the window. So what if something kicked off at the Fair, and he ended up on the wrong end of somebody’s six-bore?’

  Hall thought about it.

  ‘Leave it with me, Ray. And thanks for the idea, even if it did come from the depths of the mind that time forgot. But yes, I can
see that it could fit. Meanwhile, I want you to try to track down where that chain came from. And unless there’s a development we’ll meet again tomorrow at nine am. Sharp, OK? This man may have been dead for a year or so, but let’s pursue this case with all the energy and enthusiasm that we’d put into any other case. This man matters, so let’s find out who did this to him. Away you go.’

  At lunchtime Hall, Ian Mann and Jane Francis met at the whole-food cafe near the locus. Mann had looked round suspiciously when they’d walked in, and the chair he’d sat on creaked under him. The idea was to have twenty minutes of down-time in preparation for another eight or ten hours at work, but as usual it didn’t work out that way. Hall was already completely absorbed, and the chance of any small-talk was absolutely nil. So Mann just went with it.

  ‘What did you make of Ray’s theory then, Andy? I must admit the same thought was in my head.’

  ‘Of course it was’ said Jane, before Hall could reply.

  Hall smiled. ‘Come on, children, play nice. All being well he’ll turn up on the DNA database, or Jane and her team will find him lurking in the MISPERs somewhere, and then we’ll know without jumping to conclusions or dealing in stereotypes. But if we don’t find him fast we’re probably going to have to look at it, if only because the Horse Fair timings fit so well. That was a good point that Ray made. As we all know Appleby Horse Fair means a huge influx of travellers, plus assorted others, and I suppose it’s possible that a score was settled before or during last year’s Fair. Doesn’t mean a traveller was involved though’ he added quickly, glancing at Jane. ‘And I must admit I did have a very quick flick through our MISPERs last night, the Cumbrian ones, and I can’t see anyone who seems likely.’ Hall looked back at Jane. ‘But don’t take that as any kind of conclusion. I shouldn’t have even looked.’

  ‘Damn right’ said Jane, smiling. ‘How many times have you told us to stick to the method, and not jump ahead or dot around from job to job? It’s the way things get missed.’

  ‘Guilty as charged’ said Hall. ‘It’s a case of do as I say, not do as I sometimes do, I’m afraid.’