Turn to Dust

by Amphlett, Rachel

  She gestured to the two displays of information. ‘Now that we have a name, I want us to focus on identifying next of kin, any traces of him within the social services system, and whether he’s known to local charities. Where’s Laura?’

  A hand was raised at the back of the group. ‘Here, guv.’

  ‘Can you follow up with the Borough Council’s housing department and have a word to see if anyone recognises the name or his photograph? Halsmith reckons if Ethan was begging from time to time, then he’d head into Sevenoaks or Tonbridge. You can liaise with police constables Ben Allen and Nigel Best over that way if you need extra hands.’

  ‘Yes, guv.’

  ‘Check Maidstone as well, and extend your search as you need to. Does anyone here have contacts within Kent County Council’s housing schemes?’

  ‘I know someone,’ said PC Dave Morrison. ‘If she can’t help, she might be able to tell us who we can speak to.’

  ‘Good, thanks. I’ll leave that with you. On to yesterday’s activities – Ian, is there any news about that van or the tread marks in the track?’

  Barnes stepped forward. ‘Patrick is processing the prints he and his team took yesterday. We found evidence of snares and dead rabbits but we’re not sure if those are linked to the van yet.’

  ‘So, we could be looking at a poaching angle rather than something to do with Ethan’s death?’

  ‘It’s a possibility, guv. I’ll be following up with the Rural Crimes division this morning to get their thoughts on that.’

  ‘All right. Carys and Gavin, what did Dennis Maitland have to say?’

  ‘He thought maybe it was poachers that used the track, but thought it more likely it was kids,’ said Carys. ‘He reckons anyone poaching around there is going for the bigger stuff, like deer. He did give us the details for the owners of the neighbouring farm properties, though. I’ve put those in the system and we’ll organise interviews with them over the course of tomorrow.’

  ‘He did mention that, as far as he was aware, none of his neighbours own a light aircraft,’ said Gavin. ‘And he confirmed he doesn’t use one either.’

  Kay thanked them as they retook their seats. ‘Given the status of forensics with the tyre marks, Ian, can you liaise with uniform to carry out additional enquiries with residents along that lane again? We need to corroborate Peter Winton’s statement that he heard a vehicle on that Sunday night. If anyone’s got a security camera fixed to their property, see if you can get hold of any footage as well. It’s a long shot, I know but we need to close out that line of enquiry if it has no bearing on Ethan’s death.’

  ‘Will do, guv.’

  Kay exhaled. ‘Okay, that’s plenty to be getting on with. You’re dismissed, but you know where to find me if you have any questions. Thanks for your time.’

  She gathered her notes together as chairs scraped backwards and the team dispersed.

  Sharp beckoned her over as he wandered back to his office. When she entered, he closed the door and turned to her.

  ‘We need to make a decision whether we tell the team about Archer’s involvement with rescuing those women and children in the Balkans.’

  ‘You mean in case the killer’s motive was revenge for the rescue mission, even after all this time?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  She sighed, ran a hand through her hair and moved across to the window before leaning against the sill. ‘I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do yet. I mean, it could colour the investigation if we tell them.’

  ‘Do you want to exhaust any other possibilities first?’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind, just to be sure. Otherwise, it’s just you and me interpreting what happened back in ninety-nine as a motive, isn’t it? We’ve got no evidence to suggest that’s the case. There are so many unknowns at the present time, aren’t there?’

  ‘All right. I’m happy for you to continue running the investigation on that basis but if you think any evidence that comes to light points towards that military incident, you let me know straight away.’

  Kay nodded, and moved across to the door. ‘Don’t worry, I will – especially if anyone threatens my team.’

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Gavin caught sight of his reflection in the mirrored wall of the lift and hurriedly tried to smooth down his hair while Laura pressed the button for the third floor.

  She grinned at him as the doors closed. ‘I’ve got some hairspray in my bag if you want it.’

  He dropped his hand and turned his back to the wall, running his eyes down the text of the poster above the control panel. ‘Very funny. Who are we meeting?’

  ‘Valerie Hayes. She’s a liaison officer between the council and the local homeless charities. I’m having trouble getting hold of people at a couple of the charities – they’re part-time volunteers. I figured if Valerie could act as go-between, it’d free us up to follow some of those other tasks Kay gave to us.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan. How do you know her?’

  ‘I don’t – she’s Dave Morrison’s contact that he mentioned in the briefing. He’s still dividing his time between us and a court hearing this week, so I offered to meet with her instead.’ She frowned. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

  The lift juddered to a standstill, and Gavin put out his hand as the doors opened.

  ‘Not at all – I’d much rather be doing this than being stuck in the incident room.’ He unbuttoned his jacket as they walked along a short corridor towards an unmanned reception desk. ‘It’s warmer in here, for a start.’

  Laura stifled a snort as he rang a bell on the desk.

  Moments later, a young girl barely out of her teens and wearing copious amounts of eye make-up appeared from an open doorway to the left of the desk and tilted her head.

  ‘Can I help you?’

  ‘Detective Constable Laura Hanway and my colleague, DC Gavin Piper.’ Laura tucked her warrant card back in her pocket. ‘Valerie Hayes is expecting us.’

  ‘Hang on.’

  The girl spun on her heel and disappeared, but Gavin could hear her talking to someone in the next room.

  Footsteps sounded across the thin carpeted floor and then an older woman with shoulder-length brown hair entered the reception area, a black lever arch file under one arm. She held out her hand to Laura first.

  ‘I’m Valerie Hayes. I’m afraid we don’t have a dedicated meeting room on this floor, so we’ll have to use my manager’s office instead.’ She brushed past Gavin and headed along the corridor, then called over her shoulder. ‘He’s in a meeting in Chatham until four o’clock and the traffic coming over the hill this time of day is usually dreadful, so we should be all right.’

  She stopped at the end and pushed open a door, standing to one side to let them pass.

  ‘Take a seat. I’d offer you a drink, but the plumber’s had his head under the sink in the gents’ toilet for the past hour, and I don’t think the water is coming back on any time soon.’

  As Gavin sat in one of two visitor chairs beside a cheap imitation oak desk, he took in the clutter of paperwork strewn across it and the reminders written on sticky notes plastered around the edges of the computer screen. He wondered how Valerie’s boss had managed to escape with so many other commitments clamouring for his time.

  The whole room resembled utter bedlam.

  ‘You should see it on a bad day.’ Valerie shoved the lever arch file into a gap between two others on a filing shelf next to the window and then sat opposite them. ‘You mentioned on the phone you had an urgent query with regard to a homeless veteran, Detective Hanway.’

  Gavin caught Laura’s sideways glance, and waved her to continue.

  If she had already established a basic rapport with the woman, then he was happy to let his colleague manage the interview.

  ‘We’re trying to find out more about a man by the name of Ethan Archer,’ she said. ‘We’re investigating a suspicious death, and we understand from people who knew him that he disappeared from the area t
hree to four years ago. We’re hoping you might be able to help us work out where he’s been living during that time.’

  Valerie blew out her cheeks. ‘Blimey. That’s a big ask. Do you know anything about his background?’

  ‘We believe he may have been ex-infantry, potentially the Parachute Regiment,’ said Laura. ‘He was known to have been sleeping rough, and had been attending a veterans’ support group in Riverhead before his disappearance. We wondered whether he was in touch with this department at any point during that period he hadn’t been seen, or whether you have a last known address for him.’

  ‘It would take me a day or so to go through our database,’ said the housing officer. ‘Do you have a date of birth for him?’

  ‘We’re still waiting for confirmation from the British Army,’ said Gavin.

  ‘Right, well, it might take time to find him without it, but I can have a go.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  Valerie finished writing a note to herself, and tore off the page from the pad next to her manager’s computer keyboard. ‘Do you know when he left the army?’

  ‘We have a date of ninety-nine.’

  ‘That’s a long time ago.’

  ‘We realise this isn’t going to be easy.’

  Grimacing, Valerie folded the note and tapped it with her fingertips. ‘It’s not. I mean, unless he was specifically referred to this department – or an earlier iteration of it, then we’ll be lucky to find a record for him.’

  ‘What sort of problems do these veterans experience?’ said Laura.

  ‘Apart from the physical and mental issues we typically see in veterans who have experienced conflict, it’s often when they return to civilian life that the problems manifest,’ said Valerie. ‘A lot of them joined up at an early age – late teens or early twenties – so the army, for instance, is the only life they know. I think in recent years they’ve started to give them a bit of a hand when they leave, sort of a transition from one to the other, but it’s not enough. It’s a huge shock to the system going from having your life organised on a daily basis down to the tiniest detail to having to plan for yourself. In my experience, I’ve seen the same issues arise when prisoners are released after long sentences.’

  ‘How does your department support them with finding sheltered accommodation?’

  ‘If they come to us, then we put them in touch with the organisations who can assist with housing and associated services. It’s about arming them with information so they can make the right choices.’ She paused and gestured to the rows of files lining the shelves. ‘We’re stretched beyond capacity though, and local councils are being squeezed by the government with regards to funding. Unfortunately, the mental wellbeing of our growing homeless population isn’t top of their priorities, despite the fact ours is growing because they’re encouraging them to leave the cities. It hasn’t been a priority for them for nearly a decade, despite all the evidence that we desperately need the money in order to manage the problem.’

  ‘Our victim could have been sleeping rough in the countryside – wild camping,’ said Gavin.

  Valerie sighed. ‘In that case, he might never have registered with us in the first place, or if he did and then ceased all contact, we would have lost track of how to find him.’

  ‘What happens if people like him do disappear, or move on to other locations?’

  ‘Well, nothing. If they don’t tell us where they’re going, we can’t help them.’

  ‘Surely you have to do something for them if they do that?’ said Laura, ‘I mean, what happens to any benefits they might be entitled to?’

  Valerie gave the young detective constable a sad smile. ‘That’s the problem. Some of these people don’t care about that. They don’t want to be found.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kay flicked through the pages of the free newspaper that had been shoved through the door that afternoon, chin in hand and with a heavy heart.

  She didn’t read the words.

  She didn’t focus on the photographs of local sports competitions or fundraising activities.

  Her mind kept returning to her conversation with Carys earlier that morning, and the ramifications on the team if the detective constable left Kent Police to pursue her career ambitions.

  A mewling from the wire cage in the corner of the kitchen broke the spell, and she lifted her head to peer over the edge of the worktop to where Adam sat on the tiles, checking one fox cub at a time and ensuring each got a fair portion of the food he was administering to them.

  Since they’d arrived that morning, he’d been feeding them every hour and would continue to do so during the night.

  ‘Carys is leaving,’ she said, hearing the wonder and sadness in her voice.

  His head jerked up as his gaze locked with hers, the cub in his lap forgotten. ‘When?’

  ‘I don’t know. Soon, I suppose. She’s got an interview in Bridgend with South Wales Police on Friday. If she gets the job, she’s moving to Cardiff.’

  Adam ruffled the cub between the ears before placing it on the blankets in the cage alongside its siblings, and then straightened. He washed his hands, and pulled a towel off its hook below the sink.

  Wandering over to her, he dried his hands and then sat on a bar stool opposite.

  ‘When did she tell you?’

  ‘This morning, when I arrived. She collared me in the car park.’ She managed a small smile. ‘I don’t think she got much sleep last night, worrying about it.’

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yeah, just sad really. I mean, I know I can’t keep them all with me forever but I’ve just come to rely on her so much. She’s my most experienced DC.’

  ‘Why Cardiff?’

  Kay shrugged. ‘It’s a damn sight cheaper than here to live. And I think it’s simply the case of that’s where the job is. The DS role, I mean. It’s not like she’d have to stay there forever if she didn’t want to, although I think she might have friends in that part of Wales, so…’

  ‘This might’ve always been on the cards for her.’ Adam folded up the towel and placed it on the worktop beside him. ‘When will she have to start?’

  ‘Four weeks’ time, if she gets the job––’

  ‘Which she will, because it’s Carys we’re talking about.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘You’ve still got Gavin, and there’s that new probationary DC in the team now.’

  ‘Laura? Yes, I think she’s got a lot of promise. A bit less ambitious than Carys, perhaps.’

  ‘That’s not a bad thing.’

  ‘Maybe, although I’m going to miss the dynamic.’

  ‘Do the others know?’

  ‘I’ve brought Barnes up to date, just so he’s prepared for the extra workload. I can’t imagine we’re going to get the funding to recruit a fully trained DC to take her place – we’ll have to wait for the next intake from uniform or the fast-track programme.’

  ‘But Gavin doesn’t know yet?’

  ‘No. I figured it’s probably best to wait until we have confirmation she’s actually going before worrying him about it.’

  ‘It’ll do his confidence good, I’m sure.’

  ‘You’re probably right.’

  He reached out and squeezed her hand as the doorbell rang. ‘I am. Do you want to get the plates ready? That’ll be the Indian takeaway.’

  Kay slid off her stool and pulled plates from the cupboard above the cutting board, set cutlery beside them on the worktop and had uncapped two cold bottles of beer by the time Adam appeared with a carrier bag of food.

  ‘God, that smells good,’ she said, and laughed as the four fox cubs raised their noses in the air. ‘And you’re not having any of it, you lot.’

  ‘I’ll shut the door so they don’t wander out while we’re eating,’ said Adam, fastening a loop of wire around the bars.

  Moments later, they were eating in companionable silence, a foil container of rice between them and another with a mixture of l
eftovers they picked at after the main meal.

  Kay took a swig of beer and gestured to the foxes. ‘They’re looking better already. Not quite as rough around the edges like they were when they first got here this morning.’

  ‘Amy’s going to be popping by early next week if they keep improving. At this rate, they can deal with them better at the rescue centre once they’re out of immediate danger.’

  ‘What will happen to them when they’re released?’

  Adam spooned another scoop of rice onto his plate and smushed it into the juices from his curry sauce before responding.

  ‘The rescue centre has a list of friendly farmers,’ he said. ‘Ones who don’t allow hunting on their land, and who don’t have livestock to worry about. These four will probably end up somewhere near the Ringlestone – it’s close to where they were found, and not on top of previous releases. There’ll be plenty of land for them to split up and roam about on for a few years.’

  ‘I don’t know how Amy does it,’ said Kay. ‘I’d find it so hard to let them go, not knowing what will happen to them.’

  ‘It’d be crueller to keep them.’ Adam smiled. ‘Besides, she’s only got so much room at the centre, and there are always other animals needing to be cared for. We should invite Carys around here before they go back if she has time. She’d never forgive you if she didn’t get to hold one.’

  Kay tipped her beer bottle against his. ‘Sounds like a good plan, Mr Turner.’

  He winked and pointed his fork at the rest of the food. ‘If you’re going to have more, take it – otherwise I’m finishing that off.’

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Barnes pulled his wellington boots from the back of the car and let out a huff of air as he perched on the passenger seat to put them on.

  Beside him, Carys teetered on one foot while she tried to put the other into a boot, cursing under her breath.

  ‘You’d better get used to this, Miles. Where you’re going, it’s sheep farming everywhere.’