Road Closed (37 page)

Geraldine bit back the obvious retort. She wasn’t the one who had just suffered a coronary. Kathryn Gordon made no reference to Geraldine’s visit to the hospital.

Leslie Bennett bought a round. They were all pleased that Callum Martin would go down, but five people had died and another had been crippled in the course of the investigation.

‘So what’s going to happen to Barker?’ Polly wanted to know. ‘Martin’s arrested for the deaths of Evelyn Green, Thomas Cliff, Maggie Palmer and Brenda whatever her name is, and he’s responsible for Sophie Cliff’s suicide attempt too if you think about it. But it was the burglaries that started the whole thing off. Barker’s to blame too.’

‘That’s Bennett’s case,’ Kathryn Gordon replied. There was a momentary lull in the conversation. They all waited to hear what Bennett had to say.

‘We know Barker was in Deborah Mainwaring’s property –’ he began.

‘He admitted as much,’ Peterson said.

‘But as for the Cliff house,’ Bennett paused and took a swig of his pint. ‘Not a lot we can do without any evidence. We got a warrant to search their house, but there was no sign of the stolen goods, and we couldn’t find any glass cutters. We’ll keep on at Barker though.’

‘An ongoing investigation,’ Kathryn Gordon said and a low groan went round the gathered officers.

‘Exactly,’ Bennett agreed. ‘We know he was involved, along with Martin, but there’s no way of proving it. Martin’ll go down for murder, one way or another. There’s too much on him. He’ll be going down for a long time.’

‘Can’t be too long,’ Peterson interjected.

‘But we can’t touch Barker for now. We’ll keep watching him though. Sooner or later he’ll slip up. And when he does, we’ll be waiting.’ Bennett didn’t sound very dynamic.

‘But they were responsible for the whole thing,’ Polly insisted. ‘We can’t let them get away with it.’

‘Martin’s not getting away,’ Peterson said.

‘Has he made a statement?’ Kathryn Gordon asked.

‘He denies everything,’ the sergeant told her. ‘But he killed the woman, Brenda, and we’ve got him driving the stolen vehicle used to run over Maggie Palmer. That’s two murders, and assaulting a police officer.’

‘We don’t know Barker’s a murderer,’ Geraldine pointed out. ‘He was with Martin on the burglaries but, for all we know, as far as he’s concerned, it all went wrong and he never intended for anyone to get hurt. He certainly seems pretty clueless about what happened. And he hasn’t exactly got off scot free. He was assaulted and almost burned to death.’

‘He won’t be able to walk properly again,’ Bennett added. ‘And he’ll be disfigured for life.’

‘Lost his good looks,’ a constable said and a few people laughed.

‘At least we’ve got Martin,’ someone said.

Kathryn Gordon looked uneasy. ‘From what I’ve heard, Martin killed his girlfriend, Brenda, in a struggle. He can plead manslaughter. As for the other victim, Maggie Palmer, we can prove he drove the car that was used to kill her, but can we prove beyond all doubt he was driving it at the time of the accident?’ No one answered. The celebratory mood fell flat.

At that moment, James Ryder burst into the pub, beaming. ‘I’ve just heard from forensics. Sample tissue has been retrieved from under the finger nails on Cartwright’s right hand.’

‘The scratches on Callum Martin’s face,’ Geraldine said with sudden excitement.

‘We’ll have to wait for DNA confirmation,’ Ryder added, ‘but they’ve found a fragment of someone else’s hair under one of Cartwright’s nails. It matches Martin’s stubble.’

‘Do you think Cartwright did it deliberately?’ Geraldine asked. ‘Realising Martin was about to kill him, he dropped his glasses hoping they’d be found and lead us to him, and
scratched Martin’s face knowing it would incriminate Martin if we found the body.’

‘More likely he lost his glasses in the scuffle and hit out at Martin in a desperate attempt to defend himself. I like your theory, but it sounds a bit far fetched. He was an old man frightened for his life,’ Ryder replied. Someone handed him a pint.

‘He was a detective sergeant,’ Geraldine protested. Her voice was drowned out by cheering as the DCI held up his glass.

‘Whatever happened, we’ve nailed Martin for murder,’ he said. There was another cheer. ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better team. And, as you all know, partnership is what this job is all about.’

‘Yes,’ Geraldine agreed, ‘we’re a good team.’ No one was listening to her. She raised her glass and drank to the memory of a solitary old man sitting in the corner of a pub.

Also by the same author

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Copyright

First published in 2010 by No Exit Press,
An imprint of Oldcastle Books Ltd,
P O Box 394, Harpenden, AL5 1XJ 

www.noexit.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2010

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© Leigh Russell, 2010

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ISBN 978-1-84243-426-0