Death on Account (The Lakeland Murders) (13 page)

‘I will, and I meant to tell you, he’s already solved the mystery of the fingerprints on the glass at Williams’ place. They belong to his cleaner’s daughter. Likes to help herself to a tipple while her mum’s doing the cleaning apparently.’

‘And doesn’t even bother washing her glass afterwards. Some people, eh Andy? Some people.’

Hall could think of worst behaviour, but he nodded agreement anyway. He wondered briefly when Robinson had last actually spoken to a real offender.

Thursday, 2nd May

Andy Hall treated himself to a lie-in until seven. He’d got used to sleeping alone, and the bad dreams were less frequent now. He lay listening to the radiator ticking in to warmth, and reminded himself to turn the central heating off. The kids would open all the windows before they’d turn the thermostat down.

He showered, put on his best suit, and packed an overnight bag. They were a trendy lot down in Merseyside, by Hall’s standards at least, so he packed the newest clothes he had. But that wasn’t saying much. As he packed he realised that he hadn’t bought anything since long before Carol had left, and wondered if Gill might be willing to help him choose some new clothes. Or would she think it was an imposition? He couldn’t decide.

He chatted with the kids over breakfast, and asked Alice, the older one, to do their online food shop that evening if she had a chance. There’d be lots of ice cream in the freezer and biscuits in the cupboard in a day or two’s time, but Hall could live with that. Thanks to a few new recipes he felt he was doing his bit in terms of home cooking, and the girls deserved the odd treat. He was still keeping a close eye on them both, always looking for signs of unhappiness. So far he’d spotted nothing, which he was far from certain was a good thing.

Ray Dixon made a point of looking at his watch as Hall walked in to the office.

‘All right, Ray, point taken. Just give me ten minutes. And tell you what: I’ll make the tea this morning. It can be my penance for being late.’

Jane was at her desk, and Hall spotted the overnight bag next to it. She looked different somehow, in a good way too, but Hall knew better than to pass comment. He couldn’t even quite put his finger on what it was, anyway.

‘So where are you up to, Ray?’ asked Hall, when they were settled at his meeting table. ‘As you know I’m down in Liverpool for the next day or so, which means that you’ll need to keep on top of the Williams case at this end.’

‘You saw my email about the glass?’

‘I did. Nice work, Ray. How did you find out though? I assume the kid wasn’t on our system.’

‘No, she wasn’t. I saw that one of the uniforms had talked to the cleaner, and it struck me that she might have had a little tipple from her employer’s Scotch. Well, it has been known. So I called her and she said that vodka is her tipple, but that her eighteen year old daughter sometimes goes along to help clean, or at least to sample the full range of spirits on offer. And from there it was easy.’

‘How about our file on Williams? Anything of interest on that?’

‘I’ve eliminated all the prints except one, a partial that they found on the front cover, and another inside.’

‘Which page?’

‘The one with his cover details on. Name, address, everything that matters.’

‘And this print’s not on the database? So it’s not anyone in the station then?’

‘No one who’s had their prints taken, no. But that’s not the same thing as no-one in the station. Our civilian staff aren’t fingerprinted, I checked.’

‘OK, let’s park that for now then. And have you done a search of all the emails sent and received in the station?’

‘Yes, and nothing’s turned up. Everyone who knew was very careful, and followed the procedures to the letter. Trevor Royal’s name turned up once or twice, but in perfectly sensible contexts. I can give you print-outs of the emails if you like, but I don’t think you’ll be concerned by any of them at all.’

‘That’s something, anyway. Maybe Williams was just spotted in Kendal, maybe tailed back to Burneside Road, and then the word went out for Sanchez afterwards.’

‘Mebbe, boss, because there are certainly no signs that he gave it away himself.’

‘How sure of that are you?’

‘Can’t be certain, but talking to a couple of neighbours he was pretty much a recluse, especially recently, and Jane says that nothing came up in his email or phone records that suggested he’d been anything other than super-careful.’

‘Makes sense’ said Hall, after a moment. ‘If I was the key witness in a trial involving one of the Caffertys I’d keep my head down too.’

‘Aye, boss, but if we agree that Williams wasn’t the source then it’s still possible that the information came from here.’

‘Or anywhere else in the criminal justice system, plus the other arms of the state that would have been involved. Did anyone in any other agency locally know who he was? Social services, that sort of thing?’

‘Don’t know, boss, you want me to check? I didn’t know how official this was, how many waves I could make.’

‘Yes, it’s all right, I’ve cleared it with the Super. But don’t get your hopes up. That print’s probably nothing, like your cleaner’s daughter. Someone completely innocent might just have handled the file.’

‘Maybe, boss, but it’s supposed to be under lock and key at all times, and the Super’s pet dragon assures me that the safe is always locked.’

‘She would say that though, wouldn’t she? But short of printing everyone in the station, including all the civilians, I don’t see how we can progress that line, do you?’

Dixon shook his head. ‘I did have one other idea, boss, but I doubt you’d like it.’

‘Out with it, Ray. But if it involves that new WPC you can forget it.’

‘She’s a cracker though, isn’t she, boss? I know I can’t say anything these days, but what I’m thinking would break every rule in the book.’

Hall smiled. ‘They can’t touch you for it, Ray, but fortunately for young Asmita you can’t touch her either.’

‘So they tell me. But here it is, boss. Let’s say that Williams was spotted, some time between when he moved up here last year and the time he was killed. But what if friend Cafferty couldn’t find out where he was living? He just knew it was round here somewhere.’

‘That’s a lot of assumptions, but with you so far.’

‘Well put yourself in Cafferty’s position, boss. You need to find out where he is, so you can call in Sanchez or some other attack dog to do the business for you. So maybe what you do is get someone into here somehow, because you know that we must have a file on him somewhere.’

‘So you’re saying we should look for a new joiner over the last few months?’ Hall thought about what Dixon had said. ‘It’s a nice idea, Ray, but it’s no more likely than a thousand other scenarios really, is it? And I assume you’re talking about those Specials, the new intake?’

‘Aye, boss, I was. What with the cuts I can’t think of anyone else new we’ve had.’

‘So are you saying you want to pull their files?’

‘Yes, if you don’t mind.’

‘Why should I mind? Bloody hell, Ray, Gill isn’t some kind of Mata Hari you know. So yes, it’s fine. I’ll email personnel before I go, and ask for the files on any other new starters as well. It would be worth looking at the cleaners especially. If I wanted to infiltrate a place like this they’d be my first port of call. They’re here at all hours, and if the Super did leave anything lying around, well...’

‘Will do, boss.’

But Dixon didn’t look as if he had any desire to get up and get on with it. Normally this wouldn’t have surprised Hall, but today it did. Because Dixon made no secret of the fact that he thought that Ian Mann had saved his life when it all went so wrong that night up at the Abbey, and it was obvious that he regarded exonerating Mann as some kind of payback. And that was just fine with Hall. So he waited for Dixon to go on. There had to be something on his mind.

‘It’s a bit awkward, boss, but I wanted to ask you something. You know I haven’t got long to go ‘til retirement.’

Hall couldn’t help but laugh. Most people in the station would know, within a month or two at most, when Ray was due to go. He’d talked of little else for ten years at least.

‘Yes, Ray, I did know that.’

‘I wondered what the chances were of me staying on?’

It wasn’t often that Ian Hall was genuinely surprised. It was why he rarely laughed at colleagues’ jokes. It wasn’t that they weren’t funny, or that he’d heard them before, it was just that he’d usually worked out the punchline before it was delivered. But this one he hadn’t seen coming at all.

‘Are you pulling my chain here, Ray?’

‘No, boss. I’m serious, honest. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I know the pension is index linked, but lately inflation seems to be really galloping again. It reminds me of when I started in the job. And I’m starting to think I’d miss it a bit as well. You know, things like this.’

‘So you want me to see if you can carry on as a DC?’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Well I’ll ask of course, but don’t get your hopes up, Ray. With all these cuts, and the fact that we’ve got loads of bright PCs wanting to get a taste of CID, well, it doesn’t look great for anyone wanting to stay on. I think they’re pretty much saying that you have to go when you’ve done your thirty.’

‘Unless you’re a Superintendent.’

‘Yes, but they breathe different air, don’t they, Ray? Put it this way, in my experience the people who decide who gets to stay tend to be the people who end up staying. I bet it’s the same in every walk of life.’

‘But you’ll try, boss?’

‘Of course I will, Ray. You’re the most instinctively talented detective I’ve ever served with, and that’s a fact.’

‘And the most handsome.’

‘That goes without saying. Now get out, before I suggest a Civil Partnership.’

Jane Francis didn’t stop laughing until Lancaster. Hall liked that.

‘I can’t believe Ray wants to stay on. He more or less has a wall chart up, and he crosses off the days ‘til he’s done his thirty.’

‘Well, he’s changed his tune all right. He says he’s worried about money, and all those holidays they go on don’t pay for themselves. I must say, with my change of circumstances, I’ve been thinking much the same.’ As he said it he wondered if Jane would stray into personal territory. He was pleased that she did.

‘You might try and stay on as well, Andy?’

‘I might even try to get a promotion in the next year or two. With Carol going I’ll have to sell the house and down-size when the kids are gone, so she gets her share. And she’ll get a big lump of my pension too. So a DCI’s pension would help a bit.’

‘It doesn’t seem fair, does it?’

‘You mean that Carol gets half? I know people complain, but actually that’s fine with me. The only thing that pisses me off a bit is that she didn’t wait until I’d finished earning before she looked elsewhere, to see what I’d be like without all the stress.’

‘You really think you’ll be different when you’re retired?’

‘Absolutely. And I read somewhere that when you’re in your forties the bit of the brain that makes you stressed and driven to achieve starts to wither away. It’s why old people often seem so contented, apparently.’

‘Well it hasn’t worked with my mum.’

‘Sorry to hear that. What’s the problem?’ Hall was glad to change the subject.

‘Nothing new really. But since my sister and her husband and the kids moved up to Scotland she’s a bit more needy. I think she has visions of me taking her in sometime soon.’

‘And will you?’

‘Not unless she really needs me, and I reckon that’s years away. She’s only seventy, though she makes out that she’s about ninety sometimes. I want to have a bit of a life of my own first.’

Hall drove in silence for a while. They both thought about what Jane’s future life might involve, and neither liked it all that much.

‘So how about you, Andy? What does your future hold?’

‘I foresee lot of Scouse jokes about country coppers and sheep in my immediate future. Last time when I turned up that cheeky bastard Tony Sheridan asked me if I’d found somewhere to park my tractor.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I said I parked it up next to the cop car that someone had left on piles of bricks.’

Jane laughed again. ‘So is Gill McGrath in your future plans?’

‘Give me a chance. I only just met the woman.’

‘She seems nice. Clever too.’

‘Yes. I can’t imagine what she sees in me.’

Jane knew Hall well enough to know that he meant it.

‘Nor can I, Andy. Nor can I.’

They spent the rest of the drive chatting and laughing, and it wasn’t until they were a couple of miles from Sheridan’s station that Hall started to talk about the case.

‘We’ve got a few Brownie points in the bank because we helped them to find the phone and then to identify Sanchez’ said Hall.