Blood and Stone (25 page)

‘Hey!' Knox yelled, taking off after him. Outside he saw the figure in jeans and a hooded top running off in the direction of the city. Knox gave chase, but his fitness levels weren't what they once were and his breathing was congested by his cold, and after about fifty yards it became clear that the fugitive was younger and fitter, and that the gap between them was rapidly widening. Heaving for breath Knox stopped and took out his phone. First of all he called the ops centre and had a car dispatched to the next main road junction with the canal, along with a description of the man, though he knew it was a long shot. Then he called Millie. ‘See if you can swing it to get a couple of SOCOs down to the boss's place,' he gasped. ‘I've just disturbed an intruder. I think he's been here before so it would be good to find out who he is. The place has been given a good going over.' He then gave Millie as detailed a description as he could, to add to any trace evidence that might turn up.

‘While you're on,' she said. ‘I made some enquiries about the Welsh copper, Griffith. He's ex-SAS so started out in Hereford. Has had a couple of commendations, but nothing else is flagged.'

‘Okay, thanks, Millie. You know this idea you've got about Glenn McGinley?'

‘Yes.' She sounded suspicious, as if he was going to tear her off a strip again.

‘Keep on it, will you?'

‘Okay.'

Returning to the cottage, Knox found that in addition to the highly visible damage, the kitchen worktop was now also littered with the essential paraphernalia of the habitual heroin user. The guy he'd disturbed could simply be an opportunist, who had found the door off its hinges and decided to use the place as his personal drugs den, but Knox didn't think so. Either way he was going to miss his equipment, and with luck he would have left behind a few decent latent prints that could be matched with a set already on the national database. Leaving all that for the SOCOs to find when they arrived, Knox went upstairs and grabbed a few of Mariner's clothes, before rigging the front door as securely as he could, and setting off for mid-Wales.

I
t was early afternoon when Griffith finally appeared along with Superintendent Bullman, the latter's jaw already working the nicotine gum. Bullman presented a freshly laundered contrast to his subordinate and was as immaculately turned out as the first time they'd met. The strain on Griffith was beginning to tell in ways that Mariner recognized only too well. His tie had slipped down another few notches and his shirt collar was slightly grimy. Mariner couldn't be certain if the slight unwashed smell in the interview room was coming from Griffith or him.

Understandably, and perhaps for the benefit of Bullman, Griffith wasn't quite as friendly towards Mariner as on their last encounter, and Mariner wondered if he now regretted sharing as much as he had on the Ashton case. It felt very odd for Mariner to be on this side of the questioning, even though this wasn't the first time. A couple of years back he had found himself, with the help of a third party, deliberately implicated in a serious crime. On that occasion he'd been rapidly exonerated. He hoped that the pattern would hold.

Mariner had declined the option of a solicitor or a Federation Rep. Although it was obvious how the events of the previous night might be construed, he had nothing to hide and, rightly or wrongly, he was depending on Griffith's intelligence to understand that. But having set the scene for the benefit of the recording equipment, it was Bullman who took the lead in questioning. ‘Perhaps you could start by telling us what happened last night, sir,' he began. He wasn't being overly polite; the ‘sir' was a necessary means of putting some distance between them.

‘I don't exactly know,' Mariner said, truthfully. ‘I met Jeremy Bryce the evening before last on my way back to the hostel. It was after dark and he was in a bad way, but because the pub was crowded he was planning to walk on several more miles before sheltering for the night. I didn't think it was a good idea, so I took him back with me to the hostel. Fortunately Elena Hughes agreed that he could stay there. Last night was the second night he stayed. He and I went down to the Hart for something to eat, then Bryce returned to the hostel and I followed him across a little later.'

‘Why the delay?'

‘I went to check on El— Mrs Hughes, to make sure that she was all right.'Mariner sensed Griffith's eyes on him.

‘Did you have reason to think things might not be OK?'Bullman asked.

‘Not specifically, no, but after what had happened to Theo Ashton … Anyway, when I went over to the hostel Jeremy Bryce was already asleep in his bunk and was snoring loudly. He had a nasty cold. Believe me, as I'd learned the night before, he could snore. So I picked up my bedding and went up to the attic room to sleep up there. I'd done this on the previous night too. I slept for a while, but in the early hours I woke up again because it had got very cold, so I came back to the dormitory. Bryce had quietened down by then.'

‘He'd stopped snoring.'

‘So I thought.'

‘And what time was this?

‘I can't say for sure, but it was still completely dark, so could have been anything between about one and four a.m.'

‘That's a pretty big window,' Bullman observed. ‘You can't be more specific?'

‘There was a car,' said Mariner, remembering all at once.

‘A car?'

‘Outside one of the tied cottages, picking someone up. That's what woke me; either the door slamming, or the voices, or it might have sounded its horn. I looked out and saw someone from the cottage get in, and then it drove off.'

‘Can you describe this car?'

‘It was a saloon, quite big, maybe the size of a Passat or something and light coloured; silver or grey. It's not much but it would pinpoint what time I was in the attic. I could have only seen it from the attic window. The view from the dormitory is blocked by a tree.'

‘And then you went down to the dormitory,' said Bullman. ‘Did you notice anything out of the ordinary at that point?'

‘Only that Bryce was no longer snoring. I fell asleep again. I was woken some time later – just as it was getting light – by his blood dripping on me, although I didn't realize straight away what it was.'

Bullman turned to Griffith, who placed one of the brown evidence bags on the table, the cellophane window displaying a brown and white garment: Mariner's bloodstained T-shirt. ‘Do you recognize this?' he asked.

‘Yes, it's my T-shirt,' Mariner said. ‘And it has Jeremy Bryce's blood on it. As I said, it had dripped on me during the night and I was wearing it when I found him.'

‘What did you do, when you saw what had happened?' asked Bullman.

‘I threw up,' said Mariner. ‘Then I went to tell Elena – Mrs Hughes.'

‘You went to her house?'

‘I didn't have to. She'd come over to the hostel to bring us tea. She called up the stairs. I didn't want her to see what had happened, so I ran down to stop her.'

‘And if Elena hadn't come across, what would you have done then?'

‘I would have gone to her house.'

‘Are you sure about that, sir?'

‘Yes, of course I am. What else would I have done?' Realization dawned. ‘You think I was going to run away, in my boxer shorts and boots?

‘The crime scene officers reported that most of your things were packed away. Are you usually so tidy?'

‘As a matter of fact I am,' Mariner said, calmly. ‘You can ask my sergeant. What could possibly be my motive for killing Jeremy Bryce?'

‘Until we've established exactly who he is and where he's come from, that's impossible to say.'

Mariner was surprised. ‘There were no personal details in his wallet?'

‘There was no wallet,' Griffith interjected with a frown.

‘Then it's been taken,' Mariner said. ‘He definitely had a wallet. I saw it on Sunday night when he unpacked some of his stuff and when he paid for our food at the pub. It's black leather, and it has some photographs in it.'

Griffith made a note on his pad. Bullman turned to Mariner. ‘If you didn't kill Jeremy Bryce, then how can you explain it?'

‘Not very well,' Mariner admitted. ‘Someone must have got into the hostel during the night.' He was stating what was obvious but it was important that it was all recorded.

‘There's no indication of a forced entry,' Bullman pointed out.

‘There wouldn't need to be,' said Mariner. ‘The hostel door sticks so I was advised not to lock it. Anyone could have got in, killed Jeremy Bryce and then left again.'

‘Without disturbing you?'

‘I told you, I slept half the night upstairs in the attic room. And cutting a man's throat doesn't have to be noisy.'

‘I think we'll let the pathologist decide that,' said Bullman. ‘When you went up to the attic room, would there have been any indication to anyone outside that you were there?'

‘I didn't switch on a light, if that's what you mean. I'm not even sure that there is one. I did check my phone for messages when I first went up there though. There may have been a residual glow from my phone when I did that, but I don't know if that would be visible from outside the hostel.'

‘We might have to try it out.' Bullman glanced at Griffith. ‘And you were up in the attic until the early hours, when this car picked someone up from along the street.'

‘That's right,' said Mariner. ‘It would make sense that Bryce was killed while I was out of the dorm.'

‘What makes you say that?'

‘He was going like a chainsaw when I left the room; he wasn't snoring when I came back. I remember feeling relieved. I didn't do it,' said Mariner, regarding Bullman levelly. ‘Though I understand that for the moment I have to be your prime suspect.'

‘That's very good of you,' Bullman replied evenly, but there was an edge of sarcasm to his voice. ‘And Jeremy Bryce just “turned up” in Caranwy on Sunday evening.'

‘Yes, I spotted him up ahead of me as I was walking back to the hostel. I called out to him.'

‘Why?'

‘We'd met before. While I was driving out here I gave him a lift along the road to Tregaron.'

Bullman raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘So you'd arranged to meet in Caranwy?'

‘No, it was a coincidence, though perhaps not so strange. We were both walking the Black Mountain Way. I stayed in Caranwy longer than anticipated, so I suppose it was inevitable that Bryce would catch me up.'

‘Do you know where he'd been, immediately prior to you meeting him again?'

‘It's hard to say really. He wasn't the most skilled at map reading, so where he'd been before that is anyone's guess. The first time I picked him up was after he'd got lost, and that seemed to be a pattern. But he'd come over from the direction of Devil's Mouth yesterday. That would have been when he came across the byre. Did that turn up anything?'

‘What?'

‘The derelict byre that Bryce mentioned.' Mariner looked from one man to the other. ‘He said there were indications that someone had been sleeping rough there. I phoned it in on Sunday night.'

‘This is news to me,' Bullman said, turning to Griffith.

Taking his cue, the DI stood up. ‘Would you excuse me for a moment?'

Bullman notified the tape of Griffith's departure, and he was gone for about five minutes during which time Mariner guessed that someone was getting a bollocking.

Eventually Griffith returned and he and Bullman spent a few moments conferring in private.

‘This puts a slightly different complexion on things,' Bullman said, finally turning back to Mariner. ‘That byre is only in the next valley and within easy walking distance. Anyone hiding out there could possibly be our killer. We need to consider that whoever it is didn't like being disturbed and thought that Bryce might have seen something.'

‘Bryce could easily have been followed and killed to prevent him from giving anything away,' added Griffith.

‘But it was too late,' Mariner pointed out. ‘Bryce had already talked.' He took it as an encouraging sign that Bullman was prepared to explore ideas with him. The Superintendent would hardly be so open if he was still considering Mariner as a suspect.

‘Could Bryce have seen something on the day Theo Ashton was murdered?'

‘I don't see how,' Mariner said. ‘According to him, he'd only walked into the area on Sunday.'

Griffith paused a moment. ‘There is another explanation of course.'

‘Which is?'

‘You were very much in the area on the day that Theo Ashton was killed. Perhaps whoever killed him thinks that
you
saw something. It would also have been known that you were staying at the hostel.'

‘So he killed Bryce thinking he was me?' Mariner let that sink in.

‘Who else knows that you've been staying at the hostel?' Bullman asked.

‘Quite a few people,' said Mariner. ‘I've met Elena's partner, Rex, and I told Nigel Weller at the farm when I met him. Some of the staff up at Gwennol Hall will know too, of course. I've spoken to Suzy Yin, the historian who's working up there.'

‘Would any of these people know about Bryce?'

‘Probably not, given that he only showed up a couple of nights ago. Elena and Cerys know about him, of course, and we might have been seen together walking through the village or in the pub last night, but more people will be aware of me being around.' That someone may have mistaken Bryce for him would make some sense.

‘Were you aware of anyone taking an interest?' asked Griffith.

‘Not especially, but the police and the media presence mean there's a lot more activity in the village right now. There were certainly people about, and as we all know the press are curious about everything and anything.'