Mortal Men (The Lakeland Murders Book 7) (4 page)

‘How about transfer to a vehicle?’

Sandy thought about it.

‘Possible, I’d say, but not certain. I wouldn’t bet your pension on it, like.’

‘All right, thanks. Any point as hanging about? What’s Tonto up to?’

‘The usual. Wandering about talking to the trees or something. I worry about that boy, sometimes.’

‘We all do, Sandy.’

Both women smiled.

‘I’d get back to the office if I were you, Jane. And maybe leave the photos ’til the morning, the bad ones anyway. Tell you what, I’ll get Simon the snapper to put them in a separate folder, shall I? So you’ll know which ones were taken more for me and the doc than for you.’

‘Good idea, thanks’ said Mann quickly.

The incident room was set up by the time Jane reached the office, and the Divisional Superintendent was hanging around like a bad smell in a broom cupboard. He was just as hard to ignore.

‘Have you got everything that you need, Jane?’ he asked, and she made a quick mental translation to help her to understand what he actually meant. ‘Have I given you the bare minimum of resources, but just enough to ensure that if this all goes tits up it’ll be you, the SIO, who carries the can?’

‘Yes, sir. I’m sure we can manage. I’ll be in touch if I need anything else.’

‘You do that. So what’s your plan?’

‘The usual, sir. As Andy Hall always says, this is no job for a clairvoyant. And that’s especially true of this one, because we’ve got precious little to go on at present. No witnesses or obvious forensics at the scene, so we’ll concentrate on the victim for the next few hours.’

‘Known to us, I believe?’

‘Yes, sir. Ian Mann nicked him a couple of times. But he was surprised that Foster would have been into anything heavy enough to get him killed. He was very much a non-league player, by all accounts.’

‘Perhaps he’s been going up in the world.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Jane tried to look as if the thought had never occurred to her, and it seemed to work. Perhaps a little too well.

‘Or perhaps his death is unconnected to his criminal activities.’

This time Jane just nodded. There was no point in encouraging him. The new Super had come from personnel at HQ, and Jane was starting to wonder if he’d ever been anywhere else.

‘Anyway, I’ll leave you to it, Jane. My door is always open if there’s anything you want to bounce off me. Run it up the flagpole, and all that.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind, sir.’

Half an hour later the team was briefed, and the room was humming. Jane stood for a moment and listened. The pitch of the sound was just right, urgent but not frantic. Then she and Mann settled down to work in her office.

‘I told Keith to go home’ he said, ‘because I didn’t think he’d be much use to us tonight. Are you OK, Jane?’

‘Of course I am. I’ve seen worse, or nearly as bad. I don’t know what came over me. But let’s say no more about it. I’ll be reminded of it for the rest of my service, I know that, but let’s not start the piss-taking yet.’

‘Understood. So what do you make of our victim?’

‘Based on his recent record? Calling him small fry would be a bit unfair to the other small fry. He’s just an entry-level fence moving on bits and pieces from bottom-feeding burglars, muggers and shoplifters. A dying breed, really, since most of them cut out the middleman and just shift their swag online these days. Except for that one little item on his CV, of course.’

‘The fact that he informed on the firm that got done for that attempted armed robbery in 2000? Aye, I saw that too. And you saw who the SIO was?’

‘A fresh-faced young DI by the name of Andy Hall. Yes, I saw.’

‘Youngish, maybe. Shall we talk to him about it?’ Mann was watching Jane’s face carefully for a reaction. She hadn’t managed to achieve Hall’s level of zen-like impassivity, but she was obviously working on it. ‘Just for the background on that previous case’ he added by way of a precautionary measure. ‘Just in case, like.’

But Jane was already dialling.

‘Are you all right, love?’ said Hall. ‘I heard you had a bit of a funny turn. Is it….’

‘I’m with Ian, on speaker-phone’ Jane said quickly. ‘We wanted to ask you about Frankie Foster, and that attempted bank raid. I’ve requested the paper files from storage, but they won’t be here ’til the morning.’

‘OK, sure. I’ve just had a quick look at the stuff that did get archived electronically, just to refresh my memory.’

‘Not busy then, mate?’ said Mann, and Hall laughed.

‘Not with anything that actually matters, no. I’ve got a very nasty feeling that the report I’m working on is going to get quietly buried by the ACC.’

‘What’s he like? Better than Val, I hope? Gone, but not bloody forgotten, she is.’

‘She was all right really. At least she was consistent. You knew where you stood, anyhow. But this one seems out of his depth, always either brown-nosing the Chief or taking it out on the junior staff. Anyway, that’s not what you want to talk about, is it?’

‘No’ said Jane, quickly. Hall had been saying much the same at home for weeks, complaining about his lot in general and the ACC’s behaviour in particular, and it hadn’t been all that interesting, or surprising, the first time around. She’d started to feel slightly guilty about encouraging Andy to take the promotion, although she still thought that it had been the right decision, all things considered.

‘So Foster grassed up his mates after this abortive bank blag in Kendal, is that right?’ she said.

‘Yes, that’s right. There were four of them in the van, and the other three all got longish stretches. And that was mainly because one of them opened up with a bloody Kalashnikov on the place. Totally unnecessary, it was. A complete waste of time. The doors would never have opened, and in any case the money had already gone. It was like a kid throwing a tantrum. Really bloody stupid all round.’

‘How come the bank was closed? It was at lunchtime, wasn’t it?’

‘It was just a sub-branch, near the old auction mart. It’s long gone now of course, but they used to just open it up on livestock auction days. The farmers all wanted to get cash before the sale, and to pay it back in afterwards. One of the biggest auctions of the year it was that day, and apparently they were queuing up outside to bank their cash afterwards. So our boys were well informed, although we never found any evidence of an inside man at the bank.’

‘Or woman’ said Jane.

‘Sorry’ said Hall, ‘I’ll send myself on a gender equality refresher course immediately. We’re bound to have at least one. Anyway, our boys turned up late at the bank for some reason. One of them was still adjusting his stockinged mask or something, I expect. We never got to the bottom of that, either, as it happens. And none of the three lads who we nicked for the job would say who’d fired the weapon, and friend Frankie said he wasn’t sure. So they all did time for it. I tried to explain that there was no downside in them telling me which one it was, but the other three behaved like proper old school villians. Which was odd, considering they were all really just normal working blokes, who let a beer-fuelled fantasy become reality. Christ knows why, really. Anyway, it was because of Frankie that the other three got put away.’

‘His testimony got them convicted? You’re sure?’

‘Absolutely. No doubt about it. I don’t think we’d ever have charged them if Frankie hadn’t grassed.’

‘Why did he, then?’ asked Jane.

‘He was a bit unlucky, or more likely he lost his nerve. He got stopped at a road block about an hour after the blag, came off wrong to the copper, and as soon as I got him into the interview room I knew he was in on it. So I made him an offer, just the usual, and he nearly took my bloody hand off for it. Bottled it totally, he did.’

‘Just like that? Wasn’t he worried that the others would take exception? That’s usually what keeps cons quiet, especially if they’re obvious weaklings like Frankie.’

‘I agree, but the other members of the team weren’t exactly your usual violent bastards, were they? Not by a long way.’

‘Do you know what’s happened to the others since? Where they are now?’

‘One of them, Matthew Somes, he died in prison, I do know that. Suicide, sadly. The others, I’ve no idea. I hadn’t thought about that case in years, to tell you the truth. Yes, it was an almighty cock-up from start to finish, but apart from one of them shooting the place up it wasn’t very different from plenty of other half-arsed schemes cooked up by the local cons. As I always say, we only catch the stupid ones.’

‘Yes, Andy’ said Jane, ‘you do always say that.’ She paused, and Hall didn’t say anything. ‘So a clear motive for murder then, for one of the two survivors?’

‘Too right. Both Winder and Tyson spent the better part of a decade inside, and they’d have known bloody well that it was all down to Foster. The transcript of the case is in the archive somewhere, and I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I do remember that Frankie gave evidence in open court.’

‘Thanks, Andy,’ said Jane. ‘I’ll get the files picked up now.’

‘Of course there is one other thing’ said Hall, before Jane could say goodbye.

‘What is it, Columbo?’

‘Why so long after the event? If it was Winder or Tyson, I mean. The dust hasn’t just settled, it’s been consumed by micro-organisms and turned into topsoil. Daisies will be growing on it by now.’

‘Revenge is a dish best served cold?’ suggested Jane.

‘That’s not a piece of advice that many of our customers actually take though, is it? Generally speaking revenge is violent, instant and bloody obvious.’

‘But not always’ said Jane, firmly.

‘No, agreed. It’s just odd though, that’s all. I better let you both go, and this has nothing to do with me, so feel free to ignore whatever bollocks I talk.’ Hall hesitated, and neither Jane nor Mann felt inclined to contradict him. ‘But I do think it’s interesting that the killer attacked in broad daylight like that.’

‘The victim was a creature of habit, boss’ said Mann. ‘We’ve already established that with the neighbours. Foster came home for lunch pretty much every day, and he was always alone.’

‘OK, thanks. That explains it, I suppose. Anyone could have known that, I imagine. But a couple of thoughts do occur. And, like I say, feel free to ignore them. Our killer has to be a pretty calm individual, so don’t expect him to ‘fess up at the first opportunity.’

‘Anything else?’ said Jane.

‘Only this. There’s a strong possibility that Foster knew his killer, isn’t there? No sign of forced entry, anyway. So maybe the killer is someone who’s often seen around the Troutbeck area.’

‘Someone local, you mean?’

‘Yes, or someone who has good reason to be knocking about in that area in the middle of the day, and who has reason to be carrying a shotgun too, maybe.’

‘A farmer, you mean?’ said Mann.

‘It’s a possibility, isn’t it?’ said Hall.

‘Thanks, Andy’ said Jane, ‘but we’d better get these two characters, Tyson and Winder, picked up pronto. If either of them’s a farmer then I’ll let you know.’

‘Oh, but they both are. Or at least they were, back in the day. Farm workers, anyway. And they all came from Troutbeck, the whole crew. Known each other since Sunday School days, apparently. Didn’t I mention that?’

It was seven o’clock before the Search Warrants had been executed, and both John Tyson and John Winder were being processed by the forensic team before their interviews under caution. Ian and Jane drank coffee and ate biscuits.

‘These are giving me indigestion’ said Mann, pushing the packet away.

‘Stop eating them, then.’

‘I’ll bring in plenty of extra grub tomorrow, don’t you worry. You know what these jobs are like; you work all hours, eat nothing but crap, and after a week you’ve got a permanent headache and a rash.’

‘Speak for yourself. I wonder how long Sandy will be, before we can interview them?’

‘Not long. They’ll have bagged their clothes, and they’ll have been swabbed for gunshot residue and DNA by now. I bet it wasn’t like that last time they were nicked.’

‘The Custody Sergeant sat on a high stool, and wrote with a quill pen? Christ, Ian, it’s not even fifteen years ago. Things haven’t changed that much since then.’

‘Maybe not, but a lot can happen in that time, can’t it? Look at Winder and Tyson. Judging from what Andy said, and from what I could see in the file, they were both farm workers, living in tied cottages, when they got nicked. But look at them now. One of them is in the same house, doing the same job and wearing the same clothes by the looks of him, while the other has the Lakeland farmhouse, a few hundred acres and all the views you could eat. That’s quite an achievement, under the circumstances. He’s done bloody well for himself, has Winder.’

‘It doesn’t mean that John Winder isn’t our killer though, does it? But I agree that John Tyson looks favourite, especially because of the shotgun.’

‘Agreed, but it was reported stolen from his employer’s gun cabinet nearly two years ago, Jane. And like Andy says, most cons don’t wait. A thought pops into their head, and that’s what they do. No hesitation, no consideration, just impulse and execution. Pardon the pun, like.’

‘Andy says a lot of things’ said Jane. ‘But has the gun been positively ID’d?’

‘Yes. I got a call about ten minutes ago. Sorry, forgot to mention it. It must be the biscuits, like. The bloke that Tyson works for identified it from photos. One of three that was stolen in fact, but he remembered that one particularly.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it had belonged to his dad. So he was especially pissed off when it was nicked.’

‘He’s absolutely sure?’

‘Aye, pretty certain. I know that it doesn’t have a serial number, but he knew it straight away. He said it was the only decent gun of the three, if that means anything.’

They knew that Sandy was coming long before the door flew open, because her tread was fast and heavy.

‘Right then’ she said, sitting down and making a grab for the biscuits. ‘I expect you’ll want the thirty second summary before you talk to those two cowboys?’