Unaware of anyone following me, legitimate or otherwise, I drove as briskly as I dared. Trust Dave to bunk off just when Mazza and I might need him. But I wasn’t going to waste time calling him, even with Bluetooth. I needed all my powers of concentration.
When I got back to the rectory, the whole area was pulsing with blue lights, as a couple of police people carriers (was that what they called them? Probably something more portentous) joined a couple of police cars stationary in the road rather than parked against the kerb. No doubt it was the drivers of those who were arguing with five or six teenage lads sitting on the rectory wall. They weren’t lounging threateningly, swigging from beer cans. They were remarkably upright and disciplined, like so many skittles, come to think of it. Throwing the car – neatly – on to the drive, I headed for the one in the middle – Mazza.
I reached him at the same time as a couple of what looked like combat troops. ‘Hi, Mazza! Sorry to keep you hanging around,’ I greeted him loudly. The occasion also called for a very public hug. Then I turned, a hand still on Mazza’s shoulder. ‘And good evening, officers. I’m Doctor Harcourt. I gather there’s some problem?’ How many times had I spoken to inadequately prepared junior managers like that? It was good to see the tone of voice still worked.
There was an exchange of glances. ‘You can see for yourself.’ The lead officer, my old friend Sergeant Masters, might have gestured with an accusing hand, but there was more bluster than conviction in his voice.
I looked, very ostentatiously. ‘I see one of my running partners, who helped set up the village website. I see a neat stack of empty coke tins. I see a number of Mazza’s mates sitting on the rectory wall. I don’t see alcohol. I can smell tobacco – stupid kids – but not pot. No needles. No other way to ingest drugs. So the problem is …?’
‘Unlawful assembly for a start.’
‘Really? Aren’t they just sitting waiting for me? Mazza helped put together the village website. Now he and I are trying to assemble a team for a community project linking the Women’s Institute and the village pub. I promised to brief them.’ I was out on a limb, here: who in their right mind would want to talk to a bunch of lads long past their bedtime – mine, not theirs? ‘I’d have been here very much earlier, but I was in a meeting with Detective Superintendent Don Simpson. You can confirm it if you like. I just applaud their patience.’
‘All the same, we had a call. They said the vicarage was under threat. And I can see why.’
‘Of course you can, and I can see why my neighbours might have been alarmed. Would you happen to know who made the complaint so I can go and apologize in person?’
‘I believe it was someone attached to the church,’ he said, ‘but you understand I can’t give away confidential information. Anyway, if they’re all your visitors, you’d better get them inside.’ His eyes gleamed: he’d thrown down the gauntlet. Never would I invite half a dozen ill-favoured youths into my home.
At this point Theo’s Focus arrived, parking alongside mine. ‘Hi, darling,’ I greeted him. ‘I told you I should have left earlier. Mazza and his mates have been waiting for me all this time.’
‘Best let them in,’ he declared, flourishing the front door key. ‘How are you doing, Mazza? Best bring that pile of empties with you and we can put them in the recycling bin.’ For a man who didn’t want a Big Adventure he was thinking on his feet remarkably well.
The officers looked nonplussed, as well they might, as the lads trickled in behind Theo.
‘You don’t need to caution them or anything, do you?’ I asked with a regrettably winsome smile. I flicked a discreet but meaningful glance at my watch.
‘What about them getting home?’
Somehow the question didn’t sound paternal, but I treated it as if it was. ‘The rector or I will run them back after our meeting.’
‘That’d be a very good notion, Doctor. Don’t want them nicking any bikes, do we?’ At that point he clearly decided that honours were even, and that he had other things to do than fill in a load of paperwork.
I had something to do before I tackled the mob of kids. Poking my head round the living room door, I caught Mazza’s eye. ‘A word?’ I mouthed.
It was clear from his face that he was expecting what I had to tell him as he joined me in the quiet of Theo’s study. ‘It’s Burble, ain’t it? Shit! Fucking shit!’ He hit the top of Theo’s desk again and again with his fists. ‘The bastards. I’ll kill the bastards …’
‘Better still,’ I said, grabbing his fists and turning them so I could hold them as hands, ‘we help the police bring the killers to justice. And I know that was what Burble would have wanted. Because he saved a vital piece of evidence. The camera’s memory card.’
‘What? Swallowed it? Bloody hell!’
In fact I’d gathered that that wasn’t the orifice he’d inserted it into, but there was no need to reveal that. ‘So you know this is being taken seriously at last, I can tell you I was bending the ear of a top cop when you called. An old mate of Dave’s. Things’ll happen now, Mazza. Now, are you up to joining your mates? What were you doing, anyway, all of you?’ I set us in motion, so Theo, who was wrestling with some sort of conversation with the other kids, would hear the explanation too.
You could almost hear how hard he had to swallow. ‘You know you got me to block up your letter box? And you said something about getting security cameras and stuff? Well, I reckoned you’d been let down – couldn’t see any cameras anywhere – so we thought we’d keep an eye on your house, like. And then that bastard with the snappy little ferret of a dog comes cruising past in his poncey car – and back again – and next thing the filth turn up and tell us to disperse.’ He looked for support to the others. He didn’t know that we’d be able to check it all on the recorder linked to the miniature CCTV cameras. ‘But they didn’t say it nicely, so we just sat. And then the rest of them turned up mob-handed and you arrived and that’s it.’
‘So you were protecting us?’ Theo asked quietly.
‘Best we could. No one’s going to try anything with a load of us there.’
‘I’m truly grateful,’ Theo said. ‘To all of you. I can’t tell you how much this means to me and Jodie. It’s been a bad day, what with one thing and another. Now, Jodie and I need to tell you something I guess Jodie’s already told Mazza. We’ve heard that the body that was found on the Downs is Burble’s. Jodie and I will always be here to talk to you, best of all to listen. I’m sure you and the rest of his mates will think of a fitting memorial to him.’
I wasn’t sure he’d got quite the right tone, but the lads nodded slowly. One put up a nicotine-stained finger, as if back in the classroom. ‘Burble didn’t go to church. Does that mean he’ll go to hell?’
‘If he was going he’ll have gone when he died; he won’t be hanging round for the post-mortem to decide who he is,’ retorted one of his mates.
There was a sharp intake of breath, then a barely suppressed titter. Perhaps the response helped Theo. I hoped so. I couldn’t have argued with the logic.
‘Burble had a tricky life, didn’t he?’ Theo asked gently. ‘I think he tried to do good when he could. God is loving and forgiving, you know.’
‘Like that magistrate who gave him community service and didn’t send him down,’ a third lad suggested.
That was meat and drink to Theo. ‘If an ordinary human being could be understanding and compassionate, don’t you think God could be too? I think God has taken him home at last. But I want to say a prayer. If you’d like to close your eyes and make it your prayer too, I’d like that, and I believe God would too …’
We got up early to check the CCTV. Everything appeared to have occurred just as Mazza said, except that several cars besides Ted Vesey’s had driven past: Mrs Mountford’s, Elaine’s, the silent Jackie Simmons’, for starters. Following the instructions, line by careful line, Theo saved the material, just in case. In case the security firm lost it? But I wouldn’t be sarcastic. Since Don Simpson wanted to see me, Theo offered to go and pick up Alison Cox and was just letting himself out of the back door to go to his car when someone battered the front door.
I opened it as far as the newly installed chain – another bit of Mazza’s handiwork – would allow. At first, all I could see was a totally ordinary Vauxhall at the end of the drive; then a man, who’d perhaps been inspecting our daffodil pots, stepped forwards.
‘Mrs Welsh? DC Pool. Superintendent Simpson’s compliments, and would you care to join him at HQ instead?’
‘Of course, I’ll just get my bag. You’ll excuse me if I just close the door? I can’t release the chain unless I do.’
Or not. Grabbing the bag, I seized Theo’s hand and dragged him out of the back door. ‘Get in the car as usual,’ I said, throwing myself in the rear foot well. ‘Just drive in your dog-collar way. Wave to the guy at the front door as if offering him a blessing. And once you’re out of his range, floor the accelerator. Just do it, Theo!’
He did. On my stomach, I dialled 999. It was hard to be clear and coherent, but I managed to convince the calm and efficient woman I was put through to that I was escaping an abduction attempt and needed to see Superintendent Simpson.
‘Just tell me what on earth you think you’re doing,’ Theo snapped the moment the call was over. ‘I mean, last night was bad enough, but this is plain crazy.’
‘Someone comes to your door claiming to be a police officer and he doesn’t show any ID: would you believe him?’
‘I wouldn’t scarper like a kid in the playground.’
‘If he claimed to be a policeman and you recognized him from Ravi the security guy’s photos as a so-called workman trying to get unauthorized entry into your apartment?’
‘You didn’t tell me—’
‘Didn’t want to worry you. Thought it was just a coincidence. Is he tailing us? Silver Vauxhall?’
‘Could be.’
‘Where are we?’
‘Just joining the motorway.’
‘Outgun him, then. At least he’s not ransacking the house. I hope I shut the back door.’
Theo gave a bark of laughter. ‘That’s what my mother always used to say. Though not always in circumstances quite like these. He’s getting closer, by the way. No, he’s dropping way back. Letting a police car overtake.’
‘I’m glad there’s one part of him that’s law-abiding.’