SOCO had erected their white tent, and lamps that turned encroaching dusk into a murky curtain behind the pitiless lights. The technicians said little but worked intently gathering specimens Tony either couldn’t see or didn’t see as anything of importance. These they put into bags, labeled and dropped into brown paper sacks.
After reams of photos, and video film taken in situ, the crime scene manager ordered Percy’s body to be taken by stretcher into the luminous tent. Dark shapes moved inside, adjusting equipment, starting to photograph again. Tape wrapped around trees, bushes, or pegs driven into the ground where there was nothing else available, marked off the whole area.
Bill Lamb, with Jillian Miller and a group of other officers had arrived. Tony realized most had already been at Green Friday. They had gathered on the hillside quickly. Everyone was still watching for Molly Lewis, the forensic pathologist.
‘I don’t know why they don’t fire Dr Lewis,’ Miller said, supposedly quietly to Bill. ‘She wastes a lot of valuable time.’
He repeatedly pushed his fingers through his crewcut sandy hair. Tony admired how he kept his expression blank. ‘Because she’s damned good,’ he told Miller. ‘The best. Let’s chat about this later. In the meantime, keep schtum.’
Tony felt a spark of shameful satisfaction thinking that perhaps the upstart detective sergeant might get a tongue whipping.
The shame wouldn’t last …
A chill had crept in. Alex had accepted a SOCO suit to keep her warmer and looked even more diminutive in the white gear that was puffy all over and rucked around her ankles.
‘Bill,’ Tony said to his former enemy who had miraculously turned into a pleasant enough companion. ‘Could I ask you something?’
‘Sure, not much to do but wait anyway.’ He followed Tony but turned back when Jillian Miller tagged on behind. ‘Stick around here and watch for Dr Lewis, please, Miller. And give me a jingle on my mobile when you see her.’
Tony didn’t wait to see how that went down. A few yards away, the two men stood close together. ‘None of my business, but you know how we are around here – at least Alex and me. Bloody nuisance to you, I’m sure, but bear with me.’ He noted that Alex had not followed them. Finding Quillam had shocked her even more than he would have expected and she seemed disoriented.
‘Sometimes I wish I could totally agree with what you’ve just suggested,’ Bill said, ‘but I can’t. You two have been damned useful on too many occasions.’
Tony didn’t comment on the unexpected compliment – the change in Bill’s attitude could so easily reverse. ‘Sam Brock told Alex and Hugh about a Mercedes being parked at Green Friday when he was looking around. That was just before he went to the Black Dog to get Hugh. If the car was gone when you looked, that wasn’t much of a window of time.’
‘I’m very aware of that,’ Bill said and expelled a hard breath. ‘Information does get around here. By the way, since it’s starting to look as if there could be a connection to one of his old cases, Dan’s joining us with some psychologist who is worming his way into a lot of situations in the area. The man has some theory about copycat or linked murders. Been looking into unsolved cases. The volume of murders in this area has noses wiggling even though they’ve all been solved and there were different perpetrators in each one. Apparently he’s out to prove we’ve messed up somewhere. He’ll probably be a pain in the ass but the chief constable is enamored of him, so we have to put up with it. LeJuan Harding is Dan’s new sergeant – that’s just information in case you didn’t know. But this Dr Leon Wolf is likely to rub a few of us the wrong way. So try to keep you and Alex in the background.’
‘I had heard about LeJuan’s reassignment but nothing about this Dr Wolf,’ Tony said, suffering an overwhelming longing to grab Alex and leave this lot behind them.
‘Good. You’re right about the car. And if Sam Brock did see it there, we don’t have the faintest who took it. Tony, I don’t think Hugh’s been completely forthcoming. I don’t expect you to say more than you feel like saying.’ He paused, looking hopeful, and after an instant gave a one-sided smile. ‘We will have to take him in for questioning. It would be best if Alex didn’t raise any fuss about that.’
‘Damn, what a mess,’ Tony said. ‘But I get you and so will Alex. She’s a wise woman.’
Bill gave him a completely wide smile. ‘Not that you’re at all biased where Alex is concerned. Most of the time I agree with you, by the way. Here comes Molly Lewis. Someone will have driven her as far up as possible. She doesn’t like driving herself these days.’ He glanced away.
Even in poor light Tony recognized Molly Lewis’s short, bright, blond hair as she climbed toward them with a uniformed officer.
The next thing he had to do, Tony decided, was get Alex on her own and ask what she wanted to do about Hugh being at Green Friday the night she went to Radhika’s. She wouldn’t want to say anything that would add to police suspicion of Hugh, but if he continued to say nothing, Alex might have to tell them everything.
Bill took the lead, joining up with Miller on the way to meet Molly Lewis. She had gone directly toward the pond and Tony could see a powerful torch beam bobbing.
‘Wait up.’ Alex jogged beside him and they went on together. ‘I like Molly but if I never had to see her like this again it would be too soon. Why is she going to the pond?’
‘Probably to see where the body was found.’
‘Right.’ Alex sounded vague. ‘What did Bill say? He’s being too pleasant these days. I keep waiting for him to blow up and be his usual sarcastic self.’
‘I think it’s Radhika’s influence. She wouldn’t be impressed if he didn’t treat you well, and for Bill, she is the all-seeing sun.’ He put an arm around her shoulders. ‘Let’s go home if they’ll let us. It’s been a long, nasty day.’
‘I know. But I can’t just go. Tony, I’m so worried about Hugh I don’t know what to do. The police haven’t said anything else about him. I haven’t had a chance to tell you, but he was up here before I found the body. He didn’t see me but he was just staring around. Then he ran off. If I call and ask if he’s at the Dog they’ll figure out I don’t know where he is either. I don’t want to say or do anything that draws attention to what’s going on.’
‘We’d better talk but not here.’ There was nothing to gain by continuing to keep quiet and possibly a lot to lose. ‘I’m going to find out how long we have to stay.’
She slid her hand into his and they crossed the rough ground toward Bill who was now in the company of several officers and the crime scene manager, Werner Berg. They heard Dr Molly Lewis from yards away. She sounded furious.
‘What were you thinking of, Werner?’ Her voice grated. ‘You know how I like to do things.’
‘Yes, marm,’ Werner said, dragging on a cigarette. ‘I thought it was best to get things moving given the cause of death.’
‘Which is?’ Molly said.
Werner smirked, accustomed to Molly’s little catch-out tricks. ‘I should have said, possible, of course.’ His German accent remained heavy. ‘With water there is so much that can interfere. And the body had clearly been there for hours. I knew you would consider every moment important.’
She narrowed her eyes at him, pinched her lips together and pushed past on her way to the tent. ‘Not as if I might like to see the position of the body when it was found, hm? I hope you have taken scrapings of everything it may have touched, and samples of the water. Tomorrow morning divers must go down.’
Tony shuddered at the thought. As kids, the potential depth of the pool had been a subject of much conjecture. The thing looked obsidian and bottomless.
‘Affirmative to the scrapings,’ Werner remarked. ‘It’s very deep in there, marm. Could have a couple of feet of mud on the bottom. Or a lot more. Perhaps we should wait and see if we really need divers. It would be too bad to lose a man for nothing.’
Without warning, Molly stumbled sideways and Werner caught her arm firmly. He said not a word but when Molly tried to pull away, he held on, transferred one arm across her back, and ushered her rapidly into the tent.
Bill looked back at Tony who frowned but said nothing. The pathologist seemed unsteady and he wasn’t sure he bought the rumor that she drank too much. He wondered if she had been checked by a doctor – this wasn’t the first time Tony had seen her appear shaky or even disoriented.
‘I don’t think Molly drinks too much,’ Alex said quietly. ‘She could be ill but doctors are the worst for looking after their own health.’
‘You stole my thoughts,’ he said. ‘And I think Werner knows something about it, not that he’s the type to share any information about a friend. She is a friend of his, I can tell that, despite the snarling she sends his way. Anyway, I say we see if we can get in there and listen. What about you?’
‘All right. It doesn’t sound like the best way to spend an hour or so but we’re at least on the fringes of all this, whether we like it or not. Listen hard, Tony. You’re better at this part than I am.’
A wiry little female constable in uniform stopped them at the opening to the tent. ‘Sorry, sir,’ she said to Tony. ‘May I see your warrant card?’ She smiled apologetically at Alex, and Tony could see her making a mental note to wear a Tyvek suit in future, whenever she wanted to go where she shouldn’t.
‘I found the body,’ he said – only the mildest stretch. ‘We’re with Detective Inspector Lamb.’
‘And you’re SOCO, ma’am?’ the officer asked Alex.
‘They lent me a suit to keep me warm,’ she said, barely above a whisper.
‘Then I’ll have to ask you both to wait until someone comes out to verify who you are. Sorry about that. Would you wait on the other side of the tapes, please? I can’t leave my post at the moment.’
Quelling an urge to laugh, Tony led Alex away. Automatically they set off down the hill. ‘Did you bring your vehicle?’ Alex asked. ‘Mine’s in a field somewhere over there.’ She gave a vague wave.
‘I parked in Trap Lane near Green Friday. That’s closer. Shall we go that way and get your Range Rover later?’
‘Yes,’ she said and started to run. ‘Later or maybe never. I don’t care – I want to get out of here.’
He pulled her to a stop. ‘We’d better walk, not run, or one of us will break something in the dark. Damn, why didn’t I think to take the torch out of my car?’
‘We’ve got to find Hugh,’ Alex said. She clutched Tony’s arm with both of her hands. ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong. We both know that. But he could get into a lot of trouble if the police start looking for him more seriously and he’s keeping out of sight. Why would he do that anyway? And why wouldn’t he be open about everything?’
‘Listen to me.’ He glanced over his shoulder. Alex was asking him to reassure her, but that wasn’t on the cards, not now. ‘The police are looking for him – very seriously. They’re going to take him in for questioning. Bill told you someone reported seeing Hugh leaving Green Friday the same night you saw him there.’
‘I don’t understand who that could have been. Tony, what if we took Hugh to our place, until this calms down, and they work out what really happened?’
‘Good God, Alex.’ He turned away from her. If not for some weak moonlight, they would be in total darkness – appropriate, he decided. ‘You don’t mean that.’
He saw her bow her head. ‘I don’t know if I do or not.’
‘You saw him on this hill before you found Quillam’s body. And something about him worried you. How do you know he wasn’t aware of that body and where it was?’
‘Why would Hugh behave like this? If he knows anything about what happened he should already have told the police.’ Her voice rose. ‘We don’t know Percy didn’t just fall in. Nobody said a word about a weapon. Could Percy swim? I don’t know, do you?’
‘The wounds on the face were made by something, Alex. We don’t know what other injuries there are yet. If we want to get ourselves into the biggest mess of our lives, all we have to do is harbor a potential criminal.’
The instant the words were out of his mouth he regretted them.
‘Hugh is our friend. He’s been with us through thick and thin. He is not a criminal, potential or otherwise. I’m going to find my Range Rover.’
‘Sweetheart,’ he said, his throat tight, ‘please don’t do that to me. I’m trying to be rational. I have to put you and your safety and reputation first. And mine. Of course, I’m sure Hugh is a good and honorable man but we’re in a hard place right now. Would you at least help me figure out the best way through all this?’
‘I just want to find him – and talk to him.’
‘Of course.’ But she’d passed on a chance earlier – because she must have felt unsure about him. ‘OK, let’s get going. Hold my hand, please.’
She stepped close to him, looking up in the darkness, and he thought she might be close to tears. ‘I know I’m not always easy but I can’t even start to explain what happens to me when I feel things so … protective and angry at the same time.’
Tony gave her a hug. ‘Could be you’re hard not to love just because you’re the way you are. Ever think of that? Let’s go. Just stay with me and concentrate on where you put your feet.’
They made good progress even if they stumbled and repeatedly wandered from the route he thought he knew so well.
Each breath was sweet and cool. Too bad those breaths didn’t quiet his mind. Not a cloud touched the darkened sky, while a thin moon hung like a comma without a sentence to punctuate.
Without warning, Alex yanked on his arm and stopped them both.
‘Are you OK?’
She didn’t answer at once, then sucked in a breath. ‘Voices,’ she whispered, too loudly. ‘You hear that?’
He did. From farther down and to their left. The direction toward Green Friday. ‘Doesn’t sound like anyone’s worried. Just carry on the way we are.’
‘Someone’s coming,’ he heard a man say. ‘Hold still. Hello, anyone there?’ the same voice rose.
‘Alex Duggins and Tony Harrison,’ Tony replied, raising his own voice. ‘On our way back to get my Range Rover by Green Friday. Who are you?’
‘Dan O’Reilly,’ another and familiar voice called. A torch beam flashed upward and swept across them. ‘I see you. Stay put and we’ll come to you. Dr Wolf and Hugh Rhys are with me.’
Alex leaned close to him and he put an arm around her shoulder. ‘It’ll be OK,’ he murmured. ‘Wouldn’t have expected this trio.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Alex whispered.
The torch bobbled closer and the three men were visible as shapes moving behind the illumination. Then they were there, in front of Alex and Tony, calm and pleasant as if meeting on a hill, in the darkness, and heading toward the place where a man had been found dead was usual. Perhaps they didn’t know about the death. But that was a ridiculous idea.
‘Hey, Dan – Hugh,’ Tony said, looking at the third man whom he saw only as solid and of medium height.
‘This is Dr Leon Wolf,’ Dan said. ‘He’s a psychologist working with us on a series of cases. Hello, Alex. I should probably say the suit doesn’t become you, but I’d be lying.’
Tony set his jaw. Some things never changed, including the way Dan O’Reilly felt about Alex, damn him. Dan stepped close enough to give her a quick hug and touch her face. ‘Good to see you,’ he said and there was no doubt he meant it.
‘Good to see you, Dan,’ Alex said, but she leaned closer to Tony.
‘Do you know what’s happened up here?’ Tony said, looking directly at Hugh. ‘A drowning in that pond. Of course, you know. Messy business. Alex and I found the body some hours ago. We finally got to leave.’
‘My God,’ Hugh said, staring upward. ‘I heard someone was found but had no idea you were involved. We’re headed up there now – or Dan and Dr Wolf are. I offered to show them the way. Do you know who it is?’
‘As far as we know there hasn’t been an official identification yet,’ Tony said, squeezing Alex’s hand, hoping she understood that it was better for them to reveal nothing, to leave it to the authorities.
‘Hugh,’ Alex said quietly, ‘why are you here? How did you meet up with Dan, and … and …?’ she raised a hand vaguely in the direction of the doctor who didn’t speak.
‘I went to Green Friday to check the place out more thoroughly – with all the talk about someone missing and the police still being there – and I ran into Dan,’ Hugh said. He scrubbed at his face, turned his back, turned to face them again. ‘I haven’t been sensible. I should have gone straight to the police when I knew there was something wrong. I didn’t and now I won’t blame them for thinking I may have had something to do with whatever happened at Green Friday.’
Illuminated by his own torchlight, Dan’s expression didn’t change, but he studied Hugh intensely.
‘What do you think happened?’ Tony said. He couldn’t help himself.
‘Perhaps we’ll know soon enough now,’ Hugh said, glancing up the hill. ‘Unless the killer is too clever and very few are.’
Had anyone mentioned murder to Hugh, Tony wondered.