Keith Patel was none too pleased to see them. He complained that he was in the middle of his lunch and asked them to come back later.
‘That won’t be possible, Mr Patel,’ James said. ‘Either you allow us to come in so we can ask you some questions or we’ll be forced to take you for a ride, all the way to the station in Kendal.’
‘Are you kidding? What do you want to talk to me about?’
‘It’s in relation to the death of Lorna Manning and the photograph of her that was placed on your mother’s grave at some point during the night.’
His demeanour shifted. ‘Are you talking about the schoolteacher woman? I didn’t know she was dead. And what the fuck else has happened to Mum’s grave?’
James refused to go into the details on the doorstep so Patel allowed them in. They followed him to the living room where the television was on.
Patel dropped into an armchair and released a loud breath. In front of him on the coffee table rested a bowl of brown soup and a glass of orange juice.
The two detectives remained standing, and James nodded at the television.
‘Have you seen or heard the news this morning, Mr Patel?’ he asked.
Patel shook his head. ‘I try to avoid it. Too full of crap. Now what’s this about Lorna Manning and Mum’s grave?’
He appeared genuinely surprised when James told him about the latest murder. But surprise turned to confusion when James showed him a picture he’d taken on his phone of the framed photo against the headstone.
Patel couldn’t see the words written on it so James read them out to him.
‘That’s some weird shit,’ Patel said. ‘But whoever wrote it was right about my mum. She didn’t deserve to die.’
‘Have you seen that photo of Miss Manning before, Mr Patel?’ James asked him.
‘Of course I haven’t. I know who she is and we’ve said hello to each other in passing, but that’s about it. Do you seriously think I put it there?’
James shrugged. ‘It seems odd that of all the graves in the churchyard it should end up on your mother’s.’
‘Well, it’s got sod all to do with me.’
‘So can you tell us if you were anywhere near Miss Manning’s house in Willow Road last night?’ This from Stevens.
‘I haven’t been out of the house since yesterday. My knees have been playing up so I thought I’d rest them. And besides, it’s been years since I walked over to that part of the village. No reason to.’
‘Did your mother know Miss Manning?’ James said.
‘I don’t think so. She was never mentioned and Mum rarely got out of here.’
‘So Miss Manning wasn’t one of the villagers who you believe should have checked up on your mother after her fall.’
‘No, she wasn’t.’
‘And what about Charlie Jenkins, Mr Patel? Did you have a problem with him?’
The question seemed to trigger a warning bell in his head. He bared his teeth and gave James a hard look.
‘I don’t fucking believe this,’ he shouted. ‘The last time you came here you more or less accused me of sending you a threatening message in a Christmas card. Now you’re trying to pin two murders on me. Well, I’ll say what I said before, and that is I won’t be answering any more of your questions unless I’ve got a lawyer with me. So piss off and find some other poor sod to harass.’
After leaving Keith Patel’s house, the two detectives headed straight for the village hall in the patrol car. But they didn’t have time to discuss what the guy had told them because as soon as they set off, James’s phone rang. It was Annie, and she sounded anxious.
‘I need to talk to you, James,’ she said. ‘Is now a good time?’
‘I’ve got a few minutes; fire away.’
He thought she was going to ask him to update her on the investigation. Instead she wanted to tell him that her Uncle Bill had gone AWOL again.
‘He’s not answering his phone and I haven’t got a clue where he is,’ she said.
‘Well, he won’t be going far without his car so I don’t think you need to worry.’
‘But I can’t help it. His behaviour concerns me.’
James felt sorry for Annie, but he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted by her uncle.
‘Look, I’ll keep an eye out for him,’ he said. ‘If I spot him, I’ll call you. But have you checked to see if he’s at The King’s Head?’
‘Of course I have. I left there a little while ago. I spoke to Martha Grooms and she said he went out about eleven.’
‘He’s probably wondering around the village then.’
‘But she also told me that he went out last night after the pub closed.’
‘So what? He obviously got back safely.’
‘Yes, but Martha didn’t know what time that was. He could have been out all night. And who the hell knows what he got up to.’
It was a change in the tone of her voice that made James twig what she was getting at.
‘Jesus, Annie, do you seriously think that he might have something to do with what happened to Lorna Manning?’
‘I don’t know what to think,’ she said, her voice faltering. ‘But he also went missing on Saturday night, and that was when Charlie Jenkins was killed.’
James knew that Annie would have struggled with her conscience over whether or not to mention this to him, but he was glad she had.
‘You shouldn’t work yourself into a panic over this,’ he said. ‘There’s absolutely no reason to suspect that Bill had anything to do with either murder. You know he wouldn’t be capable of doing something like that.’
‘But you’re forgetting that I don’t really know him any more,’ Annie said. ‘The last time I saw him before this weekend was eighteen months ago when he was vile to me at Mum’s funeral. Now he’s like a stranger to me. And there’s another thing to consider. He arrived in the village on Friday, about the time that parcel was put on our doorstep. That in itself strikes me as odd.’
‘Then to put your mind at rest I’ll make some enquiries and ask my officers to look out for him,’ James said. ‘But in the meantime, you need to stay calm. If you see him or he turns up then call me right away. Okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘Are you going back home now?’
‘No. I’ve decided to pop along to the school and then to the church for Charlie’s service.’
James decided not to tell her that he’d just left the church. She would only freak out even more if she knew about Lorna Manning’s photograph being left on the grave.
‘Try not to overthink this, Annie. I reckon it’s more likely that the murders were carried out by an alien than your doddery old Uncle Bill,’ he said, trying to lighten the mood.
They said their goodbyes and when James came off the phone he said to Stevens, ‘We’ve another suspect, but would you believe he’s my wife’s own fucking uncle?’
Annie called James again just as the patrol car dropped them outside the village hall. He told DS Stevens to go in ahead of him while he answered it.
‘What’s up now, Annie?’ he said. ‘Has Bill shown up?’
‘Not in the last few minutes, he hasn’t,’ she said. ‘But that’s not why I’m ringing. There was something I forgot to tell you before. It’s about Lorna.’
‘I’m listening,’ he said.
‘Martha Grooms told me that she last saw Lorna on Wednesday evening at The King’s Head. She was having dinner there.’
‘What’s so unusual about that? I’m sure she could afford to eat out occasionally.’
‘Yes, I know, but she was with Giles Keegan and Martha made it sound like they were on a date.’
‘I thought you said she wasn’t in a relationship.’
‘That’s the thing. I didn’t think she was, and it might well have been a first date or just two friends getting together. But in view of what’s happened I thought I should tell you.’
‘And you were right to do so, Annie. It’s really helpful. We need to find out as much as we can about Lorna and the people she spent time with.’
‘So, will you be speaking to Giles?’
‘You bet we will. And we’ll do it before the day is out.’