Chapter Fifteen

It was a glorious day, full Indian summer with the sun shining brightly, the air warm and the sea a dark, cerulean blue. Kate drove along the cliff top road with Martha Reeve and the Vandellas blasting out at full volume, tapping the wheel and humming to herself. It was always better when she was actually doing something, rather than waiting for something to happen. This might all be a wild goose chase (although Kate, trusting her gut feel as usual, was pretty sure it would yield at least something valuable for the investigation) but actually doing something proactive felt much, much better than sitting at her desk in the office, waiting on test results and combing through CCTV records.

It was a tiring drive, right across the widest part of the country, and the M25 was the usual horror story of traffic jams, congestion and road rage. Kate plodded on, changing the music in the car as she went through CD after CD as the miles ticked away. She’d decided to do this part of the country first, despite it being further away than Bournemouth, given the more pertinent details of the case as compared to the Abbeyford murders. She got to Ely by mid-afternoon, when the weather had changed to spitting rain and flat grey skies, stretching endlessly over the Fens.

DI Mistle had been the man in charge of the Lightner case. He was a very tall man, built like a rugby centre forward, with pale blue eyes and a flirtatious manner which Kate, try as she might, couldn’t help responding to.

“Jay Lightner? Poor little bugger. He was only eighteen, not much younger than you, DS Redman.”

Kate smiled, aware that she was being flattered. “I’m older than I look. What was Jay’s history?”

The spark in DI Mistle’s eyes dimmed. “He was in care for most of his short life. A petty criminal, minor drug dealer, that sort of thing, you know the drill.”

Kate did know it. “So, his death was put down to a drug overdose?”

“That and exposure. It was winter when he died, December. I remember when we found his body, it was glittering with frost.”

Kate could see it for a moment, the small curled corpse on the whitened ground, and had to repress a shiver. “There wasn’t a full investigation into his death?” She was suddenly aware of how that sounded and hastily rephrased it. “I mean, his death was deemed non-suspicious, is that right?”

“That’s right. At the time.” DI Mistle leant forward a little. “But, as you said on the phone, there now seems to be a suspicion that that’s not the case?”

Kate explained about the recent murders in Abbeyford and produced the photo-fit of the one and only suspect that they’d managed to get. DI Mistle took it and regarded it in silence.

“Does that remind you of anyone who might have been connected with the Lightner case?” asked Kate.

DI Mistle remained silent for a moment. Then, holding the photo-fit up and squinting at it, he remarked “It might do. Yes, it might do. If you can wait here, I can go and look up the files and see what comes up.”

You might have thought to do that before I got here, thought Kate, but she kept a calm smile on her face. She waited impatiently while DI Mistle went and fetched all the documents he needed and then they sat and pored over them together.

“There,” said DI Mistle, finally, putting a finger on a witness statement. “There was a care home worker who we interviewed briefly after Lightner was killed. It was the scarring that I remembered – the acne scarring on his face. I can see it now. I think it’s the same guy.”

Excitement seized Kate by the throat. She grabbed up the witness statement and saw the name at the top. “’Robert Pound,’” she said, feeling her heart thump within her chest.

“That’s the one. Could be the same bloke.”

“Well, that’s a bloody lead then, isn’t it?” said Kate, forgetting she was talking to a virtual stranger and not to Theo or Olbeck. DI Mistle grinned.

“Yep, it could be a go-er. Let me do you a copy of that statement.”

“Is this all you’ve got?”

“Afraid so. He wasn’t even a suspect, just a minor witness because he’d worked at the last care home where Lightner had lived.”

Kate was frantic to start digging up information on Robert Pound. She forced herself to wait, fidgeting and shifting, while DI Mistle went off to photocopy what little documentation he had.

“Here you go,” he said, after a wait of what Kate thought had been several eons. “This is all I’ve got but if I give you my card, you can give me a ring if you need anything else.” He winked and added “Or if you just fancy a chat.”

Kate let her gaze drop pointedly to the wedding ring on his left hand and thanked him coolly. Then she said goodbye and left the station building, digging for her mobile phone in her handbag as she scurried towards her car.

“Hullo, sweetheart,” said Anderton, which proved to Kate that he wasn’t in his office. “What’s up?”

Kate told him and immediately took the phone away from her ear with a wince as Anderton gave a whoop.

“That’s amazing. Well done, you. That’s a definite link between cases.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Fantastic work. Now we just need to find him. Send everything you can over and I’ll start rallying the troops.”

Kate found that she was grinning broadly. “Do you still want me to go to Bournemouth? Check out the Simon Hardy case?”

She heard Anderton hesitate. Then he said, slowly, “Yes. Yes, I think so.” He hesitated again and then added, “If it were just up to me, I’d have you back here right now. And then have you.”

Kate smiled again. “You’re not in the office, are you?”

Anderton laughed. “How did you guess? No, I’m at home. Just on my way in, now. Anyway, yes, head down to Bournemouth and see if you can find anything there. We’ll get on with things down here. I suppose you’ll be staying overnight?”

“Yes, I will. Can’t face that much driving in one day.”

“No, wouldn’t be a good idea. Okay, darling, get everything over, call me later and drive safely, okay?”

“Okay.” Kate said goodbye, managed not to add the words ‘I miss you’ to the end of her sentence, and hung up.

She went back into Ely station and found a friendly administrative assistant who would oversee the transfer of all the information on the Lightner case – what little there was of it – to the team at Abbeyford. Then she went back out again to her car, bought herself a takeaway coffee to fortify herself for the long drive down to Bournemouth, and set off on her journey.