‘You’ve got over your wife’s death?’
‘Not entirely, but I’ve come to terms with it. And I’m taking more time off, making friends outside the job too. It’s not easy, mixing a social life with police work, but I’m managing.’
‘So what are you doing in your spare time?’ Charles Moore was showing a genuine interest in Mark’s welfare.
‘I’ve joined a rambling club, we explore the dales and moors. I’m discovering parts of Yorkshire I never knew existed.’
‘I’m glad you’re making the effort. I must admit I prefer the new, relaxed, and not-so-gloomy Mark Pemberton. There was anger in you. You’d become very introverted, you know, and you were working far too hard.’
‘I had to keep busy, sir, there was nothing to keep me at home. I used work to get rid of my anger, get me over my loss, I suppose.’
‘I understand.’ Moore’s tone was sympathetic. ‘But it’s down to business now. I’m faced with the ever-present need to spend less money while making better use of existing manpower and resources, and, at the same time, I have to detect more and more crime.’
‘Hoary old regulars!’ grinned Mark Pemberton. ‘So long as I’ve been in the job, we’ve been told to spend less, get more officers on the streets, and detect more crime, but I’d say we’re detecting a greater number of crimes than we did say, fifty years ago ...’ He realised Moore was regarding him calmly and began to appreciate why the Chief had called him in. ‘If it’s cuts we’re talking about, I suppose it’ll affect the Muriel Brown enquiry?’
Mark could envisage that investigation being wound up. It wouldn’t be a great surprise. Being allowed three detective constables to work full-time on that old enquiry was something of a luxury — Pemberton’s long-term worry was that a lack of funds and a shortage of staff could result in that murder remaining forever unsolved. That thought was highly frustrating — that a lack of money could enable a killer to evade justice seemed very wrong indeed. The Chief now addressed Pemberton’s concerns.
‘Don’t forget that Muriel Brown was murdered a long time ago, Mark, before I became Chief Constable of this force. The chances of discovering her killer are remote by any standards.’
‘But not impossible.’ Mark wasn’t going to let this crime be forgotten.
‘To be honest,’ Moore spoke softly and smoothly, ‘I can’t see that we need to fret unduly about an undetected murder which is some fifteen years old. Besides, even if we do crack it, it’ll be just one more crime detected. A single clear-up. That won’t make a very large contribution to our “Detected Crime” figures — give me a batch of a hundred detected burglaries any day. They’re much more impressive on paper!’
‘You can’t compare burglary with murder, sir!’ Pemberton had to defend his desire to keep this old enquiry active. ‘Some yobbo admitting a string of break-ins is no comparison with a murderer caught by good police work. Paper-pushing policemen and Home Office clerks will be our downfall! Statistics of that kind make nonsense of our work! I regard it as my duty to do all in my power to identify the murderer. The fact that the crime’s an old one doesn’t matter — in fact, this one ensures that my officers remain up to date with HOLMES and current investigative techniques. It allows them an opportunity to work with computers, and it’s taught them how to abstract important data from statement forms, even very old ones. It’s highlighted mistakes made by their predecessors, mistakes that will benefit future enquiries. All that is most important — we all learn from mistakes. Muriel Brown has been a first-class means of providing extra training for young detectives, far better than any exercise we could devise. It’s real too, which means there’s the job satisfaction aspect. We might get a result — we might identify the killer. That’s important even if it is only one detected crime.’
‘I appreciate what you say, Mark, and I admire your spirited defence. You’ll be pleased that Muriel Brown is not going to be totally abandoned. I’m replacing your three plain-clothes officers which means the murder enquiry can continue. Inspector Hadley will join your staff; he will replace those detectives.’
‘Vic Hadley? George Washington incarnate?’
‘George Washington?’ grinned the Chief. ‘Who calls him that?’
‘Most of the force, sir,’ smiled Mark Pemberton. ‘It’s because he says he cannot tell a lie.’
‘That’s a lie in itself.’ The Chief was bemused by this. ‘I don’t believe anyone goes through life without telling some sort of a lie. I must admit I’ve never come across that nickname for Hadley. Anyway, Inspector Hadley, George Washington or whatever you call him, is going to join your department.’
‘I thought he was on sick leave, sir, something to do with stress?’
‘He is, Mark, but he’s on the mend, he needs to be usefully employed.’
‘But he’s a uniform inspector, sir, they’re detective constables.’
Pemberton’s instinctive response was adverse. Why choose Hadley? Of all the officers in the force, Hadley was the last person Pemberton would have selected for any task in the CID.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Mark. But his advisers — doctor, psychologist, therapist and counsellor — are all agreed that some undemanding work, free from operational pressures and stress, will help towards his rehabilitation and restore his confidence. That’s why I want him to work in your department.’
‘Undemanding work, sir? In a CID office?’
‘If you gave him the Muriel Brown case, more as occupational therapy than anything else, he’d feel useful. He needs to believe he’s still a skilled operational policeman who can be trusted with important work. I don’t have to remind you, Mark, that it’s best he keeps out of the public eye, at least for the time being; you’ll need to keep him away from the attentions of ex-Councillor Newton and his family too. That man’s never off our backs — I still get letters from him, demanding justice or wanting to reopen the enquiry. He’s still as bitter as hell about his brother’s death. That aside, I’m sure you can usefully employ Inspector Hadley.’
And as he issued dial challenge, the Chief flashed one of his handsome smiles.
‘There’s always work in a CID office, I’ll grant you that,’ Mark Pemberton responded without enthusiasm and placed his empty cup and saucer on the Chief’s desk. This morning’s meeting was almost over and his gut feeling was that Hadley would be a burden rather than an asset. The Chief had made it impossible to refuse — but to take away three good, keen young detectives and replace them with a sick senior officer who would work shorter hours and require very careful handling didn’t seem a good bargain for Pemberton and the Criminal Investigation Department — or for the Muriel Brown enquiry.
Pemberton’s ambition was to solve that case before he retired; it was the only undetected murder on the force books. Some fifteen years ago, Muriel Brown, then a twenty-seven-year-old secretary, had been raped and murdered in her own car, her death resulting from a bout of frenzied stabbing.
The car, with her body inside, had been abandoned on the moors, but her killer had never been traced. That crime had occurred prior to DNA testing, HOLMES and the other modern support services and computers which had become such an integral part of murder investigations. Old techniques had been used and Pemberton felt that if all the relevant data could be fed into a computerised data-processing system, the enquiry could be revitalised. The case of Muriel Brown might yet benefit from modern technology. In any case, undetected murder files were never officially closed. Nonetheless, Pemberton felt that the chore of logging all that old data into a computer was not really demanding enough for a high-ranking officer, even one who was recuperating after a long illness.
But orders were orders and you couldn’t deflect the Chief Constable once he had made up his mind — and it was clear that his decision had been made. Whatever Pemberton might think or say, Inspector Victor Hadley, the former officer in charge of the force firearms unit, would join Pemberton’s team.
‘He will start on
Monday morning.’ Charles Moore flashed one of his dazzling smiles. ‘And I shall require weekly reports on his progress.’
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Family Ties (The Mark Pemberton Cases Book 1) Page 23
