Fire in Bone: A Jake Pettman Thriller

by Wes Markin

  “Wiltshire Police, how can I help you?”

  “Superintendent Joan Madden, please?”

  “Can I ask who is calling?”

  Gabriel went through the formalities.

  “What’s it regarding, sir? I’ll see if anyone else can help.”

  “I have information regarding the whereabouts of DS Jake Pettman. And no one but your superintendent will do, I’m afraid. I know she wants to find Jake. I know she wants to find him very badly indeed.”

  16

  MASON WAS lost in his own world as he unlocked his store door and didn’t even glance at Ewan’s Audi.

  “Is he ignoring us?” Ewan asked.

  “I don’t know. He doesn’t look with it to me,” Lillian said.

  “You want to lead?”

  “Really?”

  “I’m not precious. Besides, you probably have an existing relationship with him. Might be best to go in gentle first.”

  “Are you saying I’m gentle?”

  “No, I’m just saying—”

  “Relax, I know what you mean.”

  Lillian went in first.

  “Lillian,” Mason said from behind his counter, “what can I do you for?”

  “I’m here on police business, Mason.”

  “Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  Ewan entered and Mason sighed. “I guess I was a fool to think we’d put all of this to bed yesterday?”

  Lillian smiled. “Why were you out, Mason? I’ve never known you to close the store during the day.”

  “Policing my opening hours now?”

  “No, just curious.”

  “The stress of all this is getting to me. I have to go for more walks to clear my head these days. Besides, it’s not like I’m doing much business anyhow.”

  Lillian nodded. “We all want this to be cleared up as soon as possible.”

  “You know this has plagued me most of my life?” He drummed his fingers on the counter and regarded Ewan with a narrow-eyed stare. “Was I not thorough enough yesterday, young man?”

  “No, you were thorough, Mr. Rogers,” Ewan said, “but new information has come to light.”

  “Unless my DNA is on the girl’s body—which it won’t be, as I never ever touched her—it’ll be pretty irrelevant, but do fire away, son.”

  Lillian raised her hand toward Ewan to suggest she wanted to keep leading. “Mason, we know you have an older brother.”

  Mason focused on the counter, drummed his fingers on the surface again, and looked up with a wry smile. “Good for you. I’ve known that my whole life. What’s the relevance?”

  “The relevance is, Mr. Rogers”—Ewan stepped forward so he was now closer to Mason than Lillian—“we didn’t know.”

  “But what’s to know, young man? It’s not a secret. You didn’t ask.”

  Lillian closed the gap with Ewan. “It wasn’t mentioned in the last investigation Earl Jewell ran.”

  “Because it wasn’t important.”

  “I imagined he looked into it though?”

  Ewan shrugged. “Maybe he did. I can’t remember. Maybe his paperwork was just shoddy. Who knows?”

  “In fact, the only people who have mentioned an older brother to us are the Davis brothers.”

  “Sounds about right. They have reason to never forget him.”

  “The poisoning of their parents’ livestock?”

  Mason nodded.

  “That makes him a person of interest,” Ewan said.

  “Why?” Mason asked. “He left when I was fifteen, so he wasn’t here when Collette disappeared. My parents sent him away before the Davis family could get their dirty hands on him. He’s had the good sense never to return, if he’s even alive.”

  “What makes you say that?” Ewan said.

  “Liam wasn’t a well young man. Wanted to be in the army, but his health issues prevented that.”

  “The Davis brothers seemed to think he was mentally ill, and that could go some way to explaining what he did to the cattle,” Lillian said.

  “Physical issues kept him from the army. Mental issues! Those two are a fine pair to talk!”

  “If he’s alive, we need to find him, Mason,” Lillian said. “Earl Jewell may not have considered it relevant, but we want to be thorough.”

  “If I knew where he was, and if I thought he was involved, I’d happily tell you. I don’t like being your only suspect. It’s starting to play havoc with my digestion.”

  “You must know where he went.”

  “He was seventeen when he was sent away from Blue Falls to live with family.”

  “Okay, where’s that then?”

  “Not sure. We have a big family. My father had eight brothers. One of them, I suspect.”

  Lillian and Ewan exchanged a glance.

  “Do you have any names or addresses?” Lillian asked.

  “I’ve never had much to do with any of my family. And after what happened with my brother and that cattle, no one ever seemed to make much of an effort again. A shame really. Especially when you consider the only family I ever had after my parents were Lorraine and Anthony, and now they’re gone too.”

  “I’m truly sorry for that,” Lillian said.

  Mason sighed. “If I could be of more help, Lillian, I would.”

  After the officers left, Mason locked the front door for the final time. Selling groceries had been top of his priority list for so many years, and now, it no longer even figured. It was a strange turn of events, but he’d be glad of the change of scenery. Tonight, he’d leave Blue Falls and not look back.

  He went through to his apartment and saw his brother sitting on the sofa and holding a blood-stained tissue to his cheek.

  “You gave me quite a whack there, brother.”

  Mason turned as he closed the door and placed his own forehead against the wood. “Jesus. I thought you’d finally gone.”

  “Even though you almost killed me, I just couldn’t leave you. Blood is thicker and all that.”

  “Why … why … why won’t you leave!”

  “Because you’re facing great peril, brother, and the only way out of this situation is to match fire with fire.”

  “We’re not at war, Liam!” He turned around. “And you’re not a soldier!”

  Liam looked away and shook his head, licking his toothless gums.

  “Anyway, it’s irrelevant. I’ve already solved the problems,” Mason said. “Without your help, I might add.”

  Liam narrowed his eyes. “How?”

  Mason explained his agreements with Cam and Gabriel.

  “And you trust them?”

  “Yes.”

  “They’re the enemy.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Liam stood. “Bullshit! Anyway, I don’t need your permission. If you’re lost to delusion, I’ll do whatever is necessary to protect you, brother. Just like last time.”

  “If you go near any of them, I’ll call the police, and I’ll tell them what you did to Henry and Bobby.”

  “And implicate yourself as an accessory?”

  “It’ll be far worse for me if we play your game. How will it end then? In blood and fury.” Mason reached for his sidearm.

  Liam smiled. “Really?”

  He pointed the Springfield in his direction. “I’m afraid so, Liam. I’ve locked my doors for the final time. Tonight, I’m gone. I can’t allow your methods to bring everything crashing down.”

  Liam continued to smile. “So, what now, brother? Kill the only person who ever gave a goddamn about you?”

  Keeping the gun trained on his brother, he walked to the corner of the room and retrieved some old twine from a drawer. “Sit on the floor, Liam, and put your arms behind your back. This will be finished tonight. The shop will be signed over to the Davis brothers, and then you can just come with me. We will start a new life together. And, in years to come, you will thank me for it.”

  Despite being desperate to update Jake on today’s discoveries, Lillia
n was even more desperate to locate the relative who Liam Rogers was sent to live with, so both she and Ewan shut themselves away in a back office with a lot of determination. And hunting down a string of relatives in Maine, most of them old and a few of them dead, really did take a motherlode of it.

  After three coffees and many dead ends, an exasperated Lillian contacted Silas Rogers’ youngest brother, Nile, who was nursing a hangover from celebrating his ninetieth birthday the previous day.

  “Sorry, dear, repeat that name to me again. I still possess most of my faculties, but hearing is my Achilles heel now.”

  “Liam Rogers,” Lillian repeated.

  There was a pause. “Liam? Silas’s son?”

  Lillian stood up with the phone in her hand. “Yes.”

  “A good man was Silas. Aye, a very good man. He made more of an effort to stay in touch than most of us boys. Of course, it was different back then, you know. We didn’t have email and the like. Pen and paper were the order of the day.”

  Lillian drummed her fingers on the table, feeling her impatience grow, while holding onto the resolve to remain polite. “So, the son, Liam?”

  “Always a sickly boy. I seem to remember a lot of anxiety in Silas’s letters regarding his boy. It was almost as if they believed he would never really live that long. Proved them wrong. Much to the dissatisfaction of Paddy, no doubt.”

  “Paddy?”

  “Another of my brothers. The poor fool who took the lad Liam in. I can’t remember the particulars; mind you, I can’t be sure if I was ever told, but I think the boy got in some kind of trouble with the law and had to make haste. I couldn’t tell you what happened between them then, because me and Paddy haven’t been in touch since we were in our twenties.”

  “Why?”

  “Something and nothing. Bad words over a few beers. Been that long I can’t even remember what they were. Such a waste, eh?”

  “Yes. Do you know how I can get in touch with Paddy?”

  “You got a phone line to Heaven?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. If you die old, you die right. There is something you should know though.”

  “We’d appreciate anything you can tell us, sir.”

  “His daughter. A pleasant lady, her name escapes me now, called a couple of years back. She was the one who let us know he’d passed.”

  “Do you have contact details?”

  “As a matter of fact, she left them. She said I was welcome to the funeral and that I should contact her.” He sighed. “To my shame, I didn’t go. I was bedridden with an ailment that is best not discussed with a young lady like yourself.”

  Lillian rolled her eyes. “Do you think you could find me those contact details?”

  “Give me a minute.”

  While she waited, Ewan entered the room, holding her fourth cup of coffee. He mouthed, Anything?

  “I hope so.”

  She took the cup and was taking a mouthful of coffee when Nile said, “You there, dear?”

  She pulled the cup away and spilled some coffee down her chin. It burned. “Yes … yes, I’m here.”

  “You got a pen?”

  Her heart rate surged. She slammed down the cup and grabbed a pen.

  While at Peter’s property, collecting both the pickup and the rifle contained within, Jake spoke to his friend away from Oliver. “I really don’t like this.”

  “I wasn’t seeking your approval,” Peter said, checking that his rifle was loaded. “Besides, it will go just fine.”

  “Were you on that same train of thought when you broke into Jotham’s property?”

  Peter smiled. His gleaming white teeth really did look out of place in his weathered face. “Fair point. But the odds are stacked better in our favor this time. Late afternoon, so Cam and his son will be at the store. Dom, as well you know, is stupid. Felicity will drug him, then walk her boys to the creek. We’ll get them back to Oliver’s mom’s house quickly, then they can all lay low for a week or two until we can move them out of town.”

  “Yes, but this all depends on the bastards having no idea about Oliver’s involvement with Felicity.”

  “Well, obviously they don’t, or he’d have been dismembered already.”

  “I get that, but someone else could know; someone could have seen them together at the festival, for example. Someone could have spoken to the brothers; they could be anticipating tonight.”

  “Not many people speak to the Davis brothers. Not willingly. Anyway, to get Felicity and her children away from that poisonous life, we’ll have to take some risk.”

  Jake nodded and sighed. “I guess, but I still don’t like it.”

  “I understand, and you don’t have to come if you don’t want.”

  “Well, that’s certainly not an option. Last time I let you out on your own, you came back with no teeth. I don’t want you losing anything else important. You drive alone, and I’ll take Oliver. You going at each other behind the wheel of a car sounds more dangerous than the Davis brothers.”

  “Okay, I’m just going in to change.” Peter threw his rifle into the pickup. “Give me five minutes.”

  Lillian hadn’t seen Louise since hearing the tragic tale about her missing family, and so when she entered her office with Ewan, she looked away. It was all she could do to prevent herself bursting into tears.

  “Everything okay?” Louise said.

  Lillian forced her gaze onto the lieutenant and forced the sympathy from her mind by quickly getting to the point. “Liam was sent to live with Silas’s brother, Paddy Rogers, in Portland.”

  “Silas’s plan was to keep his boy alive,” Ewan said. “Liam had a rather large target on his back for killing the Davis livestock.”

  “But he was just a child. Would the Davis family really have targeted him?” Louise asked.

  “Liam would have already turned seventeen. He’d be fair game,” Lillian said. “Unfortunately, the brother, Paddy, died a couple of years back, but I just got off the phone with his daughter, Olivia Rogers.”

  “Good work! Does the daughter know where Liam is?” Louise laid her tense hands flat on the table.

  Lillian shook her head. “She was born after Liam left Paddy’s residence, so she never met him.”

  “Shit.” Louise lifted her hands. “So, no idea where he went?”

  “No. But Olivia talks about Liam’s stuff being in their attic. Books about the war and clothing. Fatigues, mainly. Camouflage jackets and trousers. It seems he was fascinated with the army. Everything is still there. He never returned for them.”

  “Do you think he’s dead then?”

  “I don’t know, but what Olivia said next was really interesting, ma’am.” Lillian exchanged a glance with Ewan to check if her bizarre revelation deserved a place in this room.

  He nodded.

  “Olivia’s mother died a couple months after her father, Paddy. Just before she died, Olivia tried her luck at asking about her mysterious uncle one last time and the stuff in the attic. She was used to being told to mind her own business, so she was stunned by the response. Just give them away to charity, she was told. Olivia asked her mother if Liam, the uncle she’d never met, would want them if he ever returned. She was met with an unexpected answer.” Lillian took a deep breath. “‘How can he return to a place he’s never been?’”

  “But his stuff was there,” Louise said.

  “Yes,” Lillian said. “Olivia was confused, so she pressed her mother on that. It turns out that Silas Rogers had simply sent his son’s belongings to Paddy’s home.”

  “But I don’t understand,” Louise said, snorting, “Why was Liam not with his belongings?”

  Lillian felt herself growing pale. What she was about to say turned the investigation on its head.

  “Lillian?” Louise said, standing up.

  “Olivia’s mother said Liam had never actually left Blue Falls.”

  After his stupid brother Mason had left to discuss the ridiculous sale of
his property to the Davis brothers over coffee with his lawyer, Liam had twisted free of the rope he’d been bound with.

  “How will you silence your critics when you can’t even tie a knot properly, brother?”

  Truth be told, wriggling free of bondage had not been the easiest task. He was drenched in sweat. He took a long hot shower while he formulated his plan. Despite the itch to get going, he slowly dried himself. From this point until he’d delivered the last blow, he had to be meticulous—like the soldier he was born to be.

  Afterward, he examined the wound on his cheek. It wasn’t as bad as he’d first suspected, and he protected it with a Band Aid. Then he shaved and used Mason’s clippers to give himself a buzz cut. Yes, it was an induction cut, and today wasn’t his first initiation into the military world, but God, it felt like it! It had been so long since he’d executed those faggots.

  He slipped in his false teeth and smiled at his aging, handsome face. Never too old, Liam, never too old.

  Patiently, he ironed every crease from his green camouflage military uniform. He slipped it on and tightly laced his black army boots. He armed himself with Mason’s Springfield, which was quite small for his liking but would do the job. He didn’t wish to rifle through Mason’s gun store in case anyone spotted him through the window. He also sheathed a knife on his leg, then hoisted on his backpack, that contained the hammer which had ended those two queers all those decades ago.

  He secured a camouflage army cover and headed into the kitchen. He took the keys for Mason’s pickup from the hook over the sink and placed his hand on the kitchen door. He turned back to look at his brother’s apartment. “This is for you, dear brother.” He opened the door. “Always for you.”

  Liam headed off to war.

  17

  LILLIAN AND EWAN drove to the Woodhouse farmland which, over thirty years ago, had been owned by Mason’s father, Silas Rogers.