Riddled on the Sands (The Lakeland Murders)

by Salkeld, J J

  Jimmy Rae laughed. ‘They didn’t call you Catseyes for nothing, did they? Or maybe you reckon that our tactics haven’t changed much since your day and you just guessed right. Anyway, I’m pleased to meet you, Inspector.’

  They shook hands, and Hall was surprised at how much taller he was than Rae.

  ‘You know what happened to Capstick?’ said Hall

  ‘Yes, I’d heard.’

  Hall nodded. He had no intention of asking how Rae knew, because he was sure that Rae wasn’t the killer and that the information hadn’t come from Ian Mann, and that was all he cared about for now. ‘Can you help us with the investigation at all?’

  ‘Not directly, no. Sadly we didn’t have Pete Capstick’s house under observation last night, so we can’t tell you who was responsible. But I do have some information, yes. Two main points, really. The first is that we have reason to believe that the shipment intended for delivery on the night of Jack Bell’s disappearance has not yet entered the UK, and that another attempt will be made within the next week or ten days.’

  ‘And I suppose that you can’t tell me how you know this?’

  ‘That’s right. What I’m telling you now is strictly off-the-record, and, frankly, only because Ian is one of our own, and he vouches for you. We also know that you haven’t logged the fact that I’ve been in contact with you previously, and I’m grateful for that. If you had, we wouldn’t be talking now.’

  ‘Understood. We’ll take any help we can get. But you’ll appreciate that I have to be cautious about any information, where I can’t corroborate the source.’

  Rae smiled. ‘I do find civilians so polite, don’t you, Ian? What you mean, Inspector, is that you’re not absolutely sure that myself and my colleagues aren’t involved in all this in some way.’

  ‘It was just an observation.’

  ‘And a very pertinent one. I’d take much the same line if the boot was on the other foot, as it were. Perhaps we have more in common than either of us imagines.’

  Hall had no time for that discussion, and not much interest in it either. ‘So what else did you want to tell us? I’m assuming you can’t tell us anything about the possible timing or location of any further attempt at delivery of the gear?’

  ‘I can’t tell you that. Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t know.’

  ‘Because you really don’t know, or because you and your pals intend to be the ones doing the intercepting next time?’

  ‘Both. We really don’t know where and when, and yes, we are tasked with helping other agencies in recovering the shipment and the people directly responsible for it reaching our shores. I think you can be fairly certain that your shooter, or shooters, will be among them, and you can rest assured that we will ensure that Jack Bell’s death doesn’t go unavenged. If we do come across them, and they are foolish enough to think that’s there’s an option other than immediate surrender, then we are tasked to subdue them by all means necessary. We’re not policeman, Inspector, we’re soldiers.’

  ‘Of course. I understand that. I just hope that you’ll at least give us a chance to make an arrest. So what else can you tell me?’

  ‘Just that we believe that we have narrowed down the source of our leak.’ Rae handed a piece of paper to Mann. ‘Those are the names of our six suspects, all Coastguard officers based in this area.’

  ‘And were they all at home or on duty last night and this morning, between 10pm and 6am say? I imagine you’re in a position to help us on that point too.’

  Rae smiled again. ‘Indeed they were. All six are fully accounted for during the hours in question. Nor did any of them make or receive any form of electronic or voice communication that seems likely to have been in any way connected with the Capstick killing. Anyway, I hope that helps.’

  ‘It does, and thanks for speaking to us. I appreciate that you don’t have to, and that you have access to all of our data anyway, so all I can ask is that you continue with these informal contacts. And given that Ian is perfectly qualified for the role, can I suggest that you regard him as your informal liaison?’

  Rae nodded, shook hands with Hall and Mann, and walked back along the path.

  ‘What about this list?’ asked Mann. ‘I’m assuming you want them looked at? You don’t think Rae’s bullshitting us, do you?’

  ‘No, of course not. We’ve got no choice really. We can’t do anything official, so we’ll have to do it off the record. But leave that with me. Just hang on to the list for now, OK?’ Hall turned to walk back to his car, but turned, mid-step, and stopped. ‘By the way, Ian. Did you really spot Rae’s mates, or were you just guessing?’

  ‘No, I saw one of them, the one back by the road on the way in. He must be the new guy, I heard they had one. So he’ll learn, or he’ll die. One or the other.’

  When Hall got back to the office he went to see Val Gorham. She was wearing civvies, and she looked smaller somehow, but no less intimidating.

  ‘I’m sorry about this, ma’am’ said Hall.

  ‘Don’t be daft, Andy. You did all you could to break Capstick, and it seems that someone thought you were getting close.’

  ‘You heard about the message on Ray’s mobile?’

  ‘Yes, I read his report and called him up for a word, about twenty minutes ago.’

  Hall was on his guard. ‘Oh, yes?’

  ‘Don’t worry, I didn’t ask him any difficult questions. He was off duty, his phone was switched off, and then he was asleep. End of. He was very upset about it all, and I told him not to worry. He’s done nothing wrong.’

  ‘I appreciate that, ma’am.’

  ‘Not at all. For the remainder of his service I need DC Dixon straining every sinew to assist in this investigation.’

  ‘That’s appreciated.’

  ‘Not at all. And I wanted to run something past you. In view of the fact that you now have two unsolved murders on your hands I wondered if you could do with some extra help?’

  ‘Like what, exactly?’

  ‘How about Dixon? I’ve spoken to the Chief this morning, and a month’s contract extension is on offer.’

  ‘How about six? Give him something to work for.’

  ‘Three, and that’s my final word.’

  ‘Done’ said Hall. ‘I’ll tell him right now, if that’s OK with you, ma’am.’

  When Jane got back to the office she was tired and hot, but she did have a solid, positive ID on Mike Skelton. So she was in a good mood. She’d made a contribution. But she did frown when she saw the pile of emails from Perkins still sitting on her desk. Whoever sent that letter, and maybe torched his garage too, seemed like decidedly small beer in comparison with linked murders and an organised crime connection.

  She’d phoned Andy when the old woman had made the ID, and he’d told her to come back to the office and he’d have Skelton picked up by uniformed officers.

  ‘You lead,’ Hall said when she arrived, ‘and I’ll put Ray in with you. But do me a favour, and try to get him to stop grinning before you start. I keep telling him that he’s only got an extra three months, but he seems to have convinced himself that he’s irreplaceable, and that further extensions are as good as his.’

  ‘And are they?’

  ‘Nope. I suppose if the Bell/Capstick investigation drags on then it’s possible he’d get another three or something, but he just doesn’t seem to have noticed that apart from senior officers there’s barely an over fifty year-old left in the place. And he’s supposed to be a detective. But as I’m always saying, confirmation bias is a powerful thing, and something to be guarded against.’

  ‘I remember. I’ve had the lecture. And you’ll be one soon too, an over fifty, I mean.’

  ‘Don’t remind me. Anyway, try to slip something into Ray’s tea to get him calmed down. We’ve picked up Skelton now, so you’ll be on in about twenty minutes.’

  Far out in the Bay the tide had turned, unseen and unremarked, but at the very moment predicted by the tide tables. I
an Mann was taking a turn on the metal detector, and giving one of the lads a rest. Geoff Atkinson was working another grid, about ten metres away, while one of other lads had a blow. They were all working their way back towards the shore, and Mann reckoned he was only about fifty yards out at the closest end of his grid. The first few times he’d had a beep in his headphones he’d dug away with his trowel with enthusiasm, but now he had no expectations. Finding a needle in a haystack would be nothing in comparison with this. And anyway, Mann didn’t believe that there was even a needle out here.

  Andy Hall did have a knack of guessing what people would do under pressure, he admitted that, and he’d seen it often enough in the past, but this was just going too far. Hall assumed that the killer was local, and would want to get rid of the weapon straight away. They were both colossal assumptions, although the tentative nature of the attack did suggest that this was indeed a reluctant murderer, if such a thing existed. But the clincher, as far as Mann was concerned, was that Hall was back in the office, while he was out on the sands, getting backache and digging up nothing but old ring pulls and five pence pieces.

  So when he got another hit Mann didn’t get at all excited, even though it sounded like a solid one. He just did as he’d been told and stopped, and held up his hand. Earlier in the day the SOCO who’d been left to supervise had run to everyone who got a hit, but now she took her time.

  ‘What is it this time, Ian?’ she asked.

  ‘Corned beef tin is my guess. Circa 1979.’

  ‘Sounds disgusting. Right, you know how this works. Dig straight down over the target, and all of your sand goes into this bag, OK?’

  Mann scooped out a couple of trowels worth of firm sand when he felt a metallic hit. Instinctively he reached down with his left hand but the SOCO reached out and stopped him.

  ‘Use the trowel, Ian. Let’s see what you’ve got first.’

  Ten seconds later they were both absolutely sure what it was that they were looking at.

  ‘Stop digging, and move away now please, Ian. I need to suit up and recover this, plus as much of the surrounding sand as I can.’

  The rest of the team gathered round, and Ian had to ask one or two to keep back.

  ‘Have we got it?’ asked Geoff Atkinson.

  ‘Aye, it’s a knife all right. Hasn’t been in there long either. Might be nothing of course, but I doubt it.’

  ‘Bloody amazing’ said Atkinson. ‘What were the chances, do you reckon?’

  ‘Absolutely sweet Rockall, and if I didn’t know better I’d think that it was Andy sodding Hall who was going about the country planting clues, just to show what a clever-clogs he is. The bastard.’

  The SOCO beckoned Mann forward. She’d dug around the knife, using a little trowel, and bagged all the sand above it. When Mann looked into the hole it reminded him of something they found on one of those archeological programmes on TV, except the congealed blood on it looked fresh.

  ‘Can you take some pictures with your camera phone please, Ian? We need to get this lifted quickly.’

  Jane Francis and Ray Dixon had made a start when Andy Hall knocked at the door with the news. Jane went out for a few seconds, followed by Dixon.

  ‘Sorry about that’ she said to Skelton when she’d re-started the recorder, ‘but we’ve just received some new information concerning the death of Pete Capstick.’

  ‘Like I said, I had nothing to do with it. Why would I want to kill Pete?’

  Jane ignored the question. ‘So how’s your financial position then, Mike?’

  ‘All right, could be better. Why?’

  ‘It just seems as if you only like doing the things that you see advertised on TV. Payday loans, online betting, you do the lot, don’t you?’

  ‘I like a flutter, yeah. It’s not a crime.’

  ‘It’s costing you your house though, isn’t it? What does your wife make of that?’

  ‘Who says I’m losing my house?’

  ‘Isn’t that what’s happening?’

  ‘Not necessarily. Look, I’m in a bit of financial trouble, that’s true. But why would I want to kill Pete? He didn’t have anything worth robbing, or if he did I never saw it. I admit I’ve been a fool, but I’ve stopped gambling, honest, and I’m going to turn it around. I’ve promised my wife.’

  ‘That’s good. But how can you turn it around? Looking at what you owe, and what you earn, I can’t see how you’ll ever pay it all back. It would take you the rest of your life, and then some.’

  For the first time Skelton looked angry. ‘Look, this has nothing to do with you. Owing a bit of money has nothing to do with you, does it?’

  Ray Dixon held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. ‘I understand, Mike. I’ve been there myself, I really have. Worrying about the future. Not sure where the next pay-cheque is coming from. And if you’re anything like me you put your family first, always have and always will, so I bet you’ve been looking for a way out of all this financial mess. Looking for a way to put things right, like.’

  ‘Of course I have’ said Skelton, sounding calmer. ‘I’m not going to let us lose our house. No way will that happen.’

  ‘So you’ve been looking to earn a bit of money. It’s only natural, and your mate Paul said that you’d had a few bright ideas. Tell us about those. I’d be interested myself, actually.’

  ‘I have had ideas, aye. Maybe the car sales job. Buy stuff in, non-runners like, do them up and sell them on. Times like these, people always need cheap wheels.’

  ‘Of course they do’ said Ray. ‘And you’ve got the skills for it as well, I can see that. So is that why you were going out with Pete Capstick? Because you were thinking about the fishing job too? An extra string to your bow, like.’

  ‘Aye, that’s it. I can keep an old diesel tractor going, no problem, and I could fit the fishing in around my other work. Just depending on the tides, like. The money’s not great, and the work’s hard, but I’ve never been afraid of a day’s graft. The problem is getting to know the sands, that’s the hard part.’

  ‘And that’s why you’ve been going out with Pete, getting to know the Bay. Is that it?’

  ‘Aye, that’s right.’

  ‘And when were you last out with him?’

  ‘Like I said to your mate it’s been a couple of months, something like that.’

  ‘Could it be three weeks ago?’

  ‘No, longer than that.’

  ‘Are you certain? Think carefully. When did you last see Pete Capstick? I’m trying to help you here, Mike.’

  Skelton didn’t need long. ‘Like I said, it was weeks ago. Early May, not much more recent than that. I’m certain. I don’t need your help.’

  ‘Well’ said Jane, ‘then we’ve got a problem. Or, more accurately, Mike, you’ve got a problem. Because we’ve got a witness who saw you with Pete Capstick, out in his yard, just a day or two before Jack Bell vanished. And that’s only a couple of weeks ago, not six or eight.’

  ‘Your witness is wrong. Pete must have been with someone else that night.’

  ‘I didn’t say it was night-time, did I, Ray? Did I say when it was?’

  ‘No, Jane, you didn’t.’

  ‘So let’s try again, one more time. When did you last see Pete Capstick? Was it the beginning of May, or was it around the 11th of June?’

  ‘I’ve already told you. It was May. Early May.’

  Jane sat back. ‘Shall I tell you what I think is going on here, Mike? I think you’re a decent bloke, and you know you’ve dug a hole for yourself. You’ve gone and put your home, maybe your whole family, at risk with what you’ve done. And I don’t think you can live with that. Am I right so far?’

  Skelton shrugged. ‘Aye, mebbe.’

  ‘So what did you do? Well I reckon that Ray’s right too, and you thought about how you could earn some extra money. It’s only natural, is that. So what skills do you have, Mike?’

  ‘I’m a fitter, a mechanic. You know that.’

  ‘Yes, but
you have other skills too, don’t you?’

  ‘What, from the army? There’s not a lot of call for those in civvy street though, is there?’

  ‘Not usually, no. But I think what happened is this. You needed money, and maybe one of you old army mates knew that, or you told them about your situation. And they suggested a way out. Anyway, the long and the short is that you found yourself mixed up with some heavy duty criminals, the kind who won’t take no for an answer. Maybe you owed them money, is that it? Is that how you got involved?’

  Skelton didn’t answer.

  ‘Yes, that’s it. You owed them money, and couldn’t say no when they came calling. You introduced these people to Pete Capstick too, didn’t you? They wanted you to be the guide across the sands, but you told them that you couldn’t do it, especially at night. And that’s how Pete Capstick got involved, wasn’t it? Because of you. What do you say now, then, Mike?’

  ‘Bollocks. It’s all bollocks.’

  ‘I don’t think so. I think you were there when Jack Bell died, and maybe you killed Pete Capstick too. And it’s all been for nothing, hasn’t it? You haven’t made a penny piece from all this so far, have you? That must make you pretty angry. Tell us what happened and we can catch them. Otherwise you’re in this on your own, and that’s not fair, is it?’

  ‘I didn’t kill anyone.’

  ‘So where were you last night?’

  ‘At home.’

  ‘Was your wife in? Your kids?’

  ‘No, they’re at her mother’s, like. Just while I get things sorted out, like.’

  ‘And what about the night that Jack Bell disappeared? Friday the 14th?’

  ‘Same. I was at home.’

  ‘That was quick. Are you sure?’

  ‘Aye. I haven’t been out in weeks. Can’t afford it.’

  ‘Would you have been online, mate?’ asked Ray.

  ‘Aye, probably. Not last night, but until a week or two back then, aye, I’d have been online until late.’

  ‘Well that’s good, isn’t it? We’ll be able to check it was you now. What sites would you have been on? Poker maybe?’