A Skeleton In The Closet (Dave Slater Mystery Novels Book 7)

by P. F. Ford

  ‘What did she do?’ asked Slater, puzzled.

  ‘She tracked down your attacker and his accomplice and arrested them.’

  ‘What? Alone? But that big guy must be six feet four and weigh about sixteen stone. Darling’s a midget and doesn’t weigh half that soaking wet!’

  ‘It appears DC Darling practises martial arts.’ Grimm pulled a face as he said the last two words.

  ‘Well, good for her,’ said Slater, appreciatively.

  ‘Are you saying you condone her behaviour?’ Grimm glared at him.

  ‘I condone her right to defend herself.’

  ‘She wasn’t defending herself. We have a witness who backs up the victim’s story that DC Darling went berserk and attacked him.’

  ‘Don’t tell me,’ said Slater. ‘This witness is his accomplice, right?"

  ‘The identity of the witness is immaterial. We cannot allow police officers to act as vigilantes and lose control like that. We all have a duty of care to the public—’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Slater. ‘But what about the public? Don’t they have a duty of care to us, as human beings?’

  ‘I’m not here to debate the rights and wrongs of the public attitude to the police,’ said Grimm. ‘I’m here to ensure public safety at the hands of the police and to ensure the police carry out their duties in the correct manner. Unfortunately, it appears they won’t be safe if we allow DC Darling to continue in her role as a police officer.’

  Slater sat back in his seat, momentarily gobsmacked. ‘Why exactly am I here? I’m not a witness to the incident, and it sounds as if you’ve already made up your mind what happened, based on the evidence of two thugs, one of whom had been fighting with me just a couple of nights before.’

  ‘Yes, he mentioned that,’ said Grimm. ‘Apparently Darling told him it was “payback time”. Was she referring to you? Was she paying him back for beating you up?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Slater. ‘I wasn’t there.’

  Grimm gave Slater a hard stare and Fury looked up from her notes again.

  ‘Now what?’ It began to dawn on Slater what he had said. ‘Hold on a minute. You’re not suggesting I had anything to do with this, are you?’

  Grimm looked down at the notes before him. ‘I see from your record you’ve been in trouble before.’ He looked back up at Slater.

  ‘Am I in trouble now?’

  ‘That’s what we have to decide,’ said Grimm. ‘The thing is, we have a man recovering in hospital with ruptured testicles, a ruptured spleen, several cracked ribs, and multiple bruises. She only used martial arts to bring him down. After that, she resorted to giving him a good old-fashioned kicking.’

  Slater swallowed hard. This was all news to him. No wonder he hadn’t seen or heard from Darling. But why had no one else told him? Did his colleagues really think he would be a party to something like this? And what about Goodnews? Surely she didn’t think he would have asked Darling to do this for him?

  His thoughts were interrupted by a dull booming sound from somewhere below them in the building. The building seemed to shiver and a split second later, a fire alarm began to ring. Without thinking, Slater jumped to his feet and started for the door.

  ‘Detective Sergeant Slater,’ spluttered Grimm, furiously. ‘Get back here, we’re not finished yet.’

  ‘That sounded like an explosion to me,’ said Slater, as he dragged the door open. ‘This is my station and these are my mates. You sit there like some puffed-up ponce if you want. I’m going to see if I can help.’

  ‘You’ll pay for this insubordination,’ roared Grimm, but Slater was already flying down the stairs.

  The purple-faced Grimm was apoplectic with rage, so angry he could barely speak. Next to him, Fury was neither surprised Slater had so little respect for her boss (after all, he was such an arrogant prick), nor was she surprised at the display of barely suppressed rage going on next to her. She had seen it so many times before. She was quite looking forward to the day when he really lost control and attacked someone. She would be volunteering to lead that investigation herself.

  ‘Sir,’ she said. ‘The alarm. I think we should evacuate, don’t you?’

  Chapter Two

  Goodnews had reacted as quickly as Slater and they raced down the stairs together, bursting through the doors into the downstairs reception area. The noise from the alarm was even louder down there. A shocked-looking Sandy Mollinson, the night shift duty sergeant, was manning the desk, a phone pressed to his ear. He put the phone down as they entered.

  ‘It’s down in the basement,’ he told them. ‘The forensics lab.’

  ‘Is there anyone down there?’ asked Slater.

  Mollinson shook his head. ‘I’ve checked the log. The last one signed out hours ago.’

  ‘What about a fire?’ asked Goodnews.

  ‘I haven’t been down there yet,’ he said, ‘but there’s CO2 extinguishers so it should be okay.’

  ‘I’ll go and check,’ said Slater, heading off towards the basement doors.

  ‘Can you turn that alarm off?’ asked Goodnews. ‘I can’t hear myself think.’

  Mollinson reached down and hit a button. ‘Fire service will be here any minute. ‘There’s no one down there, all my lads are out on the road and the two killjoys are upstairs. That means no one’s unaccounted for, so there’s no need for any heroics.’

  In the near distance, sirens could be heard, getting louder.

  ‘Thanks, Sandy,’ said Goodnews. ‘Any idea what happened?’

  ‘My best guess is some sort of system failure,’ said Mollinson. ‘Gas, maybe, or something chemical.’

  ‘Gas would have been a bigger explosion, don’t you think?’

  ‘The experts are here now,’ said Mollinson, over the sound of heavy vehicles pulling up outside . ‘Best let them tell us what happened.’

  ‘Aye,’ agreed Goodnews, ‘you’re probably right there. At least we’ve got no casualties. If it had happened during the day, there might have been four or five people down there and this place could have been heaving.’

  Slater came back up from the basement just as the front door clattered open and the first of the firefighters burst through.

  ‘Down there.’ He pointed to the basement doors. ‘It looks like there’s a small fire, but the CO2 seems to be killing it.’

  He joined Goodnews and Mollinson as more fire crew poured through the doors and down into the basement.

  ‘Shouldn’t we be assembling outside?’ asked Mollinson, looking to Goodnews.

  ‘I know that’s the correct protocol, but as the senior officer, I think I can safely say I can account for all the staff who should be here. I think we’d be better served starting our investigation rather than standing outside like a bunch of lemons.’

  Slater reached for the log book they kept at the front desk. It might be the old-fashioned way of doing things, but as long as everyone signed in and out it was still a great way of keeping track of who was in the building at any given time, and it had the advantage of still working, even if there was a power cut.

  Just then, the door from the basement opened and a worried-looking fire officer appeared. ‘I’m going to have to ask you to evacuate the building,’ he said.

  ‘But the fire was almost out,’ said Slater.

  ‘The fire is out. But this was no accident. It was started by an explosive device and until we’ve made sure there aren’t any more I need to clear the building.’

  ‘Yeah,’ began Goodnews, ‘but I’m the senior officer here, and—’

  ‘It might be your station under normal circumstances, Miss, but right now it’s my fire and I’m the senior fire officer. I need you all outside, please.’

  They had been joined by Grimm and Fury.

  ‘What’s going on?’ demanded Grimm. ‘I’m trying to conduct an investigation here.’

  Goodnews gave him a withering look. ‘We have to leave the building. It appears we may have had a bomb go off in the basement, an
d they want to make sure there aren’t any more devices down there. Follow me.’ She turned to lead the way out of the building.

  ‘This is outrageous,’ said Grimm. ‘Your man walked out of an interview. I demand you suspend him immediately.’

  Goodnews swung round to face Grimm, who almost walked into her. ‘May I remind you, Detective Inspector, that I am the senior officer here, and I don’t take orders from you. My officer responded with selfless devotion to duty when that bomb went off, which is more than can be said for one or two other officers who were in the building. Right now I need all my officers to help with my own investigation. You can finish conducting your interview when it’s more convenient.’

  ‘But I’ve come all the way from—’

  ‘I don’t care if you’ve come all the way from bloody Mars,’ said Goodnews. ‘I think you’ll find a bomb going off in a police station ranks as a fairly important investigation, don’t you agree? Would you really like me to broadcast the fact that you obstructed such an inquiry?’

  Grimm spluttered impotently, his face a picture, as Goodnews turned and led them from the building. As they walked down the short flight of steps outside, Slater found himself alongside Fury.

  ‘He’s gonna burst a blood vessel if he’s not careful,’ he muttered to her, nodding at Grimm.

  She cast a quick look around and then lowered her voice. ‘Let’s hope so.’

  Slater was so surprised he almost missed the next step and had to stop momentarily.

  Well, there you go, he thought, watching Fury in surprise as she stepped out ahead of him. I got you all wrong. He felt brief moment of sympathy for her having to work for an arse like Grimm.

  As they reached the bottom of the steps, Goodnews turned to Grimm and they exchanged a few brief words. Slater didn’t hear the exchange but he could work out what she had said, as Grimm marched furiously away, Fury almost having to run to keep up.

  ‘Poor cow, having to work with an arsehole like that,’ Slater muttered to Mollinson as they walked across the car park.

  ‘Aye,’ said Goodnews, who had caught them up and wasn’t supposed to have heard the remark. ‘You might bear that in mind next time you’re having a moan about me.’

  Mollinson couldn’t hide his grin and Slater felt his face burning.

  The car park would normally be empty at this time of night but for a handful of cars, but tonight it was heaving with fire engines and fire officers. There was a small group of outbuildings across the car park beyond the fire crews. Mollinson led them inside the nearest one and switched on the lights.

  ‘I’d better go and get on the radio,’ he said. ‘I need to make sure no one comes back until we’re given the all-clear.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Goodnews. ‘You carry on, Sandy.’ She turned to Slater. ‘Okay, what do we know so far?’

  ‘Looks like we’ve had a bomb go off in the basement. And looking at this log, the last person from the forensics lab to sign out was Ian Becks. That was just after 6pm.’

  ‘Have you got his phone number? We could do with his help.’

  ‘I’ll try him.’ Slater reached into his pocket for his mobile phone.

  ‘I’d better call the chief constable and tell him the good news,’ said Goodnews. ‘This is just what I need after one of my officers beat someone up last week.’

  ‘About that,’ said Slater, listening to the Becks’ phone ringing endlessly in his ear. ‘It would have been nice if you’d told me instead of letting me go into one of those interviews blind. Do you really think I’d tell her to go and beat someone up?’

  ‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘It’s been a difficult week and I got it wrong. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Sorry?’ said Slater, angrily. ‘Sorry? Bloody Grimm seems to think I’m head of some sort of vigilante group.’

  ‘Look, I’ve said I’m sorry. I understand you’re angry, but can we talk about this another time? I need to call my boss before he hears about this from someone else. Damage limitation and all that.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Slater, cutting off his call to Becks. ‘You go ahead and protect your reputation.’

  Goodnews bristled at that. ‘That’s not what I meant,’ she snapped.

  ‘No. Of course not.’

  She looked as though she was about to unleash a torrent of anger on him, but then seemed to think better of it. ‘I’ll go outside and call him. Perhaps in the meantime you’d like to grow up,’ she said, and walked off into the night.

  Slater decided against answering back and turned his attention to the log book. Once again, he mentally ticked off all the forensics team to make sure they were all accounted for. Sure enough, they were all there, the last signature being Ian Becks’ untidy scrawl. And that was about all he could do until the fire chief told him they were allowed back into the building.

  He thumbed his way to Becks’ number, pressed redial, and held the phone to his ear, then he closed the log book, tucked it under his arm, and began to amble back in the direction of the building. All they could do was wait, and he hated waiting around. And why wasn’t Becks answering his phone? It wasn’t even going to voicemail, just ringing and ringing.

  Chapter Three

  It was twenty minutes before Slater saw signs of activity from the back doors of the police station. The fire crews seemed to be making their way outside at last. Maybe now they could get inside and start working.

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked Goodnews, walking up behind him.

  ‘Dunno,’ he said. ‘Hopefully they’re going to tell us it’s all clear.’

  ‘Let’s hope so. Hold on, what’s that?’

  ‘They’re carrying a stretcher. One of them must have got hurt.’

  ‘Or killed,’ said Goodnews, grimly. ‘That body’s covered.’

  The stretcher-bearers lowered their cargo carefully to the ground as Eddie Brent, the lead officer, headed in their direction.

  ‘Has one of your guys got hurt?’ asked Goodnews.

  ‘He’s not one of ours. My lads are all accounted for. This guy must have been right in front of the bomb when it went off. He got blown backwards and was buried under the debris.’

  ‘Christ,’ said Slater. ‘He might be the guy who planted the bomb.’

  ‘So who is he, then?’ asked Goodnews.

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ said Brent. ‘We probably wouldn’t have found him yet, but his phone kept on ringing and ringing. That’s what made us look under all the rubbish.’

  Slater was starting to feel an uncomfortable coldness in the pit of his stomach. ‘Can I take look?’ he asked.

  ‘Sure, go ahead, but I warn you, he’s bit of a mess.’

  They walked over to the stretcher and Slater knelt down alongside it. He took the corner of the sheet that was covering the body and pulled it back. The top of the head was badly scorched, but enough of the face was preserved to identify the victim. Goodnews peered over his shoulder.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Slater.

  ‘Jesus,’ she said. ‘Is that who I think it is?’

  ‘It’s Ian Becks. What the hell was he doing in there? According to the log, he signed out hours ago.’

  ‘Are you sure it’s him? Only he’s a bit of a mess.’

  Slater pulled the sheet back a bit further. ‘I’m pretty sure. And look, he’s still wearing his motorcycle leathers. How many guys do you know who wear bright red leathers and have reason to be in our forensics lab?’

  He re-covered the body and stood up, turning to Goodnews. He thought she looked a bit dazed and seemed to have gone a funny colour, but then it could have been the lighting outside. He felt a bit weak at the knees himself, struggling to comprehend that his colleague and friend Ian Becks was lying dead in front of him. Surely this wasn’t really happening.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked Goodnews.

  ‘What? Oh, yeah, I just wasn’t expecting to find one of our own guys murdered while I was in the building.’

  ‘You can’t blame yourself for this,’
said Slater. ‘We don’t even know what happened yet.’

  Goodnews didn’t look convinced but turned her attention to the fire chief. ‘We could have done with the body being left in situ. You’ve probably destroyed evidence moving it.’

  Slater watched the other man’s face. If he was offended by her attitude, his expression didn’t show it. His response said it all, though.

  ‘We thought there was a chance he might still be alive when we found him. I suppose we could have stood around and waited to make sure he was dead. At least that would have preserved your precious evidence, but that’s not what our job’s about. We’re here to try to save lives and that’s what we tried to do. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with my superiors.’

  Goodnews looked chastened, but before she could speak, he carried on making his point.

  ‘You told me there was no one inside the basement. We might have found him early enough to save him if we’d known he was in there.’

  Slater’s head was reeling at what was unfolding, but he took the initiative and stepped in between them before things got out of hand.

  ‘I think you need to go and call the chief constable, don’t you, guv?’

  Goodnews hesitated for a moment and then stomped off.

  ‘I’m sorry, mate,’ he said, turning to the fire chief. ‘This has come as a shock to all of us. Ian was a key part of our team and he logged off three hours before the explosion. We’re just trying to get our heads around why he was in there.’

  ‘I understand that, but she needs to understand we’re lifesavers, not crime-solvers. We don’t have time to worry about preserving evidence.’

  ‘I know, I know,’ said Slater, soothingly. ‘The problem is, she’s a fast-rising star and I don’t think she’s ever had anything go wrong on her watch before. Right now, everything’s going wrong and she’s struggling to cope.’

  ‘That’s not my problem,’ said the fire chief. ‘I admire your loyalty, but at the end of the day it’s a piss-poor excuse, isn’t it?’

  Slater couldn’t argue with that. He angled his head in acknowledgement of the fact. ‘Can we get inside that building now?’ he asked.