by Salkeld, J J
‘I’m glad we didn’t go in straight off. I just had another row with my dad.’
‘Really, what about?’
‘This place. He knows I love it as much as he does, and he can’t understand why I won’t take it on.’
‘Why won’t you? If he can keep it going I bet you could too.’
‘Mebbe. But I’ll tell you the God’s honest truth. It’s because I’ve got a little boy, and in thirty years time I don’t want him to be in the position I am now. Feeling all this pressure that I’ve got on me now to keep the place going. It would just be a life sentence, even worse than it would be for me if I took it on now.’
‘Things might improve Ben. This recession can’t last for ever.’
‘Can’t it? Anyway, places like this are too small to be economic whatever happens, and we’re not just competing with agribusiness here in the UK, or even in Europe. Farming is a worldwide market now, and it’s just going to get worse.’
‘What about diversification? Isn’t that the buzzword these days?’
For the first time since they’d left the house Brockbank smiled.
‘I am diversifying Gary, or hadn’t you noticed?’
Mann laughed. ‘I see what you mean. But thieving’s not a career, surely? The cops will nab you in the end, surely.’
‘Mebbe, we’ll see. They haven’t yet though, have they? But even if they do there’s plenty round here who won’t blame me, I promise you that.’
‘How d’you work that out Ben? I thought all farmers are worried about the likes of us rustling and nicking machinery and stuff.’
‘Of course they are, but I’d never nick off a neighbour, or any other small farmer come to that. Not local, not anywhere. Any time you’re with me we’ll only steal from those that can afford it.’
Mann caught Brockbank’s drift.
‘You mean Joey Spedding doesn’t see it that way?’
‘Nah, course not. He targets the weak, people like my dad. But he’s a townie, and a nasty bastard with it. It’s not my business of course, but I’d watch yourself with him Gary.’
Mann nodded, and changed the subject.
‘What does your mum say about all this business with your dad?’
Brockbank veered off, walked over to a dry stone wall and picked up a few stones from the ground, and pushed them back into the wall one by one.
‘Look at this, they all need work. It would take me forever to sort all this walling, even on a small hill farm like this one.’
They walked on in silence for a while.
‘My mum is finding it really tough’ said Brockbank eventually. ‘She’s worried about my dad, worried about me, worried about the future. I just think they deserve better than this after a lifetime of graft. My dad hasn’t taken a day off work in five years, not one. And then you see all these benefit scroungers...’ Brockbank paused. ‘No offence Gary.’
‘None taken. Until last month I’d never signed on in my life. But don’t you do it? I assumed you did anyway.’
‘Nah, just couldn’t. I was brought up to stand on my own two feet.’
‘Even if it means robbing?’
‘Aye, even then. Listen Gary, it’s the likes of those who we nicked those cattle from who are putting my dad out of business, so don’t expect any sympathy from me.’
Mann held up his hands in mock surrender.
‘Sorry buddy’ said Brockbank quickly, ‘I didn’t mean to take it out on you like. It’s the farming job, it gets under your skin.’
‘I know what you mean’ said Mann. Brockbank looked confused.
‘You mean the army?’
Mann hesitated for a moment. He had an almost overwhelming urge to tell Brockbank who he really was, and what he was doing there.
‘Aye, I mean the army.’
‘So why did you leave?’
This time it was Mann who walked on in silence for a while.
‘I went to one too many funerals.’
They walked on for another twenty minutes, Brockbank doing the talking, about the land, the stock, stories about the past. The sun was setting over the fells in the far west by the time they were heading back to the farmhouse.
‘It’s a lovely spot Ben, it really is.’
‘Aye, but you can’t eat the view, can you? Talking of which, I could eat a horse.’
‘Not your mum too’ laughed Mann. ‘I thought it was just the big supermarkets that were up to that business.’
‘Don’t get me started on all that’ said Brockbank. ‘ And I was just starting to cheer up a bit ‘n’all. Come on, let’s get into the warm, and see if my old man’s calmed down a bit yet.’
Monday, 18th March
Andy Hall hadn’t had a great weekend. The kids were stressed about exams, he was tired, and the household chores had got him down. It didn’t help that he hadn’t seen anyone else, other than the check-out lady at the supermarket and the postie, between Friday evening and Monday morning. He’d been tempted to text Jane Francis and ask her if she fancied a drink, but he hadn’t.
Getting to work didn’t make him feel much better. Jane had her head down when he arrived, and the atmosphere in the office was subdued. They obviously all knew what had happened with Robinson. When he’d first become a copper Hall had been surprised how fast news travelled around the station, but he soon realised that he should have expected it. It’s just in the nature of cops to be nosy. Knowing other people’s business was half the attraction of the job.
Ray Dixon arrived on the dot of clocking on time, and came straight into Hall’s office. Generally he didn’t go looking for any unnecessary contact with senior officers, in case they asked him to do something, so Hall guessed that he wanted to talk about Jane.
‘It’s about Jane. Robinson’s got no right. She’s the hardest working copper I know.’
‘He’s got every right Ray. I told the Super that it was down to me, but he wasn’t having any of it.’
‘No surprise that, boss. The chances of you going off piste are pretty small.’
Hall was slightly hurt. He liked to think of himself as his own man, even at work.
‘Building up for your next skiing holiday are you Ray?’ he said, changing the subject.
‘Very funny boss, but yes, it’s all booked. We’re going to Tignes this year. Should be plenty of late season snow.’
‘I’m sure your research has been meticulous, as always, Ray. But seriously, keep an eye on Jane will you? I’m not sure what I can do to help, but I’ll do whatever I can.’
‘Really boss?’ Dixon laughed, and Hall let it go. He wasn’t in the mood for double-entendres.
‘So is Jane all you wanted to talk about Ray? I don’t want to keep you from choosing your new salopettes.’
Dixon smiled. ‘There was something else actually. It’s this job that Ian’s on tonight with Spedding.’
Hall sat up a little straighter. ‘Have you got concerns? I mean specific ones. This whole thing is keeping me awake at night, I don’t mind telling you.’
‘Nothing very specific boss, but I don’t like it. We’ve got Spedding mixed up with some nasty cons, proper heavy-duty villains, and we’ve got a job that’s happening high up. It’s a recipe for disaster boss.’
‘I hear you Ray, but what do you propose?’
‘I’d like to try to follow them wherever they’re going to tonight, and keep an eye on the job like. Off the meter too boss, no overtime required.’
‘Blimey Ray, have you been sniffing the sun screen again? Listen, it’s a great thought and a generous offer, and I’ll pass it on to Ian of course. But I think we both know what he’ll say.’
‘That he wants to go it alone. He’s like the bloody Lone Ranger, Ian is.’
‘Well we’ve already got a Tonto in SOCO, so you can’t volunteer for that job too. And the thing is that if I let you go, and I came as well, then Gory Gorham and her ghastly pals at HQ would have the whole bloody force mobilised tonight, to keep an eye on us. It would
be a bloody cascade of health and safety bullshit. So sorry Ray, I think we’ve just got to let him go it alone this time, OK?’
Hall had another long talk on the phone with Ian later that morning. He sounded a bit tense, but quite firm about being left alone. He told Hall about his meal with Brockbank.
‘Don’t get too close Ian’ said Hall, after he’d described the meal and Brockbank’s folks.
Hall was sure that they were lovely people, but that didn’t stop their son from being a villain. In some ways it just made it worse. ‘Like I said Ian, he’s a collar, and he’s going to get decent jail time for what we’ve already got him cold for. The press office has already been on to me today asking what they can say about the rural crime unit, because they’re taking flak from the local media and pressure from some of the big landowners. They’re saying we’ve achieved bugger all so far, and you can see why that is.’
‘Bloody typical’ said Mann.
‘Come on Ian, don’t come all Wat Tyler on me.’
‘Who’s he then? Singer in some band you like I expect.’
‘He led the peasants revolt. He was betrayed by the king, and had his head cut off and put on a spike if I recall rightly.’
‘Bloody typical of the ruling class’ said Mann, and Hall decided to leave him to it. When the time came Ian Mann would do his duty. Always had, always would.
After lunch Hall felt strong enough to talk to Jane. She seemed very subdued when she came in to the office. Hall tried a bit of cheerful small-talk first, and got nowhere. So he got back to work matters.
‘You do know that the Harrison file is still open, don’t you Jane?’
‘Really, I thought Robinson had warned us off.’
‘He’s not very keen that we talk to Lillian Hill, and that’s an understatement, but he didn’t say anything about Vicky Harrison. There’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t talk to her again. Don’t know about you, but I really want to know if she reckons Lillian as her husband’s bit on the side. What do you say?’
Jane almost smiled. ‘You bet. Shall I get something sorted?’
At six o’clock Hall and Jane arrived outside Vicky Harrison’s house in his car. Hall had agreed to drop Jane back at work after. ‘I’ve got lots to finish up before, you know’ she’d said sadly, just before they’d left the office. Hall did know. He wanted to take her in his arms, but he knew that he couldn’t.
‘So how shall we play this Andy?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Social call or part of an ongoing investigation into a suspicious death.’
‘The latter.’
‘Excellent. Shall we get on with it then?’
When Vicky Harrison showed them in to the sitting room she seemed slightly less self- assured to Hall, but she still caught him off guard. ‘Haven’t seen you down at the wine bar Inspector. Found another way to fill the lonely evenings, have you?’
Hall felt slightly flustered, and Jane took control before he had a chance to speak.
‘We have made some progress with identifying the woman that your husband was seeing in the weeks before his death’ said Jane.
‘Clever old you. I’ll bet you’ve thought of nothing else.’
‘We wanted to ask for your view on her identity.’
‘At least it’s a her’ Vicky laughed briefly. It wasn’t quite convincing.
‘Lillian Hill was the person who Tony was seeing’ said Jane. ‘Are you surprised at that?’
It seemed to Hall that Vicky reacted just a little too quickly.
‘Lillian? No, that can’t be right. Have you spoken to her?’
‘Yes, and she denies it.’
‘There you are then. You really must try harder, Constable.’
‘So you don’t believe that it was Lillian who your husband was seeing?’
‘No, I don’t. It’s not the church thing, that place is an absolute temple to hypocrisy, but she just wouldn’t have been his type at all.’
‘You mean physically?’
Vicky smiled. ‘At my age the physical is becoming less important every day. No, I mean personality. Lillian is, well, I suppose the old fashioned word would be bossy. She’s been single a very long time, and she likes everything done her way. Do you know what I mean? I expect you do.’
Jane ignored the last sentence. ‘You don’t strike me as the meek little housewife type yourself, if I may say so Mrs. Harrison.’
‘I’m not, but you have to understand the tone of a marriage is set very early on, and in ours it was always Tony who was in charge. He made all the big decisions, all the time, and as we got older it just got worse.’
Hall hoped that Jane would follow that up.
‘So you’re saying that your husband was controlling?’
Vicky laughed. ‘You could say that. He expected his own way, even when my business became much more successful than his. I was working sixty hours a week at the office, then doing however many more at home. I can’t say I’ll miss that.’
‘But maybe Lillian didn’t know that about your husband. Maybe he came across as a different kind of person to her.’
Vicky Harrison looked at Jane for a moment.
‘That’s a surprisingly shrewd remark. And yes, I suppose that is possible, now you come to mention it. There’s no reason why Tony would be the same with another woman as he was with me, at least in the beginning. But in the end, over time, our own true self always emerges, don’t you think?’
Hall thought about jumping in, but decided not to. Suddenly he didn’t want to seem too dominant, and for a moment he found himself thinking about Carol, his wife. Would she have said much the same about him?
‘So you’re saying that it was possible that your husband was having an affair with Lillian Hall’ Jane continued.
‘Theoretically yes, but affairs don’t happen in theory, do they? As I said, she would have soon found out what Tony was like, but he would have known what she’s like right from the off. Lillian is an attractive woman, I’m not saying she isn’t, but he just wouldn’t have been attracted to her personality. I’m sure of it.’
Hall decided that it would be safe to bring the interview back on track, and maybe establish some facts.
‘So you never had any concerns when you saw them together?’
‘I never saw them together.’
‘And did anyone mention any suspicions or concerns to you?’
‘No.’
‘Not even Ed Willis?’
‘No.’ Vicky was just a bit too quick, a bit too firm in her reply.
‘Are you sure?’
‘OK, look he did mention something, but he said he didn’t know who it was.’
‘When was this?’
‘I don’t know, maybe a few weeks before Tony died. A month perhaps.’
‘How did you feel?’
‘How did I feel inspector? How did you feel when you discovered that your wife was having an affair?’
Jane didn’t even see a flicker of a change in Hall’s expression.
‘Did you try to find out who it was?’ he asked.
‘No. It would have been so undignified. He’d controlled enough of my life for twenty years, I wasn’t going to let him have me following him about like some low-rent divorce investigator.’
‘Did you use any third party to check up on him then?’
‘No, I’ve told you.’
Hall had saved the question that had been troubling him the most until last.
‘So why didn’t you mention in your statement that you knew Lillian Hill?’
‘No-one asked, and it was just a co-incidence that we were both on the hill at the same time. It just wasn’t important. It didn’t mean anything at all.’
‘Did you know that she didn’t mention to us that she knew you either? Doesn’t that strike you as odd?’
‘No, just the opposite. She probably didn’t think that it was important either. Why do you ask?’
‘Because I’d have expected
one or both of you to have mentioned it, that’s all.’
‘Well it seems that neither of us did. Now is that all? I’ve had a long day, and I’d like to get something to eat.’
Neither officer spoke as Hall drove back to the station. When he turned off the engine Jane made no move to get out. Hall was aware that he needed to be getting back to the kids, but that wasn’t a priority for Jane. Every extra minute that she was away from home was another minute that she wouldn’t spend alone.
‘So what do you think Andy?’
‘Some sort of conspiracy between the two of them? I can’t see it, can you? Can one really have pushed him over the edge, and the other one is covering it up?’
‘Maybe they did it together.’
Hall laughed. ‘Well it is possible I’ll grant you, but it all sounds a bit Witches of Eastwick, don’t you think?’
They sat silently for a minute.
‘Shall we look at both of their mobile phone records? See if they called each other?’
‘OK Jane, why not? The file is still open after all.’
Jane was still making no move to open the door.
‘Listen Jane, I need to get off home. The kids are expecting me, and I’ll be up half the night waiting to hear from Ian. I just wish criminals would do their stuff during office hours.’
‘Some do’ said Jane, opening the door. ‘Just look at all those banksters.’
‘Don’t get me started’ said Hall, reaching for the ignition.
Mann was sitting in the dark when the knock at the door came. He left the house, and this time there was a car outside, with one of the rear doors open. Spedding was driving, and Carl Richardson was in the front. Tom Rigg was in the back, and he nodded as Mann got in, closing the door quietly.
They drove east out of town and then turned north, into the flat border country. Mann didn’t know it at all. Soon they were on pitch dark minor roads, Spedding driving fast but safely. Then he slowed, and they turned into a long drive. It looked like the entrance to a country estate, but Mann couldn’t see any lights anywhere.
