Two Evils: A DI Charlotte Savage Novel. Mark Sennen

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       Chapter Seven

       Near Mary Tavy, Dartmoor, Devon. Wednesday 21st October. 11.39 a.m.

      It took Riley forty-five minutes to get to the remote piece of moorland where Perry Sleet’s car had been found. He brought Enders with him, aware the DC had an innate sense of direction and knew his way around the moor. Still, even Enders had trouble navigating to the exact spot, confessing that the northern part of the moor was pretty much unknown to him.

      ‘Pure wilderness,’ Enders said as they turned up a lane which climbed the side of a steep valley. ‘If matey boy’s gone a-wandering out here then he might not turn up for days.’

      As they crested a rise, Riley’s eyes followed Enders’ hand gesture. The moor spread out before them in a splurge of greys and browns, not a tree or a building in sight. The terrain lay in great folds like a series of soft pillows plumped up and placed in a near endless succession as they tumbled into the distance.

      ‘Jesus.’ Riley shook his head. ‘According to Collier, the helicopter was out this morning. Didn’t spot anything.’

      ‘Doesn’t surprise me. Unless he was wearing some kind of high-visibility clothing, they could fly within a hundred metres and not spot him. Imagine he’s face down in a stream bed or at the bottom of a tor. Maybe he’s even gone down a mineshaft like that prison officer we found earlier in the year.’

      ‘His death wasn’t an accident, remember?’

      ‘And this is?’

      Riley didn’t say anything. He just stared ahead as the lane curled left around a small hill and then ran down to a five-bar gate where a blue Audi A3 Sportback sat on the verge, a big ‘Police Aware’ sticker plastered over the windscreen.

      ‘Dead end.’ Riley eased the car to a stop twenty metres from the Audi. ‘And no farm or anything beyond that gate.’

      ‘So what was he doing here?’ Enders clicked open his door and a gust of wind instantly cooled the inside of the car. ‘Bit exposed for a spot of al fresco sex, I’d have thought.’

      ‘Takes all sorts,’ Riley said as he got out too. He pointed at the Audi. ‘Anyway, perhaps they did it in the car.’

      ‘They?’

      ‘Sleet and this Sarah woman.’

      ‘And then what? Her hubby arrives at an inconvenient moment and boshes Sleet?’

      ‘Something like that.’ Riley began to walk down the lane towards the gate. ‘If Sleet hasn’t turned up by the end of today, the car’s coming in for a good going-over. We’ll know more then.’

      As Enders began to complain about their trip being a waste of time, Riley tried to focus on the surroundings. While remote, this wasn’t a good place for an assignation. You were out in the open and it would be pretty obvious what you were up to should anyone come along. On the other hand, who would come along? He asked Enders whether this was a good spot for walking.

      Enders laughed. ‘Does it look like a good spot for walking? No. Too bleak. There’s no tors, nothing of interest. I doubt anyone but the most hardened would bother coming here. Besides, you’ve got ranges all around. Live firing. Weekdays most of the moor round this way would be off-limits.’

      ‘Army?’

      ‘Yes.’ Enders gazed around at the dreek weather. A thin mist of rain curtained sideways in the wind. ‘And much as I love the outdoors, I don’t think I’ll be signing up to yomp over this part of the moor any time soon.’

      Was that it? Had Sleet somehow got mixed up in something he shouldn’t have? Had some Royal Marine training exercise gone horribly wrong? Riley put the thought from his mind and moved across to the Audi. Collier hadn’t said anything about the keys, but then, even if Riley had had them, he wouldn’t have risked opening the car for fear of contaminating the inside. He peered in through the driver’s window. As noted on the sheet of information, there was a cup of coffee in the drinks holder, the flask the cup had come from sitting on the passenger seat. It seemed unlikely Sleet had been indulging in a bout of passionate sex. More likely he’d poured the cup while waiting for somebody, or perhaps he’d simply come up here after his lunch at the pub in order to pass the time until his next appointment.

      There didn’t seem to be anything untoward inside the car. Sleet’s jacket was lying on the rear seat. A briefcase poked up from the rear footwell. The report mentioned that the boot contained several boxes of samples and Riley recalled a wallet had been found in the jacket. There had been no blood or any sign of a struggle.

      He straightened. If something had happened, it had happened away from the car. Riley looked to the sides of the lane. There was plenty of room to pull off the road, but none of the indentations in the grass appeared fresh. If somebody had arrived after Sleet then they had made sure their vehicle remained on the hard tarmac.

      He peered back towards their own car. Imagined Sleet sitting drinking coffee and spying a vehicle in his rear mirror. He’d have placed the cup in the holder and got out of the car. He’d left his jacket behind, so he’d either expected the rendezvous to be over quickly or his emotions had overcome any thoughts about getting cold. If it had been a woman, perhaps Sleet had leapt from his seat and run to meet her.

      Riley paced back up the road a few metres. He examined the verges again. Nothing except some pieces of litter. No, not litter. Confetti. Confetti?

      He moved to the side of the road where several pieces of yellow and pink paper lay on the verge. СКАЧАТЬ