Two Evils: A DI Charlotte Savage Novel. Mark Sennen

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СКАЧАТЬ paper. An item of jewellery? He imagined a woman opening a velvet case and seeing a sparkling ring, Sleet scattering a handful of confetti in the air as some kind of symbolic gesture.

      ‘Patrick?’ Riley knelt and beckoned the DC over. ‘What do you make of this?’

      Enders strolled up the lane and hunkered down next to Riley. He picked up a couple of the pieces of paper.

      ‘From a hole punch, sir?’ Enders placed the pieces on his hand and examined them. ‘That’s my guess.’

      ‘Hey?’

      ‘They’ve been cut from a sheet of paper. Look, there’s letters on the surface.’

      Riley stared down at Enders’ hand. Not letters, letters and numbers. And not from a hole punch either. Shit, he had it now. He glanced down at the ground and picked another piece from the grass.

      ‘Know what these are, Patrick?’ Enders shook his head as Riley showed him the pink dot on the end of his finger. ‘They’re AFIDs. Anti-felon identification tags. They’re ejected whenever a Taser weapon is fired. Each carries a code to identify the particular Taser which was used.’

      ‘Are you telling me this guy was Tasered?’

      ‘Look. Over there.’ Riley pointed to a clump of heather where a flash of yellow lay amongst purple flowers. Still on his knees, he shuffled closer, feeling the damp of the moor seep through to his skin. The sliver of bright yellow plastic looked something like a piece of disposable packaging. ‘That’s part of a Taser cartridge. Totally illegal for private use of course.’

      Riley didn’t pick up the plastic. Instead he stood. This put a whole different slant on the situation. Not only would Sleet’s car need to be gone over by the CSIs, now they’d need a team up on the moor too.

      ‘So Sleet’s …’ Enders stood as well and turned his head back and forth. ‘Where?’

      ‘Fuck knows,’ Riley said.

      The day had been long and largely fruitless, Savage thought as she traipsed across the car park about to head home in the gathering gloom. There’d been some excitement when it turned out Jason’s father, like Ned Stone, also had several convictions for assault, less when he was tracked down to a cell in HMP Exeter. As for Stone, he was certainly an unpleasant piece of work, but she remained to be convinced he had anything to do with Jason’s disappearance.

      ‘Ma’am!’ The shout came from DC Calter, half tripping down the steps from the entrance to the station. She jogged across the car park and stood next to her, shoulders down. ‘It’s the boy, ma’am. A body. Sorry.’

      ‘Oh.’ Savage put out a hand and steadied herself against her car. For a moment anger welled inside, but she was surprised how quickly the feeling was replaced with resignation. As if, deep down, she’d known the probable outcome all along. She stared past Calter towards the concrete monstrosity of the station. ‘Sometimes I wonder why we do this job.’

      ‘Me too.’

      Savage shook her head. Focused on Calter. ‘Where?’

      ‘On the Drake’s Trail cycle path. The Shaugh Prior tunnel. In there.’

      ‘Get back inside the station,’ Savage said as she opened the car door. She ducked in. ‘Find Gareth Collier and start setting things in motion. I want Ned Stone brought in and questioned too. Oh, and if no one else has, then you’d better call the DSupt as well.’

      ‘In hand, ma’am. Apparently he’s heading out to the crime scene himself.’

      ‘Hardin? Great, that’s all we need.’

      Savage slammed the door, started up, and swung the car out of the station car park. She headed north up the Tavistock Road, swept along in the dwindling traffic of the rush hour. She then turned right down past Bickleigh Barracks. After passing the entrance to the army base, the road narrowed and turned left and then right before crossing over the disused railway line, now a cycle trail. The lane followed a strip of woodland and then crossed back over the line at the entrance to the Shaugh Prior tunnel. She pulled over to the left-hand side of the road and parked behind a marked police car. The lights on top flashed, each flash painting the surroundings with a blue-grey streak. As she got out, the door to the car opened and a uniformed officer emerged.

      ‘Evening,’ he said. He nodded into the car where a woman officer sat in the passenger seat half turned so she could watch the middle-aged man slumped in the rear. ‘PC Dawson, ma’am. I’ll take you down to the scene while Lisa here stays with the gentleman who found him.’

      ‘No one remained with the body then?’ Savage said.

      ‘Er, no.’ The officer reached up and scratched the back of his neck. ‘Bit nippy. Plus somebody had to stay up here with this fella.’

      ‘Both of you?’

      ‘Yes. Backup in case he got nasty or tried to do a runner.’

      ‘I see.’ Savage peered in the window again at the man in the back. He appeared too shell-shocked to do anything much. She gestured to where a narrow path led from the road down to the cycle track. ‘Shall we?’

      PC Dawson nodded and then tramped along the road and down the path. Savage followed. The path curled round and down into the railway cutting. As they reached the bottom a cyclist swished past, the taillight on the bike blinking into the distance in the near dusk.

      ‘Jesus!’ Savage said. ‘We need to close this as soon as possible. Where’s the body?’

      ‘Way up in the tunnel,’ Dawson said, pulling out a penlight torch and handing it to Savage. ‘Our witness says he found it when he stopped halfway to take a leak. I left a fluorescent safety vest next to the boy.’

      Savage moved forward, Dawson just behind her. Deep in the cutting the light was fading and Savage wanted to get her bearings before night came. She’d been up and down the cycle path many times with her children. On most of the route the gradient was easy and with several tunnels and viaducts there was always something for the kids to get excited about.

      A graceful horseshoe curve of granite blocks marked the entrance to the tunnel, the surface of the stones covered with moss and ivy. Inside the mouth, a strip of concrete stretched into the darkness, ballast to either side. Water dripped from the ceiling and splashed on the floor.

      ‘Looks as if the lights are out,’ Savage said. When she’d been in the tunnel before, there’d been lights every fifty metres or so. The lights had been strong enough to dispel the slight sense of unease as she’d ridden through. Now there was nothing but inky black. Savage made a mental note to check whether the failure had been reported and then pushed on, the torchlight swathed in the darkness, picking out the rough walls. They’d gone a hundred metres when something glowed bright in the beam.

      ‘There,’ Savage said. ‘The reflective tape on the safety vest. You stay put.’

      ‘On my own?’ Dawson said.

      ‘Stop wittering. I’ll only be a few steps away.’

      ‘Yeah, but you’ve got the torch.’

      Savage stayed in the centre of the tunnel and walked СКАЧАТЬ