The Dead Place. Stephen Booth

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ turning down beer? Well, I could offer food as well. We could have pie and chips at the pub, or go for an Indian. The Raj Mahal is open Wednesdays.’

      ‘No, I can’t, Gavin,’ said Cooper. ‘I’ve got a date.’

      ‘A what?’

      ‘A date.’

      ‘With a woman?’

      ‘Could be.’

      At last, Cooper was able to take his exit, turning right by the Safeway supermarket and the old brewery into Ecclesall Road. Ahead of him lay a land of espresso bars, Aga shops and the offices of independent financial advisors. In the leafy outer suburbs of Whirlow and Dore, the houses would get bigger and further away from the road as he drove into AB country.

      ‘Are you still there, Gavin?’

      Murfin’s voice was quieter when he came back on the phone.

      ‘I’m going to have to go. Miss has come out of her meeting, and she doesn’t look happy. Her nose has gone all tight. You know what I mean? As though she’s just smelled something really bad.’

      ‘I know what you mean.’

      ‘So it looks as though I’ve blown it. I just wasn’t quick enough.’

      ‘Good luck, then. Speak to you in the morning.’

      Cooper smiled as he ended the call. Murfin’s comment about Diane Fry had reminded him of the forensic anthropologist’s report on the human remains from Ravensdale. The details in the document had been sparse. Like so many experts’ reports, it had seemed to raise more questions than it answered. But he’d made a call to Dr Jamieson anyway, mostly out of optimism. In the end, there was only one person whose job it was to find the answers.

      ‘The nasal opening is narrow, the bridge steepled, and the cheekbones tight to the face. Caucasian, probably European. An adult.’

      ‘Yes, you said that in your report, sir.’

      ‘Beyond that, it’s a bit more difficult. We have to look for alterations in the skeleton that occur at a predictable rate – changes in the ribs where they attach to the sternum, or the parts of the pelvis where they meet in front. We can age adults to within five years if we’re lucky, or maybe ten. So you’ll have to take the age of forty to forty-five as a best guess.’

      ‘And the chances of an ID?’ Cooper had asked.

      ‘To a specific individual? None.’

      Dr Jamieson had sounded impatient. Probably he had a thousand other things to do, like everyone else.

      ‘Look, all I can give you is a general biological profile – it’s up to you to match it to your missing persons register. I’m just offering clues here. I don’t work miracles.’

      ‘But it’s definitely a woman?’ Cooper persisted.

      ‘Yes, definitely. That should narrow it down a bit, surely? You don’t have all that many missing women on the books in Derbyshire, do you?’

      ‘No, Doctor, we don’t.’

      And Jamieson had been right. The problem was, no one had ever filed a missing person report answering the description of Jane Raven.

      Fry got herself a cup of water from the cooler and waited a few moments before she went back into the DI’s office. She was vaguely aware of Gavin Murfin lurking rather furtively in the CID room, sitting down again when she looked his way. But the rest of the place was already deserted. It smelled stale, and ready for the arrival of the cleaners.

      She walked back in and put her water down on Hitchens’ desk.

      ‘He was on the phone for more than three minutes,’ she said. ‘Why haven’t they traced the call?’

      ‘They have. He was in a public phone box.’

      ‘Of course he was. No doubt in some busy shopping centre where no one would notice him. And I suppose he was long gone by the time a patrol arrived?’

      Hitchens looked at her with the first signs of impatience, and Fry realized she’d gone a bit too far. She blamed it on the headache, or the fact that she felt so exhausted.

      ‘Actually, Diane, the phone box was in a village called Wardlow.’

      ‘Where’s that?’ She screwed up her eyes to see the map on the wall of the DI’s office, making a show of concentrating to distract him from her irritability.

      ‘On the B6465, about two miles above Monsal Head.’

      Fry kept the frown of concentration on her face. She thought she had a vague idea where Monsal Head was. Somewhere to the south, on the way to Bakewell. If she could just find it on the map before the DI had to point it out …

      ‘Here –’ said Hitchens, swinging round in his chair and smacking a spot on the map with casual accuracy. ‘Fifteen minutes from Edendale, that’s all.’

      ‘Why there?’

      ‘We can’t be sure. At first glance, it might seem a risky choice. It’s a quiet little place, and a stranger might be noticed – or at least an unfamiliar car parked by the road. Normally, we’d have hoped that somebody would remember seeing a person in the phone box around that time.’

      ‘So what wasn’t normal?’

      ‘When a unit arrived in Wardlow, a funeral cortege was just about to leave the village. There had been a burial in the churchyard. Big funeral, lots of mourners. Apparently, the lady who died came from Wardlow originally but moved to Chesterfield and became a well-known businesswoman and a county councillor. The point is, there were a lot of strangers in the village for that hour and a half. Unfamiliar cars parked everywhere.’

      Hitchens drew his finger down the map a short way. ‘As you can see, it’s one of those linear villages, strung out along the road for about three-quarters of a mile. While the funeral was taking place, every bit of available space was occupied, including vehicles parked on the grass verges or on the pavement, where there is one. Some of the villagers were at the funeral themselves, of course. And those that weren’t would hardly have noticed one particular stranger, or one car. On any other day, at any other time. But not just then.’

      ‘So it was an opportunist call? Do you think our man was simply driving around looking for a situation like that to exploit and took the chance?’

      ‘Could be.’

      Fry shook her head. ‘But he had the speech all prepared, didn’t he? That didn’t sound like an off-the-cuff call. He either had a script right there in front of him in the phone box, or he’d practised it until he was word perfect.’

      ‘Yes, I think you’re right.’

      ‘Either way, this man is badly disturbed,’ she said.

      ‘That doesn’t mean he isn’t serious about what he says, Diane.’

      Fry didn’t answer. She was СКАЧАТЬ