Val McDermid 3-Book Crime Collection: A Place of Execution, The Distant Echo, The Grave Tattoo. Val McDermid

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СКАЧАТЬ took to be a laugh. ‘Looks young enough to be your lad. What’s up, then? Must be a damn sight more than looking for a lock-in if you’ve brought the organ grinder, Tommy.’

      ‘Peter Crowther drinks here,’ Clough said.

      ‘Not after tonight, he doesn’t,’ Ferguson said, his hands unconsciously bunching into fists. ‘I’m not having somebody that interferes with young lasses in my bar.’

      ‘What happened tonight?’ George asked.

      ‘Crowther turned up same time as usual. I thought he had more guts than I’d given him credit for, but it turned out he had no idea anybody knew he’d been in the nick all day. I shoved the paper under his nose and he near about burst into tears. I told him if he wanted a drink in Buxton tonight, he’d better find a pub where nobody could read. Then I told him he were barred for life.’ Ferguson’s chest was puffed out, his shoulders flexed back.

      ‘Very bold of you,’ George said drily. ‘I take it Mr Crowther left?’

      ‘Of course he bloody left,’ Ferguson said indignantly.

      ‘Do you know where he went?’ Clough asked.

      ‘I don’t know and I don’t bloody care,’ Ferguson said negligently.

      ‘For the record, Mr Ferguson,’ George said, ‘Mr Crowther had nothing to do with the disappearance of his niece. The story in this week’s Courant is a work of fiction. I’d be obliged if you’d lift your ban before your licence comes up for renewal.’ He turned on his heel and walked back into weather that suddenly seemed more hospitable than the pub landlord.

      ‘You should pay attention to Mr Bennett,’ Clough said as he followed. ‘He’s going to be around for a very long time.’ Ferguson glared at George’s back but said nothing.

      They sat in the car and stared gloomily at the swirling sleet. ‘Better go back to the station and put out a request for patrols to keep a lookout for Crowther,’ George sighed. ‘Do you think tomorrow’s going to be any better than today?’

       Saturday, 14^th December 1963. 7.18 a.m.

      There was little he could contribute to the search plans that the senior uniformed officers were making for the day, so George wandered back upstairs to his office and started the weary task of ploughing through witness statements in search of something that might produce a lead. He was reading an interview with Alison’s English teacher when Tommy Clough stuck his head round the door.

      ‘Have you seen this morning’s Daily News?’ he asked.

      ‘No. The paper shop was still shut when I got in.’

      Clough came in and closed the door behind him. ‘Train’s just in from Manchester. I got one off the driver. I don’t think you’re going to like it.’ He dropped the paper in front of George, folded open to page three.

      

       Clairvoyant joins hunt for missing Alison By our Staff Reporter

      A top French clairvoyant has revealed exclusively to the Daily News that missing schoolgirl Alison Carter is still alive.

      And she has offered her services in the search for the thirteen-year-old whose disappearance has baffled police.

      Madame Colette Charest’s clairvoyant powers have amazed police in her native country and she believes she can help find Alison, who vanished from home on Wednesday.

      With the permission of Alison’s worried parents, a member of our news team phoned Mme Charest and gave her details of Alison’s movements after she returned from school to the Derbyshire hamlet of Scardale where she lived with her mother and stepfather.

       Safe and well

      Mme Charest said she was convinced the girl was still alive.

      ‘She is safe,’ she told our staff reporter. ’She went away with somebody that she knew and they travelled in a car.

      ’She is in a small house, one of a row of many similar houses. I think it is in a city, but it is many miles from her home.

      ‘She has been in danger, but I sense that she is safe for the time being.’

      Mme Charest explained that she could not give any more detailed information without a photograph of Alison and a map of the area. These have been sent to Lyons, France, by special air courier and a full report of Mme Charest’s conclusions will appear in Monday’s News.

       Police pledge

      A police spokesman said, ’We have no plans to consult a clairvoyant, though we do not dismiss Mme Charest’s comments out of hand.

      ‘Stranger things have happened.’

      Of Mme Charest, French gendarmes have been quoted as saying that her powers were ‘uncanny’ after she had given assistance in cases where police had no leads.

      Weather permitting, members of the public will today join Derbyshire police in further searches of the bleak moors and dales around Scardale.

      George screwed the paper into a tight ball and threw it across the room. ‘Don bloody Smart,’ he swore, his cheeks scarlet against the dark bruises under his eyes. ‘Can you believe that? Safe and well?’

      ‘I suppose it’s possible.’ Clough leaned against a filing cabinet and lit a cigarette.

      ‘Of course it’s possible,’ George exploded. ‘It’s possible that Martin Bormann is alive and well and living in Chesterfield, but it’s not bloody likely, is it? What’s this going to do to Ruth Hawkin? I can’t believe any newspaper could be so irresponsible! And who gave them that bloody silly quote?’

      ‘Nobody, probably. Smart likely invented it.’

      ‘Oh God,’ George sighed. ‘What’s it going to be next, Tommy?’ He took a cigarette from the packet lying already open on his desk and inhaled deeply. ‘I’ll buy you another paper,’ he apologized. ‘Anything you like except the News. Oh God, he’ll be at the press conference, grinning like a Cheshire cat.’

      ‘You could get the super to ban him.’

      ‘I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.’ George pushed his chair back and stood up. ‘Let’s go to Scardale. I’m sick of these four walls.’

      Smart was there before them. As they pulled up by the village green, they saw him pushing a paper through the letterbox of Crag Cottage. While they looked on, Smart carried on to Meadow Cottage and delivered another copy. ‘I’ll swing for him,’ George said, opening the car door and striding across the green to confront the journalist. With a sigh, Clough climbed out and followed him.

      ‘Congratulations,’ George snarled while he was still a few strides away from Smart.

      ‘Good story, wasn’t it?’ Smart said, his foxy face pleasantly surprised. ‘I didn’t think an educated man like you would have appreciated it, though.’

      ‘Oh, СКАЧАТЬ