A Box Full of Darkness (Wilson Book 5) by Fee Derek Read Free Book Online Page A

‘Not exactly what we’re used to. I’ve had to scrounge both office space and equipment. Since we’re a task force, nobody wants to commit resources to us. So, who did you piss off for them to send you to me?’
    ‘Let’s not play that game,’ Wilson said. ‘You probably know what I had for breakfast this morning.’
    ‘Your reputation precedes you. Resources are pretty thin on the ground so I’m happy enough to have you. But you’re a senior officer and there are not that many around. I was expecting to get an inspector who’s on his way up and needs a bit of light investigation experience. Have they briefed you?’
    ‘Are you kidding? All I know is that it’s something to do with a historical crime.’
    Sinclair laughed. ‘Bloody typical. For guys like you who’ve been on the coalface working up an old case might appear to be a bit mundane. Going back over cold cases is not the same work as following up on a fresh corpse.  There isn’t the same dynamic when the victim has been in the ground for maybe thirty years, when the statements, where they exist, were taken by someone who could have been classed as the village idiot, and where the perpetrators are as long in the ground as the victims.  The job is not to apprehend the culprit but to ensure that the families of the victims have closure.’
    ‘But in the case where the culprit is still breathing?’ Wilson asked.
    ‘Then we can pass the new evidence up the ladder to Crime Operations and they decide what to do with it. Small beer, eh, in comparison to dealing with the murder of Lizzie Rice or Ivan McIlroy. We’re about a million miles away from high profile court cases and names in the paper. Does that bother you?’
    Wilson thought about the piece in the Chronicle about his evidence at the Cummerford trial. McDevitt had hyped him up and he was sure that it hadn’t gone down well with HQ. ‘At the moment, not really. But I’m at a loss trying to figure out what I’m doing here.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I thought that cold cases were the remit of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET). I suppose you’ve heard of them.’
    Sinclair coughed. ‘Of course I have. They were set up in 2005 to carry out investigations into murders committed between 1968 and 1998. It was supposed to bring closure to the bereaved families who still had unanswered questions about the death or disappearance of their loved ones. If I remember correctly, the initial team consisted of 100 officers seconded from police forces throughout the United Kingdom. Even a large task force like that couldn’t deal with the backlog of crimes, so a very large number of “unsolved” murders were never reviewed. The HET shut its doors in 2011 and since then some politicians would like to write the whole thirty-year period off and to forget the past. But Joe Public didn’t like that, so there has to be some unit created as a sop to the families that are still pissed off. The PSNI is still committed to solving historical crimes.’
    ‘So we’re a sop to Joe Public,’ Wilson said.
    ‘I thought you’d be impressed. I suppose you think this kind of investigation is beneath you.’
    ‘I wouldn’t exactly say that. I’ve looked at what the HET accomplished. Lots of conclusions about what a mess the RUC made of the investigation of crime but very little of putting the killers behind bars. I don’t want to know how or why somebody fucked up. It’s my job to make sure the murderers go down.’
    Sinclair rubbed his well-coiffed beard. ‘And you don’t think someone will go down for a murder that happened forty-two years ago?’
    Wilson smiled. ‘What do you think? Since I was handed this shit assignment, I’ve been wondering why. I suppose that since I put the venerable DCC into the frame for giving a serial killer access to confidential police briefings, I’m being punished. But they could have done that by reducing me to pounding a beat in Crossmaglen. What have you done to