Dead And Buried (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth Read Free Book Online Page B

time. That was what he was put on this earth for. Diane Fry had just been an irritant, sent to make him appreciate better things. He ought to be thankful that she’d existed. If only he could bring himself to be thankful that she had gone.
    Fry seemed to be gazing at something, but not the nearby scene. She was staring into the distance, where the smoke was still billowing towards them across the moor. The wind must have changed again.
    ‘Wemight have to move,’ said Cooper.
    ‘Possibly.’
    But then he realised that she was gazing in the direction of the Light House, even though it wasn’t visible from here. He wondered what it was that fascinated her. Had she perhaps dredged up a fragment of memory? But if he knew Diane Fry, she would have pushed any memories she didn’t want right to the back of her mind, where they would never be found.
    ‘Why did it close?’ she said.
    ‘The pub? Lots of reasons.’
    Cooper knew there were several factors contributing to the closures of rural pubs. The traditional lunchtime trade had been dying on its feet. The crackdown on drinking and driving, the ban on smoking in public places, the availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets – they’d all played their part in the slow erosion of pub business. For many licensees, the increase in VAT to twenty per cent had been the last straw, a sudden hike in their quarterly bills too much to cope with at the wrong time.
    In addition, the Light House had always been one of the places worst affected by spells of bad weather in the winter. Prolonged periods of snow meant no one could reach the pub for weeks. Over Christmas and New Year, that was a disaster. The holiday period was the one time of the year when a pub could expect to make a profit. Cancelled bookings and an empty bar turned a bad situation into a catastrophe beyond recovery.
    He started to tell Fry this, but soon ground to a halt. Not for the first time, he had the distinct impression that she wasn’t listening to him, that she was just letting him talk as a form of noise to fill the void, the way you might play familiar music on a long car journey. It allowed your thoughts to be elsewhere.
    ‘Isthere … anything I can do, Diane?’ he said instead.
    She looked at him then, as if he’d just appeared at her side.
    ‘No. You’ve done well.’
    ‘Oh, thanks.’
    Cooper turned aside, hoping to get more sense out of Wayne Abbott. At least he wouldn’t be so patronising.
    ‘Who was that?’ said Fry suddenly.
    Cooper stopped and turned back in surprise. ‘Where?’
    ‘Didn’t you see them? Running across the moor.’
    ‘Towards the fire?’
    ‘Into the smoke, anyway. It was only a second, then I lost sight of him again.’
    ‘Him?’
    ‘Well … I can’t be sure. It was so quick it could have been anybody, I suppose.’
    Cooper had automatically taken a step towards the hill, but she grabbed his arm and held him back.
    ‘There’s no point, Ben. Let’s warn the firefighters to keep an eye out for them.’
    He stopped, accepting her decision without question, and surprised at himself for it. He looked at her hand on his arm, wondered why he was so struck by her use of his first name. It sounded odd after all these months.
    Fry dropped her hand.
    ‘You’re getting married soon,’ she said.
    ‘Yes.’
    Small talk now? Surely not.
    ‘Good.’
    Gavin Murfin appeared, trudging up the track in his green anorak with an armful of files. He wheezed, dropped the files on the ground and threw a mock salute.
    ‘Messenger boy reporting, ma’am. They said you wanted these.’
    ‘Thanks,’ saidFry. ‘But I don’t know why they sent you. Any uniform would have done. A PCSO could have managed the job.’
    Murfin smiled cheerfully. ‘In view of my vast experience as a detective, they thought I might be of some use to you.’
    ‘I doubt it.’ Fry picked up the files and began to turn away.
    ‘So how’s life at the East Midlands Special Operations