Hail and Farewell (The Lakeland Murders) by J. J. Salkeld Read Free Book Online

or seeing him after it happened. The game moved back up onto the car park, see, and that’s when his body was seen by one of the spectators. One of the lad’s second cousins too, it was.’
    ‘And have we got statements from these three lads? The associates of Hayton, I mean.’
    ‘Two of them, aye. The other is AWOL at present. Name of Pete Crone. He’ll not have gone far.’
    ‘Find him, and bring him in. Today, please.’
    ‘Will do, ma’am.’
    ‘Right, CCTV then. Yes, Jenny.’
    ‘Jenny Walker, from analysis branch at HQ. The council office’s car park is well covered by CCTV, but the game was right on the edge of the car park, and on the bank of the beck, for all of the fifteen minutes before the death. And that area isn’t well lit either. There’s no other CCTV coverage of that part of the Cloffocks, I’m afraid. But one bit of good news. On the CCTV you can see a bloke taking pictures or something, and I believe that we’ve got his details. He’s staying at a hotel in town, and will be here for the next game tomorrow. night So after this meeting I’m going to see him, and I’ll take copies of all of his footage, or whatever it is he’s got.’
    ‘OK, good, let me know how you get on. Now, what have we got on the victim? Let’s take the timeline first.’
    ‘DS David Manson, ma’am, on attachment from Cockermouth nick until the cavalry arrived, like. The victim was at work on Friday, over at the training shoe factory up the coast. He did the eight-’til-two shift, then went home, out to the pub at half four, and was in the game from the off at half six. As far as we know he was in or about the whole time, until he died of course.’
    ‘Which pub?’ asked Mann.
    ‘Workingman’s club in town. Cheapest pint in Workington, if you’re interested.’
    Jane Francis didn’t look interested. ‘What about the background checks on the deceased?’
    Manson looked at his notes. ‘No record, not even a caution. It’s not natural, isn’t that. No known gang affiliations. Lived at home, and they’re still looking at his finances and internet history. But I had a quick look at his bank statements. Not what you’d call a high-roller.’
    ‘So nothing to support the hypothesis that the victim was involved in the alleged feud between the two main criminal gangs operating in this area? said Jane.
    There was a long pause, no-one replied, and a couple of glances were cast in the direction of the closed door on the far side of the office. Jane took the hint.
    ‘All right, everyone, let’s get back to it. We need to know exactly who was in that game, every last one of them, and which of the players had any reason to kill Chris Brown. At the moment we’ve got fifty suspects, so let’s narrow that down, shall we?’
    ‘Forty eight,’ said Manson. ‘Two of them were our own, you know.’
     
     
    Ten minutes later Jane and Ian Mann were sitting on the opposite side of the meeting table in DI Smith’s office. Jane was facing Smith, and Mann was facing Hodgson. They hadn’t been offered a coffee.
    ‘Thanks for making time to brief us’ said Jane.
    ‘We’ve already given our statements’ said Smith.
    ‘I know that, and they’re really helpful, sir, thanks. But it was a bit of background, context, that I was after.’
    ‘Oh, aye? You think it’s important, do you? To understand the background, like?’
    Jane knew exactly what he meant by that. She was going to let it go, then changed her mind.
    ‘Look, sir, let’s just get one thing straight. We didn’t choose this job, but we’re here now. And the sooner we get this investigation completed the sooner we can get on our way, OK?’
    Smith shrugged. He was a heavy-set, middle aged man, but there was still something of the teenager about the gesture. ‘So what background are you after?’
    ‘We wanted to understand a bit more about how you came to make the decision to get involved in the game yourself. Is that something you usually