Three Steps to Hell by Mike Holman Read Free Book Online Page A

make a complaint, is far from helpful and wouldn’t support police proceedings even if I did get to the bottom of it. He’s an arrogant shit anyway and probably deserved it.”
    “I’ll ask Barry Lowe to cut you some slack over the next few days Tom so you can spend some time trying to locate Peterson. The DI will have to do some CID work for a few days and run the office himself like he should be doing, it will do him good.”
    “That’ll be a culture shock for the lads,” chuckled Tom.
    Superintendent Davies laughed loudly and replied, “Yes I’m sure they will be most impressed. Thanks for your help on this one Tom.”
    “Pleasure Sir, thanks for the coffee.”
    The Superintendent handed Tom a piece of paper with the full address and phone number of the Petersons and a copy of the missing persons report. Tom left the office and returned to his cubbyhole, as he liked to call his own office.
    He settled down behind his desk for the rest of the morning to catch up with some essential paperwork and phone enquiries.

CHAPTER 5
    “Are you in there Sarge?” shouted Dave Sweeting from the main CID office.
    “Yep, sure am Sweetface.”
    “Sorry Sarge, didn’t wake you did I?” joked Dave as he put his head round Tom’s office door.
    “Very funny Dave, what’s up?”
    “Just to tell you that we’ve finished with those prisoners, all sorted, they admitted the school job and the theft of the car and they’re having another five cars TIC.” (An abbreviation for taken into consideration. A means by which criminals can admit other offences without being formally charged with all of them. They are merely taken into consideration by the court at the time of sentence).
    “They’ve been charged, fingerprinted and photographed and the Custody Sgt. is going to release them. Martin’s got other things to do so I’m going to have some lunch if that’s okay?”
    Tom glanced at his watch, 1.30pm.
    “I’m feeling a bit peckish myself, what have you got on this afternoon Dave?”
    “Trousers, shirt and tie Sarge.”
    “Is it ever possible to get a serious answer out of you?”
    Sweetface gave one of his laddish grins and replied, “I’ve got plenty to do but nothing urgent, why?”
    “I want you to come and do an enquiry with me this afternoon down at East Point, but first I’m going to buy you lunch.”
    Dave Sweeting started slapping his cheeks in pretence of shock.
    “What?” said Tom.
    “I’m trying to wake myself up Sarge, I must be dreaming, thought you said buy me lunch.”
    “Get your jacket we’ll have a walk into town.”
    “Oh, by the way I’ve got a message for you Sarge, I’ll tell you on the way.”
    Both men took a short stroll into town. Dave Sweeting explained that the message he had for Tom was from the PC who took Dorsey home. That his story checked out about the car running out of fuel and that there was some blood on the passenger seat of the car and also some on the handset of the public telephone kiosk in the old café layby on the coast road. Also that Scenes of Crime had been asked to take samples from both.
    “Where are you taking me for lunch Sarge?”
    “To the Bull in the Market Square.”
    “Oh real upper class lunch then,” laughed Sweetface.
    Although fairly close to the coast, Brampton was not a tourist seaside town as it had a very rocky and quite treacherous coastline dotted with a few very small sandy coves. Most of these were owned by private landowners like the Petersons and some were occasionally visited by dog walkers, ramblers and locals where permitted, but were generally very quiet and virtually unused. Brampton itself was an old rural market town. Many years ago the existence of the town had revolved around a bustling cattle market which was where the cinema and leisure centre stood today. As a town it catered adequately for the needs of its 80,000 inhabitants and boasted an excellent array of general shops and leisure facilities. The main shopping areas in