We Are Death by Douglas Lindsay Read Free Book Online

finally let the cat out of the bag, and suddenly we’ve got a dead guy on our patch.’
    He rubbed the stubble on his chin, stared briefly out the window.
    ‘Can’t explain it,’ he continued. ‘I know we always say there are no coincidences, but this might just be one of them. Have been thinking about it all day. Soon as I got the phone call this morning. These people, whoever they are, how did they know? Are they watching us? Is there a camera up there?’ He indicated the corner of the room. Haynes half-turned. ‘I really can’t think. We’ll let it go for now, but, you know, obviously keep it in mind.’
    Haynes nodded, stared at his boss for a few moments, not entirely convinced.
    ‘Tell me what you’ve got on Carter?’ asked Jericho, and Haynes looked down at his notebook.
    ‘Right. Full-time climber. I mean, that’s his job. Gets sponsorship from various people, gets paid to go on expeditions.’
    ‘Who are his sponsors?’
    ‘It’s a miasma. Nothing major, just a lot of small deals. Apparently it’s what these people do. Spoke to a couple of other climbers who knew him. They spend half their time trying to fix up money, get these little deals from Go-Pro and Red Bull and North Face and whoever. Nivea probably. Anyone. That’s how they live. Carter was good enough that people took him along, paid him, just to have him there. Which is what happened this spring. Big expedition to Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas.’
    Jericho kept his eyes on Haynes, but the sergeant noted the slightly faltering look. The shadow that crossed him. As though the name of the mountain meant something.
    ‘What?’ asked Haynes.
    Jericho shook his head, shook away the thought of it.
    ‘Nothing. I don’t know it.’
    ‘Highest in the world after Everest and K2. For a while, like in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Victorians thought it was the highest.’
    ‘You’ve been looking at Wikipedia,’ said Jericho, humourlessly.
    Haynes laughed.
    ‘Rumbled,’ he said. ‘There’s some rich guy, Thomas Geyerson, one of these billionaire Americans with nothing else to do with his money, spends his time travelling the world, climbing mountains. Organised an expedition, intended to climb all five peaks of Kangchenjunga.’
    ‘Five peaks?’ said Jericho, his voice slightly distracted.
    ‘Five. Yes. So they did it, a team of five guys, and a group of Sherpa. I spoke to a guy in a hotel in Sikkim where they were based before heading off, and after they returned.’
    ‘Did you manage to contact the other four?’
    Haynes shook his head.
    ‘Haven’t got that far yet. Anyway, he does that, then it looks like he went on a bit of a party spree. Down through Asia, Oz and NZ, then flew to the US, hired a car and drove from LA to New York, stopping in Vegas and Chicago along the way, amongst other places. Flew from New York yesterday morning, arrived in Wells some time in the evening.’
    ‘And now he’s dead.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Any hint in all of that why he might have been killed?’
    Haynes shook his head.
    ‘Right, thanks, Sergeant. Keep at it, try to find these other four members. If that was the last thing he did professionally, you never know. Or it might be he pissed someone off while traipsing round the world. That’s going to be a bag of snakes trying to sort that lot out.’
    A slight shake of the head, then he straightened up, stretched his neck.
    ‘I’m going to see his dad. Lives in north Dorset. Sturminster Newton.’
    ‘Nice. I ran the marathon there a couple of years ago.’
    ‘I remember. You nearly died.’
    Haynes laughed as he got up, then he stopped and looked slightly concerned.
    ‘You’re not breaking it to him, are you? He already–’
    ‘The local guys went round to tell him, it’s fine.’
    ‘OK, good.’
    *
    J ericho was sitting at a large kitchen table, while a man with a very straight back was making a pot of tea. The kitchen was large and opened out to a dining room with doors out