Read Online Bloody Winter: A Pyke Mystery by Andrew Pepper - Free Book Online Page A

you won’t disappoint us. You don’t need me to tell you what’s at stake for this family.’
    ‘I can’t make any promises but I’ll do everything in my power to make sure your grandson is returned to you safe and well.’ Heglanced over at the door. ‘Perhaps you could start by telling me what happened …’
    It was Jonah who spoke. ‘Every week, always on a Monday, my wife Catherine takes the boy to place fresh flowers on our other child’s grave.’ He must have seen Pyke’s expression because he added, ‘We had a lovely little girl, Mary. I’m sorry to say she died two summers ago from consumption.’
    ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’
    Jonah nodded blankly. ‘One of the drivers took them. It’s a fifteen-minute ride to the cemetery at Vaynor. On the way back, just past the ruined castle, four bandits appeared out of nowhere, brandishing pistols, their faces masked by handkerchiefs. One of them seized my son, William. They dragged him into the bushes and warned my wife and driver not to follow. This took place a week ago yesterday.’
    Pyke made a mental note of the reference to the cemetery at Vaynor. Wasn’t that where Smyth had said John Johns, the prospective translator, lived? ‘I’ll need to talk to the driver, tonight, if possible. Your wife, too.’
    Jonah exchanged a look with his father. ‘I’ll have someone summon the driver.’
    ‘And have you received a ransom demand?’
    ‘Aye.’ Jonah rummaged in his trouser pocket. ‘I’m assuming you haven’t heard of an organisation called Scottish Cattle.’
    Pyke shook his head. At this point, he didn’t want them to know he’d already talked to Jones and Smyth. ‘No. Who are they?’
    Jonah found the envelope he’d been looking for but didn’t hand it straight over to Pyke.
    ‘Terrorists,’ croaked the old man. ‘They claim to be the voice of the working man but they’re nothing but terrorists.’
    ‘A few years ago,’ Jonah said, ‘there was a strike at the works. It was particularly nasty and coincided with a deep depression. Orders for our iron were non-existent and we had no choice but to cut wages and lay off workers. This was about a year after the General Strike, so tensions were still running high. You couldn’t move in the town without running into Chartists from England spoiling for a fight. To cut a long story short, we shipped over from Ireland all the workers we could lay our hands on and rolled up our sleeves for afight. The strike lasted three weeks. The strikers tried to blockade the works but our lads stood up for themselves and the furnaces remained lit. People on both sides got hurt but the strikers, egged on by the likes of Scottish Cattle, came off worse. Finally the strike collapsed and they came back to us, begging for their old jobs. Scottish Cattle were extremely bitter and accused us, unfairly, of all kinds of devious practices. The rancour remains to this day.’
    ‘And you think this is why they kidnapped your son?’
    ‘Actually, Detective-inspector, we aren’t convinced that the Bull have our boy, in spite of the first ransom letter we received a few days ago.’ Zephaniah kicked the blanket off his legs. ‘Show it to him, boy.’
    Jonah bristled at the old man’s reference to him as a ‘boy’ but said nothing. Instead he handed the letter to Pyke. Briefly Pyke surveyed its contents.
Notice. Remember that the Bool is on rode every night, he will catch you at last. We hereby tell you we have your son. Be on the look out, pig. Raid your coffers of twenty thousand. Do as the Bool says or your son shall be kilt. You will believe it. O madmen, how long will ye continue in your madness.
    Pyke handed the letter back to Jonah but kept his thoughts to himself. Even to a family like the Hancocks, twenty thousand was a sizeable amount of money. ‘You said this was the first letter?’
    ‘It turned up last Thursday morning. William was kidnapped on the Monday.’ Jonah removed another envelope from