Read Online Dead Reckoning by Patricia Hall - Free Book Online Page B

don’t want to go winding anyone up if we don’t have to. We need to be sure. Do you understand?”
    â€œYes, sarge,” Sharif said, his plump boyish face still betraying signs of sulkiness as they made their way up to the CID office and Mower went to report to DCI Thackeray on what he had learned so far about an attack with corrosive liquid on a fourteen-year-old girl, which had shaken even an old hand like Mower who reckoned he had seen everything that human beings could inflict on one another.
    Thackeray listened to Mower’s report with a deepening anger of his own.
    â€œThis one will make it into the Gazette,” he said. “Laura was complaining that Ted Grant seems to be ignoring the attacks and harassment that have been going on, but he won’t be able to ignore this. So we need our facts straight. I’ll
talk to the Super and he’ll want to brief the Press Office, so can you get the family’s complaint clear by lunchtime. Where was she going, this kid?”
    â€œTo school,” Mower said. “She’s at that Muslim girls’ school near Aysgarth Lane.”
    â€œOn her own, was she?”
    â€œWith her two younger sisters. It’s not far from where she lives, but she says that there was no one around in that little alleyway that goes up between the Lane and Alma Street at the back of Earnshaws mill. They take that route every day, apparently. Then these lads appeared, hoods up, running, and as they went past she felt this liquid hit her. It was acid of some sort, the hospital’s analysing it. Burnt her scalp and cheek badly and splashed into one eye.”
    â€œWhat do the doctors say?”
    â€œBloody equivocal, as usual, but the burns will probably leave scars and the eye damage could go either way. Too soon to tell.”
    â€œIs the girl sure her attackers were white?”
    Mower shrugged.
    â€œShe says she didn’t get a good look. It’s a bit of a bastard this one.”
    â€œAnd one we need to sort out sharpish,” Thackeray said. “It’s not what we needed with the Broadley murder investigation set to go now we’ve got an identification, but of the two it could be the more tricky to handle. So watch it.”
    â€œI’m taking Omar with me to see the family,” Mower said.
    â€œMakes sense,” Thackeray said. “Make sure he doesn’t get too emotionally involved.”
    â€œI’ll watch him, guv,” Mower said, his smile grim. “Like his guardian angel.”
    Thackeray got to his feet slowly and made his way upstairs to Superintendent Longley’s office. His boss was leaning
back in his swivel chair, his fingers tented in front of him and his usually jovial features sombre.
    â€œThis is a beggar we could have done without, Michael,” he said, without preamble. “Who’ve you put in charge?”
    â€œMower,” Thackeray said. “With Sharif in tow. They’ll not put size ten boots where they shouldn’t, with the family at least.”
    â€œWe’re sure it’s racist, are we?”
    â€œNo, not yet,” Thackeray said. “But I’d put money on it. And Mower knows the local Nazis as well as anyone. He knows which stones to turn over and which slimy bastards’ tails to salt.”
    â€œAre they getting any reinforcements from outside, d’you reckon?” Longley asked. Thackeray shrugged.
    â€œWe’ll check that out when Mower’s made sure that there aren’t any other reasons why this girl might have been attacked …”
    â€œFamily reasons, you mean?”
    â€œExactly. We’ll check that out first — carefully — and then consult Special Branch about extremist movements. We’ve not had serious attacks on women before but this may not be the first. There’s been a lot of low-level harassment going on in the streets for a while, and a few gangs of lads facing off. But it’s not as