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

on Chris Brown. She’d found absolutely nothing to arouse her suspicions about him. When she’d finished she sat and looked, without reading or even seeing, at her computer screen. She told herself that she’d kept an open mind, but she knew what she’d wanted to find. She’d wanted him to have died an innocent, and she wanted George Hayton and Jack Moffett to confirm that for her. She might not believe them, but she wanted to hear them both say it anyway.
     
    She’d agreed with Ian Mann to call on Moffett first, and he punched the address into his sat-nav and drove them there. The house was on the edge of a village a few miles inland from Workington, and Mann stopped the car at the end of the long drive.
    ‘He’s got protection, look.’
    Jane did look and didn’t see anyone, so Mann pointed them out.
    ‘I doubt they’re local lads’ he said, when he pulled up in from of the house. ‘They look too sharp and well trained. Just stay in the car for a minute, Jane. They know we’re coming, but I’ll have a quick word first.’
    Mann opened the door and got out of the car. One of the security men walked over, and Jane saw another out of the corner of her eye.
    ‘Are you carrying?’ the security guard was saying to Mann.
    ‘No. Are you?’
    ‘Mind if I check?’
    ‘Aye, I do.’ Mann showed his warrant card, and the guard studiously ignored it.
    ‘Then you need to get back in the car, and drive back to where you came from.’
    ‘That won’t happen. We’re here on lawful business. Either we walk in and talk to your boss right now, or I radio in and we get a search warrant and a van full of coppers, and then we take him down to the nick. You and your mates too, I expect. And just to be on the safe side I’ll call in armed response as well.’
    ‘All right. Follow me.’
     
    Mann tapped on the window and Jane got out. The house was a Victorian mansion, of the manicured and polished sort, which Mann guessed had once belonged to a local mine owner. Moffett was waiting for them in the study. Jane introduced herself and Mann, and they showed their ID.
    ‘It’s about time that your lot got some new blood. I was just saying that to the Chief Constable, when I last saw him.’
    ‘We’re only here temporarily’ said Jane, ‘looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of Chris Brown at the Uppies and Downies game on Friday evening.’
    ‘Aye, terrible that was. Tragic. But shit happens, as they say.’
    ‘And you’re expecting some shit to happen to you too, are you?’ said Mann.
    ‘It speaks. What gives you that idea, son?’
    ‘Your security. Not local, I’d say.’
    ‘What makes you say that?’
    ‘Just a guess.’
    ‘Oh aye? And why wouldn’t I give the work to local lads?’
    ‘Because you don’t trust them. You’d rather have people who you pay for their loyalty.’
    ‘And why would that be?’
    ‘Because you’re frightened.’
    Moffett’s face was reddening under his tan. ’You must be confusing me with someone else, son. Jack Moffett isn’t scared of nobody. You ask anyone.’
    ‘Like George Hayton?’
    ‘Especially him. I remember when he was nicking the stereos out of cars and selling them for a fiver a time. Always had bits of glass in his hair, did young George.’
    ‘Times change though, eh?’
     
    Moffett looked steadily at Jane. ‘You just keep him as your wind-up merchant, do you, love?’
    ‘DS Mann is just concerned for your safety, that’s all.’
    ‘I can take care of myself.’
    ‘We do hope so. One death might be an accident, but two would look like carelessness.’
    ‘Like I said, that kid died in an accident. I’ve never even met him. Wouldn’t have known him from Adam.’
    ‘But you can confirm that some of your boys and some of Hayton’s did meet up to settle their differences in the game on Friday last?’
    ‘Mebbe. There’s no law against it.’
    ‘Actually, there are a number of laws against it, and we could arrest several of your lads