Sheldon smiled, but it came out like a twitch, and then he walked in, his head up. All the eyes in the room followed him as he took a place at the front. The only sound in the room was the rustle of an envelope as he pulled out a set of photographs, and then the rip of sticky tape as he pasted them to the whiteboard at the front of the room. They were the pictures from the night before, the body on the hotel bed, strapped to the corners, the face sliced off.
Murmurs went around the room as they took in the images. Sheldon guessed that word of the body had gone round the station, but photographs made things more real.
Sheldon cleared his throat and then turned round to look at the squad. His hands went into fists again. Last night was grim, he said. I was there. I know how it was. We need to catch whoever did this. He tried to make it sound like a rallying call, but he was met by stares and silence. His tongue flicked across his bottom lip, waiting for someone to ask a question, just to fill the gap.
Do we know who the victim is yet? a voice said at the back. Sheldon recognised him. Duncan Lowther, the poster boy for the local CID. He was a hobby copper, inherited wealth funding his life, not the job. His was the Porsche on the car park, to match the expensive cologne, and the weekends spent in the wine bars of Manchester. He talked of great literature and art-house cinema, and didnt wear the usual uniform of pastel shirts and chain store suits, preferring tight grey V-necks and silk ties.
Sheldon had seen too many coppers like him. All glory, no graft.
Thats the first thing we need to work out, Sheldon said. Always start with the victim. And someone needs to go through the incident logs for the county for the last twelve hours, just to check if someone didnt come home.
Extra-marital? someone else said. Maybe a jealous husband?
Sheldon nodded. Maybe. That is one angle. It was cruel, and so revenge seems a motive. He looked at the photographs again. The face was removed and wasnt left in the hotel room. We need to find where it went, because someone took it away for a reason, and so we need to know why.
It could just be a random sick murder, Lowther said. These things do happen. And does it matter why? Its the who thats important.
Sheldon felt the smile grow on his face, although it felt tight and unnatural, and he knew it hadnt reached his eyes. Thank you for your wisdom, but if you get the why, youve got yourself a suspect list. And youve just got yourself the CCTV job. When Lowther looked confused, he added, Go to the hotel and watch the camera footage. Account for everyone staying there. If someone comes in who you cant put in a room, theres your first suspect. Then go through the town cameras. Someone running, or a car going too fast. He looked around the rest of the room. The rest of you. Divide yourself up into twos. Its time to knock on doors. You know the routines. Get the paperwork in, look for the unusual, and lets hope for a forensic hit.
How long have we got the job in Oulton? a voice said at the back. FMIT are coming over.
I want to keep it with us, Sheldon said. The people in this town know us and trust us. You know how it is around here, that they dont like outsiders. If we let FMIT take over, people might clam up and we will lose that local contact.
There were some murmurs of agreement, before everyone looked to the front, startled, as a uniformed officer burst into the room. He looked at the photographs, and then at Sheldon.
Yes? Sheldon said, irritated.
Weve just had a call, sir, from the paper, the Lancashire Express, and he pointed to the photographs taped up at the front. Its about your case. They said theyve got something you have to see.
Chapter Four
Charlie walked to his office, as usual. Even though there had been a burglary, getting there earlier would only make a bad start come sooner.
The stroll shook off most of the booze from the night before, although he couldnt get over the slump as quickly as he could a few years earlier. Managing a hangover was just about patience though, and so he knew he would be over the worst by lunchtime.
His apartment was at the top of the town, just so that they could sell it by the views. It wasnt a long walk; just past the entrance to a council estate, where the street signs were obscured by graffiti, and then along a row of terraced cottages whose views across barren hills had been stolen by the march of progress.
As he walked past the Eagleton, the best greasy spoon in town, with large windows that were permanently steamed up, he heard someone ride alongside him on a bike, the tyres crunching on the small stones in the gutter. Charlies pupils were still sluggish, but he recognised him as Tony, one of his regulars. This was the part of the day when Tony made sense, before he stocked up on bargain vodka and watched the day dissolve into a blur of survival, every day just an attempt to get through to the next one. Sometimes he got into fights, just messy brawls most of the time, and thats when he turned up at Charlies office.
Tony. How are you doing?
Have you seen up by the Grange? he said, pointing over his shoulder, towards the moors. Theres police everywhere.
Theres been a murder, Charlie said. Its probably to do with that.
Who is it?
Charlie shrugged. I dont know.
It must be someone important. Ive never seen so many police.
Charlie smiled. Were all important, Tony, even you.
He was about to set off walking again when Tony said, Ive just had a summons, for threatening behaviour. Im up next Thursday. I was on my way to your office.
You wont get legal aid.
Tony scowled.
Charlie stopped walking and sighed. He knew the scowl. If Charlie wouldnt do it for the goodwill, then someone else would. He remembered refusing to turn out for someone on a freebie, and the client killed someone two months later. The one who did the freebie got the murder.
Guilty plea? Charlie said.
Tony nodded.
Okay, Ill see you there, but if something else comes up, youre on your own. Im yours if Im available.
Tony smiled. Thanks Charlie.
Charlie didnt say anything as Tony set off riding again. People like Tony kept the work flowing. Sometimes he got paid, and sometimes he didnt, but Charlie had to look after him for those days when he did, because he had chosen criminal law, the budget end of the trade. He remembered the brochures for high-earning corporate firms that littered the career racks at his university, attracting those with polished accents. The only child from his family to go to university, Charlie guessed at his limitations and aimed low. At least he achieved his aim, and it didnt seem like failure.
As Tony rode away down the hill, Charlie noticed a group of people on the other side of the street. Six of them, all in black clothes, and Charlie thought they were looking straight at him. They were near the office, and even as Tony went past them, they didnt change their focus.
That made him pause. For every client he had to defend, it usually meant upsetting someone else, like a victim or a police officer. Charlie paused for a moment, made some pretence about checking his phone, but when he looked up again, the group were no longer there.
Charlie frowned. Perhaps he had misread it. He shrugged and set off walking the last hundred yards to his office, above a kebab shop and accessed by a door squeezed between it and a tattoo parlour.
Charlie had set up his own practice five years earlier, when the firm he trained with started to replace the lawyers with paralegals. He had known that he was next in line, and so he went on his own. The dream of building an empire soon soured, with long hours just to make the practice break even, with too much time spent on practice management, just to prove that he was fit to do legal aid work. He had been on the brink of walking away from it all, knowing that he wasnt cut out for it and that a job behind a bar might make him happier, when Amelia had approached him and said that she wanted to buy in.
Amelia Diaz. He had seen her a few times around court before then, and her appearance was hard to forget, with long dark hair and an olive-tanned cleavage that she flaunted at men to get what she wanted, and at women just to show that she had it. Her father was from Barcelona and had married an Englishwoman, except a northern upbringing had given her more brashness than Catalan swagger. Charlie hadnt wanted a partner, but he was too desperate to turn her away, because it let him carry on being the only thing he knew he was good at a Magistrates Court legal hack.
Amelia Diaz. He had seen her a few times around court before then, and her appearance was hard to forget, with long dark hair and an olive-tanned cleavage that she flaunted at men to get what she wanted, and at women just to show that she had it. Her father was from Barcelona and had married an Englishwoman, except a northern upbringing had given her more brashness than Catalan swagger. Charlie hadnt wanted a partner, but he was too desperate to turn her away, because it let him carry on being the only thing he knew he was good at a Magistrates Court legal hack.
As he climbed the stairs, he could hear the coffee machine bubbling.
Amelia?
She popped her head around the door of her office and scowled. Glad you could make it. Come in.
Charlie rolled his eyes at Linda, who had been his receptionist and secretary and office manager since he started, a woman with the stature of a bowling ball, with hair cropped close to her head.
He grabbed a coffee from the machine before going into Amelias room. There was someone else in reception, a skinny teenager, late teens, in a blue skirt and jacket. Mixed race, her teeth white as she smiled, bright against her caramel skin and the loose frizz of her hair. Charlie raised a hand in greeting and fought the urge to smooth down his hair. Then he caught his reflection in a picture frame, grey streaks and messy whiskers, and looked away. He was a generation too old, and he wore every year of it.
Amelias office was minimalist, with a coat of white paint and a glass desk in one corner. The carpet had been taken away and the floorboards stripped and stained white to match the walls, the old curtains replaced with modern office blinds. A computer hummed on the corner of the desk.