Riddled on the Sands (The Lakeland Murders) (24 page)

‘Three, and that’s my final word.’

‘Done’ said Hall. ‘I’ll tell him right now, if that’s OK with you, ma’am.’

When Jane got back to the office she was tired and hot, but she did have a solid, positive ID on Mike Skelton. So she was in a good mood. She’d made a contribution. But she did frown when she saw the pile of emails from Perkins still sitting on her desk. Whoever sent that letter, and maybe torched his garage too, seemed like decidedly small beer in comparison with linked murders and an organised crime connection.

She’d phoned Andy when the old woman had made the ID, and he’d told her to come back to the office and he’d have Skelton picked up by uniformed officers.

‘You lead,’ Hall said when she arrived, ‘and I’ll put Ray in with you. But do me a favour, and try to get him to stop grinning before you start. I keep telling him that he’s only got an extra three months, but he seems to have convinced himself that he’s irreplaceable, and that further extensions are as good as his.’

‘And are they?’

‘Nope. I suppose if the Bell/Capstick investigation drags on then it’s possible he’d get another three or something, but he just doesn’t seem to have noticed that apart from senior officers there’s barely an over fifty year-old left in the place. And he’s supposed to be a detective. But as I’m always saying, confirmation bias is a powerful thing, and something to be guarded against.’

‘I remember. I’ve had the lecture. And you’ll be one soon too, an over fifty, I mean.’

‘Don’t remind me. Anyway, try to slip something into Ray’s tea to get him calmed down. We’ve picked up Skelton now, so you’ll be on in about twenty minutes.’

Far out in the Bay the tide had turned, unseen and unremarked, but at the very moment predicted by the tide tables. Ian Mann was taking a turn on the metal detector, and giving one of the lads a rest. Geoff Atkinson was working another grid, about ten metres away, while one of other lads had a blow. They were all working their way back towards the shore, and Mann reckoned he was only about fifty yards out at the closest end of his grid. The first few times he’d had a beep in his headphones he’d dug away with his trowel with enthusiasm, but now he had no expectations. Finding a needle in a haystack would be nothing in comparison with this. And anyway, Mann didn’t believe that there was even a needle out here.

Andy Hall did have a knack of guessing what people would do under pressure, he admitted that, and he’d seen it often enough in the past, but this was just going too far. Hall assumed that the killer was local, and would want to get rid of the weapon straight away. They were both colossal assumptions, although the tentative nature of the attack did suggest that this was indeed a reluctant murderer, if such a thing existed. But the clincher, as far as Mann was concerned, was that Hall was back in the office, while he was out on the sands, getting backache and digging up nothing but old ring pulls and five pence pieces.

So when he got another hit Mann didn’t get at all excited, even though it sounded like a solid one.  He just did as he’d been told and stopped, and held up his hand. Earlier in the day the SOCO who’d been left to supervise had run to everyone who got a hit, but now she took her time.

‘What is it this time, Ian?’ she asked.

‘Corned beef tin is my guess. Circa 1979.’

‘Sounds disgusting. Right, you know how this works. Dig straight down over the target, and all of your sand goes into this bag, OK?’

Mann scooped out a couple of trowels worth of firm sand when he felt a metallic hit. Instinctively he reached down with his left hand but the SOCO reached out and stopped him.

‘Use the trowel, Ian. Let’s see what you’ve got first.’

Ten seconds later they were both absolutely sure what it was that they were looking at.

‘Stop digging, and move away now please, Ian. I need to suit up and recover this, plus as much of the surrounding sand as I can.’

The rest of the team gathered round, and Ian had to ask one or two to keep back.

‘Have we got it?’ asked Geoff Atkinson.

‘Aye, it’s a knife all right. Hasn’t been in there long either. Might be nothing of course, but I doubt it.’

‘Bloody amazing’ said Atkinson. ‘What were the chances, do you reckon?’

‘Absolutely sweet Rockall, and if I didn’t know better I’d think that it was Andy sodding Hall who was going about the country planting clues, just to show what a clever-clogs he is. The bastard.’

The SOCO beckoned Mann forward. She’d dug around the knife, using a little trowel, and bagged all the sand above it. When Mann looked into the hole it reminded him of something they found on one of those archeological programmes on TV, except the congealed blood on it looked fresh.

‘Can you take some pictures with your camera phone please, Ian? We need to get this lifted quickly.’

Jane Francis and Ray Dixon had made a start when Andy Hall knocked at the door with the news. Jane went out for a few seconds, followed by Dixon.

‘Sorry about that’ she said to Skelton when she’d re-started the recorder, ‘but we’ve just received some new information concerning the death of Pete Capstick.’

‘Like I said, I had nothing to do with it. Why would I want to kill Pete?’

Jane ignored the question. ‘So how’s your financial position then, Mike?’

‘All right, could be better. Why?’

‘It just seems as if you only like doing the things that you see advertised on TV. Payday loans, online betting, you do the lot, don’t you?’

‘I like a flutter, yeah. It’s not a crime.’

‘It’s costing you your house though, isn’t it? What does your wife make of that?’

‘Who says I’m losing my house?’

‘Isn’t that what’s happening?’

‘Not necessarily. Look, I’m in a bit of financial trouble, that’s true. But why would I want to kill Pete? He didn’t have anything worth robbing, or if he did I never saw it. I admit I’ve been a fool, but I’ve stopped gambling, honest, and I’m going to turn it around. I’ve promised my wife.’

‘That’s good. But how can you turn it around? Looking at what you owe, and what you earn, I can’t see how you’ll ever pay it all back. It would take you the rest of your life, and then some.’

For the first time Skelton looked angry. ‘Look, this has nothing to do with you. Owing a bit of money has nothing to do with you, does it?’

Ray Dixon held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. ‘I understand, Mike. I’ve been there myself, I really have. Worrying about the future. Not sure where the next pay-cheque is coming from. And if you’re anything like me you put your family first, always have and always will, so I bet you’ve been looking for a way out of all this financial mess. Looking for a way to put things right, like.’

‘Of course I have’ said Skelton, sounding calmer. ‘I’m not going to let us lose our house. No way will that happen.’

‘So you’ve been looking to earn a bit of money. It’s only natural, and your mate Paul said that you’d had a few bright ideas. Tell us about those. I’d be interested myself, actually.’

‘I have had ideas, aye. Maybe the car sales job. Buy stuff in, non-runners like, do them up and sell them on. Times like these, people always need cheap wheels.’

‘Of course they do’ said Ray. ‘And you’ve got the skills for it as well, I can see that. So is that why you were going out with Pete Capstick? Because you were thinking about the fishing job too? An extra string to your bow, like.’

‘Aye, that’s it. I can keep an old diesel tractor going, no problem, and I could fit the fishing in around my other work. Just depending on the tides, like. The money’s not great, and the work’s hard, but I’ve never been afraid of a day’s graft. The problem is getting to know the sands, that’s the hard part.’

‘And that’s why you’ve been going out with Pete, getting to know the Bay. Is that it?’

‘Aye, that’s right.’

‘And when were you last out with him?’

‘Like I said to your mate it’s been a couple of months, something like that.’

‘Could it be three weeks ago?’

‘No, longer than that.’

‘Are you certain? Think carefully. When did you last see Pete Capstick? I’m trying to help you here, Mike.’

Skelton didn’t need long. ‘Like I said, it was weeks ago. Early May, not much more recent than that. I’m certain. I don’t need your help.’

‘Well’ said Jane, ‘then we’ve got a problem. Or, more accurately, Mike, you’ve got a problem. Because we’ve got a witness who saw you with Pete Capstick, out in his yard, just a day or two before Jack Bell vanished. And that’s only a couple of weeks ago, not six or eight.’

‘Your witness is wrong. Pete must have been with someone else that night.’

‘I didn’t say it was night-time, did I, Ray? Did I say when it was?’

‘No, Jane, you didn’t.’

‘So let’s try again, one more time. When did you last see Pete Capstick? Was it the beginning of May, or was it around the 11th of June?’

‘I’ve already told you. It was May. Early May.’

Jane sat back. ‘Shall I tell you what I think is going on here, Mike? I think you’re a decent bloke, and you know you’ve dug a hole for yourself. You’ve gone and put your home, maybe your whole family, at risk with what you’ve done. And I don’t think you can live with that. Am I right so far?’

Skelton shrugged. ‘Aye, mebbe.’

‘So what did you do? Well I reckon that Ray’s right too, and you thought about how you could earn some extra money. It’s only natural, is that. So what skills do you have, Mike?’

‘I’m a fitter, a mechanic. You know that.’

‘Yes, but you have other skills too, don’t you?’

‘What, from the army? There’s not a lot of call for those in civvy street though, is there?’

‘Not usually, no. But I think what happened is this. You needed money, and maybe one of you old army mates knew that, or you told them about your situation. And they suggested a way out. Anyway, the long and the short is that you found yourself mixed up with some heavy duty criminals, the kind who won’t take no for an answer. Maybe you owed them money, is that it? Is that how you got involved?’

Skelton didn’t answer.

‘Yes, that’s it. You owed them money, and couldn’t say no when they came calling. You introduced these people to Pete Capstick too, didn’t you? They wanted you to be the guide across the sands, but you told them that you couldn’t do it, especially at night. And that’s how Pete Capstick got involved, wasn’t it? Because of you. What do you say now, then, Mike?’

‘Bollocks. It’s all bollocks.’

‘I don’t think so. I think you were there when Jack Bell died, and maybe you killed Pete Capstick too. And it’s all been for nothing, hasn’t it? You haven’t made a penny piece from all this so far, have you? That must make you pretty angry. Tell us what happened and we can catch them. Otherwise you’re in this on your own, and that’s not fair, is it?’

‘I didn’t kill anyone.’

‘So where were you last night?’

‘At home.’

‘Was your wife in? Your kids?’

‘No, they’re at her mother’s, like. Just while I get things sorted out, like.’

‘And what about the night that Jack Bell disappeared? Friday the 14th?’

‘Same. I was at home.’

‘That was quick. Are you sure?’

‘Aye. I haven’t been out in weeks. Can’t afford it.’

‘Would you have been online, mate?’ asked Ray.

‘Aye, probably. Not last night, but until a week or two back then, aye, I’d have been online until late.’

‘Well that’s good, isn’t it? We’ll be able to check it was you now. What sites would you have been on? Poker maybe?’

‘Aye, maybe.’

‘So you haven’t quite got on top of the gambling?’

Skelton didn’t answer for a moment. ‘I told you, I’m on top of it now. I haven’t had a bet, or played online, for over a week.’

‘Look, Mike, I’m not judging you. Like I said, I know what you’ve been through. It’s a curse, isn’t it? But you must be honest with us, mate, because this is a double murder we’re talking about, and if you’re not involved we need to eliminate you quickly. Otherwise you’re in trouble either way. So don’t piss us about. Did you visit Pete Capstick recently? Just over two weeks ago it was, wasn’t it’

‘I told you, no. It was ages ago. I haven’t killed anyone, and I’m not mixed up in any of this. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

It didn’t take long for Ray and Jane to brief Andy Hall.

‘He’s got no alibi for last night, he’s denying that he’s seen Capstick recently, and he’s up to his eyes in debt’ said Jane. ‘He’s our man, I’m certain of it.’

Hall didn’t look as enthusiastic as she’d hoped. He was nodding, but not quite enough.

‘Ray,’ said Hall, ‘what’s your impression?’

‘Well, I totally see where Jane is coming from.’ Hall smiled. It wasn’t like Dixon to be diplomatic. ‘But I’m not sure at all. I can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t see him as a killer. Not of Jack Bell, nor of Pete Capstick either. Sorry, love.’