Play Dead (D.I. Kim Stone, #4)(56)

‘I still don’t see why that particular tree has ended up in our forest to be honest,’ Bryant said.

Kim was saved from answering by the ringing of her phone. There was no need for him to know it had come from Tracy.

‘Stone,’ she said.

‘Inspector, it’s Doctor Singh, from Russell’s Hall. We spoke—’

‘Of course, Doctor Singh,’ she acknowledged.

‘I’m calling about Isobel…’

Kim braced herself for the news that she’d been dreading.

‘I’m ringing to tell you that Isobel has woken up.’

Kim ended the call and told Bryant to turn the car around.

Finally they had a witness.





Forty-Nine





Dawson didn’t bother to remove his jacket from the car. Both the mid-morning heat and the absence of his boss dictated it would not grace his back today.

He parked on the gravel patch between the crime-scene Transit van and Harry’s low loader, which was used for transporting the ground-penetrating radar equipment. He suspected that Harry would be finished today providing he found no more nasty surprises, but the techies would be around for a few more days at least.

He tapped on the door before entering, even though they had opened the gate.

He walked into the back of Jameel, who turned and nodded in his direction. Dawson could hear The Shadows playing softly in the background.

This was one strange kid.

‘Yo, man,’ he said and turned back to his computer.

Dawson walked behind him and paused when he saw Catherine at the meeting table with a collection of graphs and charts spread out before her.

‘You’re here,’ he said stupidly.

She almost smiled. ‘Yes, I appear to be.’

‘But how did you get in?’ he asked.

He had been forced to wait a good few minutes while the officers at the cordon had cleared the press to let him through. The arrival of forensics tended to do that. As soon as the techies turned up, the press knew there was something to find and they had been steadily growing in number since the previous evening.

The boss had filled them in on Catherine’s history, and he hadn’t expected to see her back at work.

This time she did smile. ‘Under a picnic blanket in the back of the professor’s car.’

‘You told him?’ Dawson asked. The boss had also been clear that they were not to say a word.

She nodded. ‘A lot of what DI Stone said made sense. It’s better if I work,’ she said.

Dawson could understand that. Recently he’d been badly beaten while carrying out an investigation into the death of a gang member, but the following day he’d been right back at his desk.

‘She’s a strange one, isn’t she, your boss?’ Catherine asked, surprising him. It was the first time she’d spoken to him unless answering a direct question.

He felt himself bristle. ‘How so?’

‘There’s a bit more to her than meets the eye. She’s not the most likeable—’

‘Yeah, you don’t know her,’ Dawson said, crossing his arms.

‘… I was going to say on first impressions, but there’s a lot going on underneath. I wasn’t insulting her. She was very helpful to me yesterday,’ Catherine said, gathering up her papers. ‘Jameel, I’m going down to check on Elvis,’ she said abruptly before brushing past Dawson and heading out the door.

The young man didn’t turn or acknowledge her words in any way but mumbled something once the door closed behind her.

‘Sorry?’ Dawson said, taking a step back towards the office area of the Portakabin.

‘Something in my throat,’ Jameel said and then coughed for effect.

Dawson wasn’t fooled.

‘You two don’t get on?’ he asked. After the way Catherine had just spoken to him he wasn’t surprised.

‘Can’t be doing with changeable women, man. The species is hard enough to understand as it is, d’ya get me?’

Dawson smiled. Oh yeah, he got that.

‘Changeable?’ he asked, pouring himself a glass of water.

‘When she wants something she’s all over you, giving you compliments and stuff, but when she’s got what she wants she’s cool as a penguin’s belly.’

Dawson gave a small laugh. ‘Mate, you’ll find that’s the case with all women, not just that one.’ He made a show of looking around. ‘Curtis Grant not with you today?’

‘Nah. Good job. His aftershave was starting to get in my throat.’

Dawson smiled. Yeah, he’d noticed.

‘He’s been here quite a bit. Is there a lot to do to the system?’

Jameel shook his head. ‘I didn’t think so, but he wanted to check there were no bugs in the software upgrade.’

‘Seems to know his stuff though,’ Dawson observed.

‘To be fair he does. His company is his life. Talks about it like it’s a child.’

Dawson acknowledged his words. ‘Did he do all the planning for the security provision? Siting the cameras and everything?’

‘I think so. It was before I started, but Professor Wright brought him in and seems to trust him.’

Dawson finished the water and headed towards the door.