The Fourth Friend (DI Jackman & DS Evans #3)(57)

‘We do not know the intentions of the person who pushed her. Whatever, it was definitely the push that caused her to shatter her skull and sever an artery. The blood loss must have been extensive. If there had been no intention to harm, then it would be manslaughter, but if it was deliberate, well, then it was murder.’

‘We need to find her body,’ Carter almost whispered.

‘We do.’ Jackman looked across to Max. ‘Come up here and tell us what happened when you went to see Suzanne’s brother.’

Max took centre stage. ‘Ralph Doolan is at present in Scunthorpe General Hospital. He sustained injuries in an accident, a hit and run that took place in the early hours of yesterday morning. Neither the vehicle nor the driver of the car have been traced.’ He looked down at his notebook. ‘I was allowed to talk to him for a short while, and then again a little later. I confirmed his name, date of birth, and the fact that Suzanne Holland was his half-sister.’ Max closed his notebook and looked around the room. ‘His injuries are not life-threatening, but he has some serious damage to his pins, er, sorry, his legs. With several operations planned, he is likely to be there for some time, so we know where he is if we want him. Now, the thing is,’ he ran a hand through his spiky hair, ‘he says he was in the Fens at the time of his sister’s disappearance, but he hadn’t seen her for weeks. He swears that he wasn’t near the cottage on the night in question.’

‘Does he look like the photofit?’ asked Marie.

‘Bang to rights, Sarge. And he still has the ponytail. Oh yeah, and the glasses were Ray-Bans.’

‘That’s good?’ Charlie asked.

‘Pleb! Like they would have set him back a couple of hundred smackers?’

‘Alibi?’ Jackman questioned.

‘He’s given me the name of a friend. He said he might have been with him that night, but he can’t be sure. And that, folks, is that.’ Max returned to his seat.

‘So, no firm alibi, and he is a match for the photofit. It doesn’t look good for Mr Doolan, does it?’ Carter commented.

‘It doesn’t,’ agreed Jackman. ‘So we better have another word. And, Max, talk to the friend, will you?’

‘That’s first on my list for this morning, sir.’

‘Right, people. Let’s do all we can to discover what happened to Suzanne’s body.’

*

Ten minutes later, Jackman was sitting in his office with Marie and Carter.

‘Before you get back out there looking for whoever was running Danny Hurley, I’d like to get your thoughts on what happened in the Holland house, now we know she was actually killed there,’ Jackman said.

‘What I can’t understand is, why remove the body?’ Carter rubbed at his chin. ‘Given the amount of blood, it was patently obvious that something dreadful had happened. Why not just ring it in?’

‘Would you, if you’d just killed her?’ Marie asked.

‘Do you think it was Ponytail and sidekick?’ Carter asked.

‘Who else? Two men heard talking in raised voices on the path leading to the scene of the murder, on the very night we believe she died?’ Marie raised an eyebrow, ‘What more do you want?’

‘A motive,’ interjected Jackman. ‘Okay, so she wasn’t popular, and she’d had a failed marriage, then she went a bit wild and slept around for a while, but that’s not sufficient motive for murder by stone mantelpiece, is it?’

Carter looked at him. ‘Could she have tripped?’

‘Rory assured me that so much blood loss means that she was probably flung or pushed by someone in a rage.’

‘What does he hope to find from this new search, sir?’ asked Marie.

‘He just said he has a theory, but nothing more.’

‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ Carter muttered.

Jackman stood up. ‘Well, thanks for the input, but I think we are just going to go around in circles until we have more information, so you’d better get back out there. Good luck, guys.’

Carter went off to make some preliminary calls.

Marie waited behind. ‘We are edging closer to finding out what happened, sir, aren’t we?’

‘We are.’ Jackman saw her expression. ‘Close the door, Marie. Okay, what’s wrong?’

Marie hesitated for a moment. ‘Carter is really into this, really focussed. I believe he is totally convinced that solving the mystery will get rid of his unwanted friend. But what if he doesn’t like what we discover? What if the person who killed Suzanne was someone very close to home?’

Jackman digested her words. ‘As in one of his other friends?’

She shrugged. ‘Possibly. I’ve been wondering who that second man was, the one with our friend Ponytail. I spent a lot of the night thinking about all the people who had some connection to Suzanne. Four of them are dead, so proving where they were and what they were doing won’t be easy, will it?’

Jackman breathed in. She had a valid point. ‘I’ll personally check the old reports for discrepancies, but I’ll do it quietly, if you see what I mean?’

‘Thanks, sir. It’s just a wild guess really, but I still feel very twitchy about Carter’s reaction if things do not go as he imagines they will.’

‘You and me both, and Laura Archer. I saw her talking to the FMO yesterday, and she looked worried sick.’