Part 24 (2/2)

'It's a date.'

Cooper straightened up again, turning back to face the room 'What's going on then? Anything?'

'You asked me to track down the vehicles owned by Ian Gullick and Vince Naylor,' said Irvine.

'Yes?'

'Gullick has a blue Ford Transit van. He's a market trader, so that makes sense.'

'And Naylor?' asked Cooper.

'A Toyota Hilux pickup.'

'A pickup? What colour?'

'White.'

'Of course it is.'

For a moment, Cooper forgot his bruises. Were things starting to come together at last? If so, it would be worth it.

'Did we know that Maurice Wharton was an ex-copper?' he asked.

Irvine nodded. 'Yes, it's in the files.'

'It's not unusual to find a retired police officer running a pub, is it?' said Villiers.

'He wasn't retired. He got kicked out. Gross misconduct.'

'Was he bent?'

'No. He put the boot into a suspect once too often. You wouldn't have heard about him because he wasn't serving in this region. He was down in London, in the Met. He was rooted out of the Territorial Support Group in one of the Met's regular clean-ups.'

'It's hard to imagine.'

'He went to seed a bit after they dumped him,' said Murfin.

'You can say that again.'

'He's a big guy, though. At one time, when he was younger and kept himself fit, he would have been pretty intimidating.'

Diane Fry entered the CID room, came to a halt in front of Cooper and tilted her head on one side to examine his bruises.

'I suppose you're going to ask what happened,' said Cooper.

'No, I heard.'

He wondered for a moment who would have rushed off to spread gossip to Diane Fry. She wasn't usually the sort to be whispering in a huddle over the coffee machine. But then he remembered her ability to enter a room un.o.btrusively, a trick that must allow her to overhear all kinds of things.

'I gather there's even a suggestion that it was some members of the local farming community who were responsible,' she said. 'I didn't know there was a provisional wing of the National Farmers Union.'

Cooper gave her a curt nod. It seemed the only suitable acknowledgement to the closest that Diane Fry had ever come to making a joke.

'Someone else's blood on David Pearson's anorak,' he said. 'So what happened, do we think?'

'The Pearsons did something bad, and realised they had to disappear?' suggested Irvine.

'They attacked or killed someone? But who?'

He shrugged. 'It's funny, isn't it? Apart from the timing being so far out, you'd think it might have been Aidan Merritt.'

Fry snorted. 'Oh yes. Out by around two and a half years, that's all.'

'It would be convenient, though. We'd solve two mysteries at one go.'

'Have we got any other theories, aside from these fantasies?'

Everyone was silent, until Hurst chimed in. 'We'll just have to hope for a DNA match from the blood.'

'Is that the best we can do?'

No one answered, and Fry sighed.

'It looks as though it is.'

'Otherwise, we're going to ask all the same questions that were asked before?'

'Yes, and as many more as we can think of,' said Fry.

'Why?'

'If you ask enough questions, the person who's lying will eventually change their story. Anyone who's telling the truth can't do that.'

'A small bunch of regulars were looked at closely by the original inquiry team. Vince Naylor, Ian Gullick.'

'Their stories tallied.'

'Everyone's stories tallied. At least anyone who was sober enough to remember what happened.'

'You left a name off the list,' said Hurst.

'I know. Aidan Merritt. It's too late to ask him any more questions.'

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