Part 33 (1/2)

A short while later, Liz Petty arrived at the Light House with her crime-scene kit, looking a bit disgruntled at the call-out.

'There's a much better crime scene than this across the moor there,' she said. 'Two nice bodies, and all I get is a smelly cellar. I bet it's full of spiders, too.'

'Yes, it is,' said Villiers.

Cooper heard her voice from the bottom of the steps.

'Liz?' he called.

'h.e.l.lo?'

'It's all right. It's me. Come on down.'

'Where are you?'

'In the cellar, of course.'

Liz's face lit up when she saw Cooper.

'Ah. Did you do this just so you could see me before tonight?'

'Obviously,' he said.

'I think I'd better get out of the way,' said Villiers. 'I'll be upstairs if you need me.'

As soon as she looked at Cooper properly, Liz drew in a sharp breath at the sight of the bruise on his temple. He'd almost forgotten it himself, though his arm and shoulder were painful when he moved suddenly. But this was the first time Liz had seen him since it happened. He'd forgotten that, too.

'Oh, that looks sore,' she said.

'It's not too bad.'

She touched the side of his head gently with the tips of her fingers. Luckily she'd removed her latex gloves, and the touch was quite soothing.

'What on earth were you doing, going there on your own without backup?' she said.

'Oh, don't. It's just something that happens now and then.'

'Not to my husband.'

'Future husband.'

'Well, I want to make sure you're still around by then.'

She looked at the bruise again, and winced as if she felt his pain. But he wouldn't ever want her to do that.

Liz smiled and took Cooper's arm a a firm, affectionate touch that made him forget for a while that he was on duty and working.

'We shouldn't,' he said.

'I know. But it's a cellar, and no one else is around.'

'Even so.'

She squeezed his arm again. 'You're so well behaved. You could relax a bit more sometimes, you know.'

Cooper felt the temptation, but pulled himself together. It was a shame, but there were more urgent things to deal with.

'What was that you were saying to Carol just now about another crime scene?' he said.

'They've found two bodies. Haven't you heard?'

'd.a.m.n it. No, I hadn't.'

Cooper looked at his phone, and saw Network lost. They were below ground level, of course. Even if there was mobile phone reception on this part of the moor, the signal would be blocked by the cellar walls and the depth of peat lying around them.

He hated being out of touch. It was bad enough at the best of times, but now there seemed to be a major development, and he was unreachable. But someone could have called the officer outside on his radio. Airwave worked here, surely.

That led him inevitably to the suspicion that he was being deliberately kept out of the loop. The thought made him unreasonably angry.

'The bodies,' he said. 'Is it the Pearsons?'

Liz looked at him in concern at the change in his tone. 'Oh, I couldn't say. But that seems to be the a.s.sumption being made right now. Two bodies, dead for some time. They were found in an abandoned mine shaft up on the moor.'

Cooper gritted his teeth. 'A mine shaft? Really.'

'You don't sound too surprised.'

'No, I'm not,' he said. 'I suppose the bodies haven't been there for two and a half years, though. Not likely.'

'Again, I couldn't say. You'll have to ask someone else for information, Ben. I'm just a crime-scene examiner.'

He tried to calm himself. Of course it wasn't Liz's fault. Far from it. He shouldn't be speaking to her as though it was.

'I'm sorry.'

'It's okay.' She looked round the cellar. 'But we have our own scene, such as it is. So what's here?'

'It's more what's not here,' said Cooper.

'Such as?'

'Chest freezers.'

'What?'

'There are no chest freezers. They must have had big freezers here. They left all this equipment in the pub when they went a the kitchens are full of stuff. But no freezers.'

'Okay.'

'Look,' he said, 'there's a s.p.a.ce against this wall where something of that size has been standing. You can see still the shape of it on the floor.'