DEAD & BURIED a gripping crime thriller full of twists Read online

  “Was there anyone else about?”

  “No. Not a soul.”

  “Did you recognise her, Mrs Mallon?”

  “No. I’d never seen her before.”

  “Did you not think to call an ambulance or the police?”

  “I couldn’t leave her like that. She had mud on her face and grass in her hair. I did it without thinking. I straightened her limbs, folded her arms, did her hair and put some lipstick on her.”

  “A more normal reaction would have been to call for help. What you did was very strange, to say the least.”

  “I didn’t think. Anyway the dead don’t scare me, Inspector. For a short time in my twenties I worked for an undertaker. Fixing hair and that sort of stuff was what I did.”

  “Even so, it was obvious that she’d been shot. The killer could still have been around. Did you not worry about your own safety?”

  “Yes, when I saw a man approaching up the hill. There were trees in the way so he couldn’t see me. He was walking along the path towards her, so I left.”

  “Did you take anything from the scene? We never found Emily’s bag or phone.”

  “No. Come to think about it, I didn’t see them either.”

  “Does this have anything to do with Costello?”

  “He’s not even in the area. And he has no reason to want her dead. They didn’t even know each other.”

  “Yes, they did.”

  This didn’t appear to faze her and he wondered why.

  “I work for Mr Costello occasionally, Inspector. I have no idea who his friends are. He could know half the population of this town for all know.”

  “When do you plan to return home?”

  “Saturday.” She stuck her nose in the air. “I still have things to do. Can I go now?”

  “Not yet. You’ll have to give a statement and there is the fact that you interfered with a murder scene. There may be charges. You will have to give us your prints and DNA now — for elimination purposes.”

  DCI Birch had been watching this from the next room. Once Tanya Mallon had been led away, she joined Calladine. “In my opinion she’s hiding something.”

  “She admitted being there and seeing Emily’s body.”

  “She’s still got more to tell. Make sure she doesn’t disappear.”

  Chapter 12

  Calladine stared at the incident board. He still had no idea what this was about. He had a dead woman and a dead teenager. Plus a tenuous link to Costello, but nothing that would stand much scrutiny. A motive would help. Emily appeared to have led a blameless life and Davey was small-time.

  “We’ve got another one,” Rhona Birch said, sticking her head around the office door. “A body has been found floating in the river under the viaduct. A pathologist from the Duggan is on site and thinks it’s suspicious.”

  “Any idea who?”

  “No, but he’s young. Calladine, get down there and see what’s going on. If we’re lucky it’ll be a jumper, if not then things are really stacking up.

  “What are you thinking, sir?” asked Imogen.

  “My gut feeling is Garrett or Archer.”

  “Rocco is looking at the CCTV from the hospital again. Do you want me to come?”

  “Okay. Did you find out if Enid has anyone in Cardiff?”

  “Nothing yet, but I’ll keep looking when I get back.”

  Calladine’s mobile rang as they were walking out to the car. It was Ruth.

  “I’ve been thinking. I’m stuck here all day and Harry’s suddenly decided he likes sleep. I’ve got loads to do but I’d rather help out with the case.” She laughed. “It’ll help me remember who I am. If you fill me in, give me some research or whatever, I might come up with something. That fresh pair of eyes we were on about?”

  “Me and Imogen are going to the viaduct. There’s another body. We’ll call in on our way back. Why not give Joyce a ring, get her to email the progress report over. You can have a look and we’ll discuss it later.”

  “I’ll put the kettle on.”

  “You heard all that?” Calladine said to Imogen.

  Imogen nodded. “It’s a great idea if Ruth’s up to it. It would mean me and Rocco could be spending more time on the Hobfield.”

  Calladine drove along the High Street, past the school to a small roundabout. Here the viaduct loomed above them, spanning both the road and the river. The area had been taped off. A stone wall separated the footpath from a grassy embankment. It was steep, only a slip away from a tumble into the water.

  “Take care!” Doctor Bower shouted up. “One of the forensic blokes has already had a ducking.”

  The Victorian stone viaduct with its high arches loomed above them. Despite the recent warm sunshine there was moss growing all over it. A train thundered across, making the ground vibrate and drowning out the voices of the people working around the body.

  Calladine and Imogen inched their way down. It was a young male, lying on his front in the water. The river was low, little more than a trickle. He looked up. The lad could easily have been thrown from the path at the top.

  “Knifed,” Bower said as Calladine got closer. “His wrists and ankles were tied. There’s a lot of broken bones too, legs and arms.”

  “Chucked down from up there?”

  The pathologist nodded. “Probably.”

  Bower turned the lad over so they could see his face. “There’s extensive bruising and a nasty bump on the side of his forehead. His nose has been bleeding.”

  “Beaten up, knifed and thrown down here for good measure,” Calladine said. The young man’s face was disfigured from the fall but Calladine recognised it. “We’ve seen him recently.” He called to Imogen who was talking to Roxy Atkins. “It’s Mick Garrett.”

  “One of the three you saw on the Hobfield yesterday — Garrett, Archer and Davey.”

  “Yes. And today two of them are dead.” Calladine stood up and looked around. The viaduct carried the railway line but it ran beside a busy road and above them was a footpath used by walkers. “How long, would you say?”

  “I won’t know for sure until I get him back but I’d say last night.”

  “I wonder what he was doing here.”

  “Meeting someone?” Imogen suggested.

  “I want to know if this is where he died or if he was simply dumped,” he told Roxy. Then he looked at Imogen. “Killed here means he could have been waiting for someone like you say. Dumped means there had to be a vehicle involved. There’s CCTV on the roundabout, it’s an accident blackspot. Get Rocco to take a look.”

  “We’ll get him back to the Duggan. You’ll have the preliminary by this afternoon,” Bower said.

  “What are you thinking, sir? The Costello angle again?”

  “I can’t see why he’d want either Davey or Garrett dead. In all probability they’ve never even met. Perhaps DCI King can add something.”

  The forensic team were combing the area. “I’ll try and have some answers later!” Roxy called to them.

  “If not Costello, who else would want the lads dead?”

  “Could be anybody, Imogen, and there’s the problem. We’ve no idea who’s making a play for the Hobfield, have we?”

  “Costello has to be in the running. Doesn’t the car make it obvious?”

  “Tanya Mallon offered an explanation of sorts for that one. But I’ll see what Doctor Atkins comes up with before I decide. Once the forensics are in on Emily’s clothing I’ll be speaking to her again.” He fell silent as another train thundered over them. “The Hobfield has been quiet of late. A bit of anti-social from the teenagers but nothing to get anxious about. I was beginning to think the place had turned a corner. Seems I was wrong.”

  “Back to the nick, sir?”

  “You go. Take the car. I’ll walk back via Ruth’s. I could do with clearing my head.”

  “I’ll bring DCI Birch up to speed.”

  * * *

  “I like what you’ve done with the place.” Calladine smiled.


  “It’s Jake’s blackboard from the kitchen. We usually stick all sorts of junk on it. Dental appointments, his timetable, my work rota, but it’ll do this job fine,” Ruth responded.

  She’d set it up as her own incident board in her conservatory. It was all there, a mirror image of what they had back at the nick. But the main difference was that Ruth had put a photo of Vincent Costello slap bang in the centre. She’d also drawn chalk lines between him and all the people involved.

  “Tanya Mallon. She’s his PA of sorts. The three lads — a big question mark. I don’t see where they fit in yet. Unless they were working for Costello and attracted the attention of a rival firm.”

  Calladine shook his head. “Why? He’s retired, getting on. Surely he can do without it.”

  “You have to consider it, given what’s happened to those lads,” she said. “Emily Blackwell — she doesn’t fit the rival gang theory. She’s an old friend from the past. And that’s where you need to look, Tom. It’s the small details that hold the key. We know they knew each other — Emily and Costello. They used to go around in a group. You need to explore that. Start with Carol, Costello’s girlfriend back then. Find her. See what she has to say. And what are you doing about Emily’s things? The report makes no mention of any. She’d have had a bag, probably a phone too. Whoever did this may have rung or texted her prior to meeting up.”

  “You have been busy. I’m impressed. We only spoke about you helping a little over an hour ago.”

  She smiled and handed him a mug of coffee.

  “The truth is, I’m fed up to the back teeth of having nothing to do. I need to work. I look in the mirror and I see this woman I don’t recognise. She has a fat belly and a haunted expression. Harry is gorgeous and I love him like nothing else but I can’t do motherhood full-time — it’d kill me.”

  “I for one am pleased to hear it. Your input is missed. I haven’t had my mind fully engaged on this. The phone thing — we should have something back from the service provider by now. I’ll get Imogen on it when I get back. All we’ve got on Carol is just that name. There’s no surname. Ken Blackwell, Emily’s ex, is doing a ten-stretch. He might talk to me about the past, given what’s happened.”

  “Start with him then.”

  He nodded at the pram. “How’s the monster doing?”

  “He’s discovered sleep. He went off last night no bother. I’m trying to get him into a routine. I can’t carry on the way I’ve been going. I have to take control. This motherhood lark is damn hard. Give me a full-time job any day. How’s it going with Monika?”

  “We’re having lunch Saturday.”

  “Try not to ruin it this time,” she said. “I’m talking about other women, and try and give her a bit of your time.”

  Ruth’s attention was drawn to her laptop on the desk. She’d received an email. “Just a minute.” She read for a few seconds then gave Calladine a big grin.

  “Costello owns Jet Holdings,” she announced proudly.

  Now he really was impressed. How had she found that out?

  “I’ve had Imogen routing around for days and she couldn’t find anything.”

  “Companies House, Tom. I have an old friend from college who works there. I asked her to be creative in her search. Jet Holdings is a subsidiary of Rose Argent Enterprises, aka Costello.”

  Calladine took a closer look at the board. “He was paying Emily money every month — why?”

  “You might well ask. He’s hardly the type you blackmail, is he?”

  “So it must have been payment for something, but what?”

  Calladine downed his coffee. “You’ve been great, Ruth. Wish you could come back full-time.”

  “It won’t be long. I’ve got a nursery place organised. But I want to help with this. Keep me in the loop and have a word with Birch before she gets on your back about me having all this information at home.” She nodded at the board.

  “She’ll be impressed too, I know.”

  * * *

  Back at the station Calladine brought the team up to speed and set about rearranging their incident board. “Imogen, we need those phone records. The service provider has had long enough. Rocco, anything on the CCTV from the hospital?”

  “Nothing useful, sir.”

  “The phone company said they’ll email them through but it’s going to be later today,” Imogen confirmed.

  “Have a look at what CCTV there is from the roundabout near the viaduct. I want to know what cars were in that area last night.”

  “It’ll be some list. That’s the main route up to the motorway.”

  “Can’t be helped, Rocco. But given that the pathway is a popular walking spot, start with the footage taken after dark.”

  Calladine went to find Birch. She was in her office talking to Eliza King. He was about to leave them to it when she beckoned him in.

  “The body was that of Mick Garrett, ma’am,” he told her. “That leaves Archer out there alone. Now the big question. Is he hiding or is he lying dead somewhere?”

  “Plus, who have they upset?” Birch chipped in.

  “Emily Blackwell received money each month from Jet Holdings. That company is owned by Costello.” He turned to Eliza King. “Do you know any reason why he would do that?”

  She looked genuinely surprised. “No. None at all. We thought there might be a connection, given their ages and where they grew up. But we’d no idea about the money. So your research paid off?” she asked.

  “Not exactly. The information was down to Ruth Bayliss, my sergeant,” he said to Eliza King. “She came up with that little gem and gave me some good ideas about where to go next with the case.”

  “She’s on maternity leave!” Birch exclaimed. “If she’s working, it has all sorts of implications.”

  “It’s nothing heavy, ma’am, just a little research from home. Plus she’s always been great in the ideas department.”

  Birch huffed. “We’ll discuss that one later. What else has she come up with?”

  “That I talk to Ken Blackwell about the past. It was on my list. She reckons I should ask about Emily’s friends, particularly one called Carol. We don’t know her surname.”

  “Good idea,” Eliza King said.

  “He’s doing time in Strangeways,” said Calladine. “I’ll ring them and set it up. Do you want in on this, DCI King?”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  He looked at her again. “But first we should speak to Costello. We need to know why he was paying her the money.”

  Birch nodded. “I totally agree.”

  “I’d prefer we let him be for now,” said Eliza King.

  “DCI King, he has vital information that might help solve this case,” Birch pointed out.

  “It will balls up my investigation.”

  “Not necessarily,” Calladine said. “We aren’t going to arrest him, we just want information. Given what’s happened, he can’t see anything untoward in that.”

  “He’ll think we suspect him. That’ll put him on his guard.”

  “Ring this Gavin Trent person and arrange it,” Birch decided. “We can’t delay. We need answers.”

  Chapter 13

  Calladine and Eliza King pulled up in Strangeways car park.

  “Have you been here before?” he asked.

  All the way there, she’d sat quietly beside him. She wasn’t easy to talk to. All he got back from his attempts were one word responses.

  She shook her head. “You?”

  He shuddered. “Oh yes. Ray Fallon was an inmate. I had to speak to him on a number of occasions. In fact he died in here.”

  “I read about that. His wife, wasn’t it?”

  “The long-suffering Marilyn. Which reminds me, I have a dog, Sam. He’ll be curious when you turn up at the house but he won’t bite.”

  “What’s your dog got to do with Fallon’s wife?” she asked.

  “Sam was her dog. She left him with me when she was put away.”

 
“You knew her that well?”

  “I was brought up with Fallon.”

  Eliza King made no comment. Well, let her make what she wants out of that, thought Calladine. He suspected that there were things in her life she’d prefer to keep quiet about. The Costello angle, for one. She knew him, or had had dealings with him before. He’d seen real hate in her eyes when they’d talked in Birch’s office.

  Having completed the formalities they were shown to a room furnished with a table and four chairs. After a short wait, a prison warder escorted Ken Blackwell into the room. He and the guard sat down opposite the detectives.

  Blackwell was tall and thin with dark hair. He looked drawn, as if he never slept.

  “I’m sorry about the loss of your ex-wife, Emily,” Calladine said kindly. “We are doing everything we can to find the culprit.”

  Blackwell shrugged. “I haven’t seen her in years. She didn’t visit, not once. And the boy . . . poisoned his mind, she did.”

  “Will you go to the funeral? It can be arranged, you know.”

  “I’m not sure. It’s a day out, I suppose. If I can stand the hassle. Her lot will be there. That sister of hers is bound to point the finger and blame me. Like she always did.”

  “We’d like to ask you some questions about Emily’s past, particularly about people she knew. But you are under no obligation.”

  “I don’t mind. I’ll try. Though I don’t know what I can remember.”

  “You both knew Vinny Costello.”

  “Oh, I remember him alright.” He looked at Calladine and his eyes narrowed to slits. The memory was evidently uncomfortable. “He didn’t kill her,” Blackwell said at last. “They had something. I’ve no idea what, but it got me down.”

  “What do you mean — something?” Eliza King asked. “Are you saying they were romantically involved?”

  He gave a humourless laugh. “Oh no. Vinny only ever had eyes for Carol. She was the love of his life. Emily and Carol were friends. They shared stuff. A lot of it I’d no idea about. But Vinny knew. They were thick as thieves, the three of them.”

  “I don’t think Costello killed Emily either,” Calladine said. “Do you know why he paid Emily a sum of money each month? It’s been going on for years.”