Dakin smiled. ‘Care for another drink?’ he asked Corelli.
‘ A small bourbon,’ said Corelli. He stood up and went to the window, looking out into the darkness that was the Ribble Valley. Light from the moon made the river itself look silver in the bottom of the valley.
Dakin handed him a glass. ‘Do you like my house?’
‘ I do,’ said Corelli, ‘and your hospitality and your business ability.’ ‘Good, I’m glad.’
Dakin held out his glass. Corelli chinked his against it.
‘ Here’s to the future and shared prosperity,’ said Dakin.
They each took a sip of their drinks.
‘ There is, however, one problem to be resolved,’ Corelli said thoughtfully.
‘ What’s that?’ Dakin sounded guarded. ‘I thought we’d covered everything. ‘
‘ Oh, we have, businesswise. Now, the man the police arrested…’
Hinksman,’ nodded Dakin.
‘ As part of our arrangement, and to show your good will towards me, I should like you to ensure that he does not remain in the custody of your fine police department any longer than necessary — if you see what I mean.’
Donaldson was still awake when the knock came on the door of his hotel room. He was savouring the feel and warmth of a woman in his bed, even though she was virtually a stranger. But that didn’t matter to him at that moment. He felt good and relaxed and proud that he’d been able to perform so well after all this time.
The knock came again.
He wasn’t sure whether he’d actually heard it the first time, or even if it was his door. He glanced at his watch. Just gone four. Puzzled, he eased his left arm gently from under the sleeping shoulders of Alex and sat up slowly on the edge of the bed so as not to disturb her.
There was another knock, louder, slightly more urgent this time. He pulled on a pair of shorts and went to the door. He opened it to see Karen standing there in the corridor.
She was crying. Her eyes were pools of clear water. Streams ran down her cheeks. She looked lost and beautiful. Donaldson’s heart went out to her when he saw how misshapen her mouth became as she cried and tried to hold it back, and how much her shoulders juddered with each sob.
‘ Karen,’ he said.
‘ Karl, I’m sorry — I just needed someone. I need to talk to somebody… I haven’t got any friends.’ She almost choked on the word friends. ‘I feel so alone… I want to talk to you. I’m cracking up, I think. My head, it’s just spinning round and round… won’t stop. I need someone to hold me. You don’t mind, do you?’
‘ No, I don’t.’ But he couldn’t help looking over his shoulder back into the room.
Karen saw the glance and followed it with her own eyes.
Disturbed by the noise, Alex was sitting up in bed yawning. The sheets had tumbled to her waist.
‘ You’ve got someone in there,’ said Karen. It wasn’t an accusation. There was sadness in her tone.
‘ Yeah,’ Donaldson said. ‘I mean… she’s nothing. I’ll get rid of her — she can go.’
Karen suddenly took control of herself. She shook her head. ‘Don’t bother, Karl. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come without phoning first. It was stupid. But I expected… Oh, it doesn’t matter.’
She turned and walked towards the lift.
‘ Karen — wait!’ He started to panic.
The lift doors opened immediately. Half-naked at his doorway, Donaldson watched helpless as she left.
‘ Karen,’ he shouted. ‘Karen, I love you.’
As though she hadn’t heard or didn’t give a damn, she stepped into the lift, but did not turn round to face him. Her back stayed towards him.
The doors closed. The lift hissed and began to descend.
Donaldson closed his eyes and dropped his head forwards into the palms of his hands.
Chapter Sixteen
Henry slithered into work at nine the following day, not feeling particularly well nor particularly proud of himself. He’d got home just after 4 a.m. and sneaked into bed in a drunken stupor in the belief that he’d managed it without waking his wife; as the reality of the sober world hit him he realised there was no way this could have been the case.
Kate, however, hadn’t said a word. She’d been her normal cheerful self, waking him up prior to setting off for her own work. She’d kissed him gently and placed a glass of orange juice on the bedside cabinet.
With his aches and pains and breakages, it took him about twenty minutes to get dressed.
He grabbed a coffee in the canteen which he intended to drink in the office. On his way to the lift he was waylaid by Natalie in police uniform. Henry took comfort from the fact that she looked worse than him — but she was on the early shift and could have only managed an hour or so’s sleep at most. It didn’t stop her being gorgeous though. And that perfume…
‘ Did you enjoy last night, hero? I did,’ she said.
‘ Yes, yes I did,’ Henry coughed. He vividly remembered the sex in the car. It was a long time since he had fucked in a back seat. He’d forgotten how difficult it was. But it had been good, fast and exhausting. Different. A change.
‘ What about tonight?’ she asked.
‘ Oh, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Commitments, y’know?’ He knew he should have said no, quashed it there and then, but could not bring himself to do so.
She nodded understandingly. ‘Give me a call if you get free. I’ll be in all night.’ She tiptoed up and gave him a less than subtle peck on the cheek which was witnessed by several others.
I can handle this, he thought as he made his way to the office. No probs. I can handle this.
Donaldson was already in the office, sifting through paperwork, a visitor’s badge on his lapel. Much to Henry’s disgust he looked positively healthy.
‘ Mornin’,’ Henry croaked and sat down heavily, jarring his ribs painfully. ‘I feel about nine thousand years old.’ He rooted through the drawers in his desk for an aspirin. He knew they were there somewhere.
‘ Howdy,’ said Donaldson.
‘ Good night?’ Henry enquired of him, knowing he’d taken Alex back to his hotel room.
‘ So so,’ he said. ‘Good points and bad points.’
‘ Oh,’ said Henry. He couldn’t work up the energy to pry. He found and devoured two pills, swallowing them with his coffee. He wiped his mouth and said, ‘To business. Let’s try and find out what Mr Dakin’s been up to recently, and also where he and Mr Corelli are holed up.’
‘ I have an idea where they might be today,’ said Donaldson.
‘ Oh?’ said Henry. He was about to ask when the phone rang.
‘ DS Christie — can I help you?’ It wasn’t a good line for some reason. ‘Sorry, just hold on a second.’
Some of the other detectives in the office were laughing and talking quite loudly, making it difficult for him to hear. He shouted, covering the mouthpiece first: ‘Will you lot shut your gobs! I can’t hear a fuckin’ word. And it is the Chief Super on the line.’ Silence clamped quickly down. Henry returned to his phone conversation. He wrote furiously and listened intently.
A few moments later he hung up.
‘ Well, Karl, sorry about this, mate, but I’ve been taken off this investigation as of now. We’ve got another murder — a double one, in fact.’
Henry drove all the way east across the county of Lancashire to the Rossendale Valley. He had two Detective Constables from his office as company. All three men had been assigned to the Murder Squad.
On the moors above Rossendale there are many quarries, both used and unused. These workings scar a bleak but beautiful landscape. It was to an old stone quarry above the town of Whitworth in the most easterly part of the valley that Henry drove that day.
