He looked to one side, glaring at a civilian wearing a suit,
90
a colourful tie and a pair of large, blue-framed spectacles. Fry pegged him as one oi die iotxe s press oiiicers, whose job it was to deflect press attention and distribute as little information about the case as possible.
‘All these lines of enquiry will take time, of course,’ said
Tailbv. ‘And I don’t need to remind yon that the first hours
are important.’
Diane shee was busv studying DI Armstrong when Ben Cooper tentatively put his hand up again. Tailby regarded him with something like pity.
‘Yes, Cooper?’
‘Harry Dickinson, sir. The gentleman who found the trainer.’
‘Ah, the old bloke,’ said someone, breaking the tension.
‘With the dog,’ said someone else.
‘Will he be interviewed again, sir?’
Fry wondered for a moment whether Cooper had seen her transcript of the first interview with Harry Dickinson and was taking the mickey out of the DCI. But Tailby obviously decided that it wasn’t Cooper’s style or intention.
‘Harry Dickinson is seventy-eight years old,’ he said.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Cooper. ‘But we’re not assuming that his age rules him out. Are we, sir?’
‘Of course not,’ said Tailby. ‘We assume nothing.’
There was a general shuffling of feet and scraping of chair legs.
o o Too
Fry watched a female detective turn round to ask Ben Cooper if he was all right. She looked concerned, but he only nodded, keeping his eyes on the chief inspector. Fry noticed that there was a scuff mark on Cooper’s leather jacket and his tie needed straightening. He was really untidy, and it made him look disorganized. No way was he as perfect as everyone said he was.
‘One more thing I want to emphasize before you go,’ said Tailby, raising his voice over the noise. ‘Again, this is in your files, but keep it to the forefront of your minds, all of you. DC Cooper has mentioned the trainer found by Mr Dickinson and his dog, the find which led us to the body a short distance away. But there is one fact which could be vital to the enquiry. One thing which could lead to an early conclusion, if we are thorough with our routines — and if we get a little bit of luck. I
91
want you to remember, all of you, that Laura Vernon’s second Lrainci ib mining.’
‘All right. DC Fry, here, please.’
Fry stepped briskly towards Hitchcns, where he leaned casually against the wall, dangling a leg over the edge of a desk. He had a stack of action forms in his hand, and Fry knew she was about to be allocated to an enquiry team.
‘You’re the new girl around here, Diane. So we’re going to
O ‘ O O
team you up with Ben Cooper for a while. He knows the area like the back of his hand.’
‘So I’ve heard.’
‘Well, we don’t want you going and getting lost on the moors, do we, Fry? We’d have to send the dogs out again.’
Fry tried a smile and hoped it was convincing. ‘I’m sure we’ll work well together.’
O
Hitchens studied her. ‘You’ll get on all right,’ he said.
‘It’s OK.’
‘Right. DC Cooper! Where’s Ben Cooper gone?’
‘He had to take an urgent phone call, sir,’ said another
or ‘ ‘
detective. ‘In the CID room.’
‘OK. Well, you two are in charge of house-to-house in Moorhay,’ said Hitchens. ‘There will be uniformed teams out there to assist you. These are the allocated areas. Make sure you don’t miss anybody.’
He held out a photocopied street map divided into three sections with blue, red and yellow highlighter pens.
‘I’ll go and introduce myself to DC Cooper,’ said Fry. ‘If I can find the CID room.’
Ben Cooper was hunched over a desk, staring at a sea of papers i that seemed to have accumulated during his holiday. He wasn’t
reading the papers; in fact, he didn’t appear to see them at all.
His face was completely blank as he listened to the voice at the I, other end of the phone.
‘I suppose so, if that’s what they think,’ he said. ‘But how ,*;
long for? Yes, I know Kate needs a break, but Matt —’ }
He saw the new DC coming from the far end of the CID room.
