Fry blinked. She had never heard their old DCI ^ct so philosophical before. Perhaps he wanted to put on a display of wisdom in his final davs before he handed over to Kcssen. so that the contrast
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would be all the greater.
o
‘I’m told Sergeant Caudwell asked for a scenes of crime officer as well. What is she hoping to find?’
‘I’ve no idea/ said Hitchcns.
I ailby frowned. ‘I’m happy that we’re cooperating. But there comes a point when cooperation has to be mutual.’
‘V ‘
Yes, sir.
‘All right/ said Tailby. ‘Well, here we are — it’s Monday morning, and we’ve had some major developments in this enquiry over the weekend. We have a confirmed identity for the victim: our so-called Snowman is Sergeant Nick Easton, an investigator with the Royal Air Force Police. And I gather we’ve managed to
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piece together some of his movements, with the help of the MDP officers who have keen sent to Edendale.’
‘US Fry and her team came in yesterday to follow that line of enquiry urgently,’ said Hitchens.
‘Excellent. I’m sure all the overtime will he fully justified, Paul.’
‘Yes, sir. I’ll let DS Fry tell you what she managed to achieve
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for the money.’
Fry shuffled in her seat as the two DCls stared at her, one smiling, one frowning. Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They
O’ 5 v
would never agree on anything.
‘For a start,’ said Fry, ‘we know Sergeant Easton visited the air museum at Lcadenhall on Sunday 6th lanuarv, hctween
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twenty-four and thirty-six hours before he was killed. He was enquiring about a volunteer there, Graham Kemp, who is well known as an aviation memorabilia collector.’
‘This is the brother of Edward Kemp, 1 gather,’ said Tailby. ‘A gentleman we now have in custodv again.’
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‘Yes, sir. We have his brother’s address, and we’re hoping to pick him up this morning. Of course, we’ve already been interviewing a number of Edward Kemp s associates in connection with the double assault last Monday night. It’s worth bearing in mind that this incident happened within an hour or two of Easton’s death.’
‘UK. And from the aircraft museum …’
‘We know Nick Easton stayed at a hotel near Chesterfield that night, then he visited Edendale the following dav, Monday. He called at the home of a family called Lukasx in Woodland Crescent and spoke briefly to Mrs Grace Lukasz. It’s odd that Mr Andrew Lukasz disappeared a matter of hours before Easton arrived.’
‘Andrew?’
‘Grace Lukasz’s son. He lives in London, but had been visiting his parents. You might recall that we got the father and mother in to try to identify our Snowman because their son had disappeared rather suddenly.’
‘And he hasn’t turned up since? He’s not back home in London?’
‘Apparently not. The Metropolitan Police called at his home
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early this morning and talked to his neighbours, and apparently there’s keen no sign of him (or about ten days, which would tie in with his arrival in Edendale. His wife is American, and she’s been away at a family funeral in Wisconsin, but we’re trying to make contact with her. Even more interestingly, his employers say Andrew Lukasz was on leave but that he should have been back at work today. He didn’t turn up.’
‘What was Sergeant Easton’s interest in the Lukasz family?’ said Tailby. ‘Do we have any idea?’
‘We don’t really know. And nor does Peter Lukasx. But he says that Andrew had argued with his grandfather. There was some
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disagreement over a cigarette case that had belonged to Zygjnunt Lukasz’s cousin, Klemens Wach, who was killed in an aircraft wreck during the Second World War. Apparently, Zygmunt expressed outrage that this item might have been looted from the wreck.’
‘In other words, a piece of aviation memorabilia?’
‘It looks like it. sir,’ said Frv.
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‘Go on.
‘We don’t know where Easton went after he left the Lukasx home. According to the MDP, he was using a black Ford Focus, but we haven’t been able to locate it. And he wasn’t booked into accommodation in this area for that
