night, as far as we can tell. DC Murfin checked everywhere yesterday, which meant a lot of phone calls and visits. I have to say, sir, that we simply don’t have the staff for an enquiry as complex as this.’
‘Point taken, Fry,’ said Tailby. ‘Have we made any progress on the time line for the morning Easton’s body was found?’
‘We’ve narrowed it down to a window of about half an hour, when his body could have been left at the side of the A 57. But we’ve been unable to find any sighting^ of four-wheel drive vehicles on the road after it was closed because of the snow. There arc so few houses on that stretch of road. The Snake Inn was our best bet, but the staff have been interviewed and it seems they saw and heard nothing but the snowploughs.’
‘What about Edward Kemp’s vehicle? A four-wheel drive, isn’t it?’
‘An Isuzu Trooper, yes. The rolls of plastic found in the back
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did have traces of blond, hut the blood matched that of one of the assault victims. We think the baseball bats or other weapons that were used in the assault were hidden in the plastic rolls afterwards. Unfortunately, the weapons arc now missing. However, we do have some possible traces from the plastic, if we can get approval for samples to go to the lab …’
‘Yes, of course. Do it.’
‘Also, the bayonet that was used in the assault on DC Cooper. We might get a DNA trace from the handle/
‘Obviously.’
‘My main concern at the moment is that we’ve not yet been given details of the enquiry that Sergeant Easton was working on,’ said Fry. ‘We need that information urgently.’
‘The Ministry of Defence Police have promised us a meeting tomorrow morning, when full details will be shared as far as possible,’ said Tailby. ‘Hut at this stage, it seems clear that there’s a connection involving aviation memorabilia. The Leadenhall Aircraft Museum, this collector, Graham Kemp, and an item that is known to have been in the possession of Andrew Lukasz. That’s a very positive line of enquiry you’ve developed, Try/
‘The most interesting point is that Easton called at the Lukasx home shortly after Andrew disappeared,’ said Fry. ‘Obviously, we’ll be interviewing both the Kemp brothers. But, if you asked me at this moment, I’d say the person I’d be most interested in talking to about the murder of Nick Easton was Andrew Lukasz.’
o
‘And, in what has now become our traditional manner, the person we most want to speak to is missing,’ said Tailb.
‘Yes, sir.’
Tailby spoke stiffly to DC! Kessen, who nodded. He had said nothing during the meeting. Fry feared that he was going to be out of his depth once Tailby departed.
‘You’re right, Fry,’ said Tailby. ‘There’s a lot of work involved in this Easton enquiry, not to mention the assault on a police officer. We’ll have to try to pull in some more assistance. But, Paul, do make sure you use the expertise of the MDP officers while they’re here, too.’
‘May I remind you we also have a missing baby, sir?’ said Hitchens.
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‘Don’t I know it? The papers say hope is fading for Baby Chloc. Is that right? Arc our hopes fading?’
‘If somebody has her, they’re not coming forward/ said Fry. ‘We’re interviewing Eddie Kcmp again after this meeting, both about the assault on DC Cooper and about the baby, since he was Marie Tennent’s last-known boyfriend. But we’ve already checked his house and talked to his wife. I don’t think he’s been involved with Marie tor some time, and it seems unlikelv he’ll have any information about the baby.’
‘Bad news, then.’
‘The bones of the other baby we found don’t make the situation look good. If we can get DNA from the remains, we can confirm whether it was an earlier child of Marie Tennent’s. But the clothes found with the bones were almost certainly left by her Marie’s mother identified them. It seems Marie might have gone up to the wreck to leave the clothes as some sort of memorial to the dead child.’
Tailby looked at her, horrified. ‘That’s rather macabre, Fry.’
‘It’s speculation, of course,’ said Fry. ‘But why else should Marie Tcnncnt have gone up to the aircraft wreck on Irontonguc Hill that day?’
The wreckage of Sugar Uncle Victor began a hundred yards below the trig point, on the windward side of Irontonguc. Between the larger sections, the ground was covered in molten (raiments o( metal, slivers of glass and strands of torn rubber. A few tufts of ragged wool clung to an undercarriage axle where sheep had rubbed their itchy backs against it, glad to find something hard and solid in the expanse of soft peat. There were shreds of tyre still left, hanging from the huge hub of a wheel.
Close to the main wreckage, there were poppies on wreaths or attached to small makeshift crosses. Some of the crosses were wooden, but others seemed to have been made out of bits of melted tubing from the aircraft itself, tied together with wire. Parts of the metal on the undercarriage and fuselage were still uncorroded, even after so long. On the other hand, the poppies had faded completely to white, their original blood-red bleached by the sun and rain.
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‘One survivor and five fatalities, not including the pilot,’ said Cooper, his eyes following the tail of a small aircraft as it headed towards Glossop.
Jane Caudwcll seemed hardly to have heard him. The snow had spattered her boots and the legs of her trousers where she had stamped her feet in the snow. She was dressed in black - a totally impractical colour on the snowcovered peat moors. Bright colours were what you should be wearing, especially if the weather turned bad and the mountain rescue teams turned out to try to locate you. They could spot bright clothes. But black amounted to camouflage.
Caudwell took off her right glove, exposing a pale, plump hand with a gold ring on the middle finger. She held the hand up for Cooper’s inspection, splaying the fingers into something that looked like an obscene gesture, multiplied several times over.
‘Yes, five,’ she said. ‘But are you quite sure Pilot OfKcer McTcaguc was aboard this aircraft?’
‘MTiat?’
Caudwell smiled. ‘Just a thought. By the way, I don’t think it’s a good idea for Acr to be up here, whoever she is.’
