Looking past Vernon, he noticed an access to a cess pit concealed below flags between the hedges. It was well designed, almost invisible. There was a workshop attached to the house, with strip lighting and power points. On the other side, a garage contained an inspection pit, shelves full of tools and a large roof space used for storage. The only thing in a state of disrepair was an ancient stone-built privy in the corner of the garden.
‘Do you enjoy the work at Hudson and Slack?’ asked Cooper.
Vernon shrugged. ‘It’s OK. I don’t do anything too difficult.’
He looked at the window again, but the old man had disappeared. Vernon started to look anxious.
‘What were you talking to Granddad about?’
‘Mr Slack, I wonder if you remember doing a funeral about eighteen months ago for a lady called Audrey Steele?’
‘I wouldn’t remember anything like that. You’ll have to speak to the boss,’ said Vernon.
‘The service was at the parish church in Edendale, St Mark’s, and it was followed by cremation. Did you drive the hearse that day?’
‘I’ve no idea. Mr Hudson has the records. He makes all the arrangements.’
Cooper looked at him. ‘Don’t you ever know whose funeral you’re assisting at?’
‘Why would I need to? I just drive and help carry the casket.’
‘What about when you collect a body?’
‘I might get told the name. But I don’t know any more
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about it than that. There isn’t any need for it, you see. We do the job and look after the grievers, and then we go home. The boss sees to everything else, and he tells us when we’re wanted.’
‘You’re not the least bit curious?’
Vernon shrugged. ‘Sometimes, you don’t even know the details of a call until you turn up at the house to do a removal.’
He began to edge past Cooper towards the house. Even walking slowly, his movements were a little awkward. Cooper was reminded of Freddy Robertson. But the professor must be nearly forty years older than Vernon, and it was understandable if he was showing his age. Vernon was a young man. He looked like someone who’d suffered recent bruising.
‘So you don’t remember Audrey Steele’s funeral, sir?’ said Cooper, trying to keep Vernon from disappearing altogether.
‘We do a lot of funerals. We do them every day. How would I remember?’
‘Tell me, do you work with Billy McGowan often?’
‘Obviously.’
‘You get on with him all right?’
“Course I do.’
Cooper was about to press him further about the funeral of Audrey Steele, when he saw Vernon’s nervousness and remembered how Diane Fry had left Melvyn Hudson to stew for a while. Even if the trick didn’t work on Hudson, it should work on Vernon Slack. In any case, he was keen to be back in the office to hear the geocacher’s news.
Then his attention was drawn by the jingle of car keys, and he noticed Vernon’s hands.
‘How did you get those burns on your hands, sir?’ he asked.
‘They’re not burns, it’s just a rash.’
‘A pretty nasty rash, Mr Slack.’
‘I was doing some gardening, and I must have touched something I was allergic to.’
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‘Perhaps you ought to see a doctor.’ ‘No, it’ll go down in a day or two.’ ‘Is that why you’ve been wearing gloves?’ ‘Yes, it looks better in front of the grievers.’ Cooper raised his eyes and looked at Vernon Slack steadily. But Vernon shifted his gaze. There was no doubt he was frightened of something or somebody. And it wasn’t Ben Cooper.
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28
The office was deathly quiet when Cooper returned to West Street later that afternoon. Only Diane Fry was in the CID room, working her way through a stack of reports she’d been neglecting. One of the reports was waiting for Cooper on his desk. It was an initial forensic report on five sets of cremains. No points of comparison.
‘I wonder if Vernon has ever told the old man how badly Melvyn Hudson treats him,’ said Cooper when he had Fry’s attention.
‘Why?’
‘Sometimes people who’re bullied on a regular basis feel ashamed of it and don’t tell anybody. It’s a particular problem with children in schools. And Vernon still seems to be a child, in some ways. He might be afraid of admitting to his grandfather that he’s too frightened to stand up for himself.’
‘Especially as he’s in a position of the carer now?’ said Fry.
‘That’s it. Vernon will know that Abraham wants to see him as somebody strong. Besides, what could the old man do, except have a row with Hudson?’
‘I wonder if Vernon could afford to give up his job at the firm?’
‘It depends how much money he was left by his father. He
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has the house, but that’s not worth anything unless he sells it. He may have no other income.’
