organ playing the first mournful notes. He was watching the previous party of mourners file past the flowers in the rain when his mobile rang, and he recognized Fry’s number on the caller display.
‘Yes, Diane?’
‘Thomas Jarvis. Did you know he worked at Hudson and Slack eighteen months ago?’
‘No, I had no idea,’ said Cooper.
‘He’s never mentioned that when you talked to him?’
‘No. Well, there’s no reason why he should have done the subject of Hudson and Slack never came up. But you’re sure he worked there? Eighteen months ago?’
‘He was listed as an employee during the enquiry into Richard Slack’s crash.’
‘It’s certainly an odd coincidence, isn’t it?’
‘Coincidence? Ben, you do like to give people the benefit of the doubt, don’t you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘We wondered why none of Jarvis’s dogs detected the presence of a decomposing corpse while it was lying in the woods close to his property,’ she said. ‘Remember?’
‘Yes, but there was a possible explanation for that. Somebody might have returned to the site and exposed the
375
remains fairly recently, after they’d already become skeletonized and the odour had dissipated.’
‘But there’s no evidence to support that theory, is there?’
‘Well, no.’
‘So we should consider an alternative scenario.’
Cooper didn’t like the sound of that. In Fry’s vocabulary, an alternative scenario usually meant bad news for somebody.
‘You have a scenario in mind, do you, Diane?’
‘Of course. What’s more likely than that one of Jarvis’s dogs did detect the decomposing corpse? Maybe all his dogs knew the corpse was there and made a fuss about it - barked or pointed at it with their noses, or whatever dogs do.’
Cooper laughed. ‘And don’t you think Tom Jarvis would have realized?’
‘Yes.’
There was silence on the other end of the phone as Fry waited expectantly. Cooper knew he was supposed to reach the same conclusion that she had, without having to be prompted. In this case, there was a conclusion he didn’t want to come to. But she’d lose patience if she had to wait too long.
‘For God’s sake, Ben,’ she said. ‘What if Jarvis didn’t take any notice of the dogs’ behaviour for one very simple reason he already knew perfectly well that the body was there.’
Cooper began to pace up and down, aware of some of the mourners for the next funeral watching him.
‘Yes, I understand what you’re saying, Diane.’
‘You’ve got to make Jarvis talk. I know what you’re like when you get together with one of your rural soul mates, Ben. You communicate in manly grunts and meaningful silences. But make sure you ask him some tough questions.’
‘I’ll do it today. But I have one other visit to make first.’
‘OK. And there’s another thing you need to know …’
Cooper had already started heading back to his car. He swapped the phone to his other hand to reach the pocket with his keys in.
376
‘What’s that?’
‘Do you remember that Mr Slack was on his own when he died in the car crash?’
‘Yes?’
‘Well, I wondered about that. How likely is it that a funeral director would go out to a call on his own? There’s no way one person can shift a dead body easily, unless it’s a small child’s.’
‘Maybe someone was going to meet him there?’ said Cooper.
‘Well, it’s possible. But Gavin had a look at the inquest report.’
‘And?’
‘There was some question over the testimony of a witness a female motorist who was first at the accident scene and called 999. She told the traffic officers she’d seen someone about half a mile back, before she came on the crash site, which was just around a bend. She saw somebody jogging near the side of the road. It was pitch dark, of course. Unfortunately, she had no reason to take notice at the time it was before she knew there was a crash. She was just struck by the fact that the individual was running. And, most importantly, he wasn’t running along the verge but up the banking, as if he was heading across the fields away from the road. She had the impression he’d done that because he heard her car coming.’
‘Definitely a man?’
‘She was fairly confident about that.’
‘It’s very vague, Diane.’
‘That’s what the coroner thought. There was no convincing evidence that anyone was in the van with Richard Slack. The staff at the firm were interviewed, but they all said the same thing - Richard hadn’t asked them to go
