‘You don’t think Nick did it, do you?’ Jim asked, disbelief clear in his voice. ‘Did him over on Friday than came out here today to try and cover things up with his idiotic story?’
‘I didn’t say that,’ said Harry. ‘I’m just saying that it’s all a bit bloody weird. Could be connected, could be completely irrelevant. I’m just keeping things open. Anyway, he goes up to the field, finds his mate in a pretty poor state of repair, calls the police. Then he gets jumpy and does a runner. Am I missing anything?’
‘All bases covered,’ Jim said.
‘How long before the circus turns up?’
Jim checked his watch. ‘Another half hour I’d say.’
‘You okay to wait here and direct everyone up to the field?’ Harry asked, looking over at Liz.
‘I know where it is,’ Liz said. ‘Shouldn’t be a problem.’
‘Right then,’ Harry said, looking at Jim, ‘I want the rest of the team over here as soon as possible. We need house-to-house in the local area, and I want us to start tracing Capstick’s last few days if we can. Oh, and someone contact his GP.’
‘GP?’ Jim asked. ‘Why?’
‘Something Matt said earlier about suicide,’ Harry said. ‘I get what he meant about it not being the usual way to do it, but stress can really bugger someone up. And someone’s medical history can tell you a lot about them.’
Harry stepped outside the house. ‘Come on then, Jim,’ he said. ‘let’s go and have another look around, shall we?’
‘At the field? But what’s there to look at?’ Jim asked.
‘Well,’ said Harry, ‘if Nick did receive a text, then there’s got to be a phone lying about somewhere, hasn’t there?’
Chapter Seven
Back in the field, Harry was surprised to find another vehicle in the field parked up next to the police Land Rover, which had been moved down towards the entrance into the field by the road. Matt was standing by it.
Harry could see that Matt had done a good job of cordoning off the site with the tape he’d handed him, pinning it down on the grass with rocks. He’d even managed to lay out a route in and out of the site to avoid contamination of crime scene. It hadn’t done much to improve it though. If anything, it had added to the grimness of it all, the tape standing out against the landscape, a sign that here, amongst the beauty, was something pretty bloody terrible indeed.
The vehicle next to the police Land Rover was a black Discovery. Like the Land Rover, Harry saw that it was covered in its fair share of muck and mud, but unlike the Land Rover, it looked comfortable and worth way more than he could ever afford to spend on a vehicle. Hell, it looked worth more than he’d happily spend on a new flat.
‘So who the hell is that, then?’ Harry asked, winding down his window to snarl at Matt. ‘I mean, this isn’t a bring-a-friend party, is it? Or do folk around here just like to turn up and have a look-see at a crime scene, whether they’re invited to or not?’
‘It’s Mike,’ Matt said. ‘One of the local GPs. I thought you called him?’
‘And why the hell would I do that?’
‘Confirm death?’
Harry pursed his lips and took a long, slow and particularly deep breath.
‘How’s about you think about what you just said and try that again,’ he said. ‘And bear in mind what a live person looks like, so, you know, like you and me and Jim here. And then think about what a dead person looks like, particularly one who’s been runover by a tractor and then left out in the sun for a couple of days.’
‘You mean you didn’t call him?’ Matt asked.
‘No, I bloody well did not!’ Harry roared, biting on his words as he said them. ‘It’s not like he’s needed, is it? Poor old Capstick is a bit beyond CPR and a couple of sodding paracetamol!’
Jim turned the engine off. ‘Maybe Nick called him?’
‘I specifically said for people to go to the farmhouse first,’ Harry seethed. ‘Otherwise this place is just going to end up like a car park at a National Trust site, and before you know it, Matt here’ll be charging for parking, and someone will turn up with a burger van!’
‘He’s a doctor, though,’ Jim said. ‘Might be useful? And you said you wanted someone to contact John’s GP.’
‘Look, we’ve the pathologist on her way already,’ Harry sighed, ‘And we all know what a pleasure Rebecca Sowerby is to deal with, don’t we? We need him gone, you hear? Or she’ll simply use this as a grenade to shove where I’d rather she didn’t.’
The last time Harry had had to deal with her they hadn’t exactly got along. And he was already not exactly looking forward to experiencing again her particularly spiky approach to developing a good working relationship.
Harry stared up towards the crime scene. ‘So just where exactly is this good doctor, then?’
Harry didn’t give Matt a chance to answer and, climbing out of Jim’s vehicle, headed straight off up across the field and towards the grisly remains of the late John Capstick.
Matt made to follow but Harry turned on him and stared hard.
‘No, you stay here. Scene Guard, remember?’ He looked to Jim. ‘You got something that’ll do the job
