‘What was?’ Harry asked. ‘What do you mean by it was everyone? They all did what? Did something happen, Nick?’
Nick’s expression turned from anger to worry. ‘No, look, what I mean is . . . I’m just saying . . .’ he stuttered, clearly trying to find the right words, ‘I’m just saying that John wasn’t the only one who got into trouble. We all did. Everyone did. Kids is kids, like, and, well, you know . . .’
‘No, I don’t know,’ Harry said. ‘Are you saying John got blamed for something at school? What was it?’
Nick shut down, didn’t say a word.
‘If you know something that you think can help,’ Harry said, ‘you need to tell us, Nick.’
‘Nothing happened!’ Nick yelled, spit flying from his mouth. ‘School was years ago, wasn’t it? Years ago! What happened to John, well that happened now, didn’t it? And my mate’s dead and you’re asking me about what it was like when we were kids, like? It doesn’t make sense! None of it does! It’s got bugger all to do with now! Bugger all!’
Harry gave Nick a moment or two to calm down. ‘Right, I think that’s all for now, Nick,’ he said, as the yawn from a few minutes ago threatened to come along again for another go. ‘We’ll give you a call if we want another chat, okay, Nick? But it’s probably best for all of us if you don’t go running off again.’
‘So, I can go? That’s it for the questions?’
Harry nodded at the door and Nick stood up. Then, as Nick made to move, he said, ‘Just out of interest, Nick, can you tell me where you were Saturday morning, around six?’
‘What? Why?’
‘Answer the question.’
‘I was in bed! Where the hell else do you think I was?’
‘You sure about that?’
‘Yes! Of course I’m bloody sure!’
‘You weren’t round with John driving up into the field with him?’
‘What? On a Saturday? Sod off!’
‘Can you prove it?’
Nick’s eyes grew wide, his mouth thin and Harry knew from that alone that he probably couldn’t.
‘Someone saw two people in John’s tractor heading up into the field,’ Harry explained. ‘Was that you and John? Because if it was, we need to know.’
‘No it bloody well wasn’t!’ Nick shouted, the words flying from his mouth, hot and angry. ‘I was too pissed still from Friday night at the pub! Didn’t get out of bed till midday!’
‘You sure?’
Nick’s mouth fell open and he snapped it shut immediately, rage burning in his eyes. Harry found himself believing him, which was annoying really, because it would’ve been nice and neat for it to have been Nick that Bill had spotted. The thought that it wasn’t, that it was someone else who had driven John up into the field? Well, that just made this whole case considerably more complicated, didn’t it?
‘It wasn’t me,’ Nick said, clearly fighting to keep his voice calm. ‘John was a mate. Look, I know, most folk didn’t like him, but then most folk don’t like me either, do they? So why the hell would I go and kill my only friend, hmm? You tell me that!’
Nick stared at Harry for a while after speaking then finally his eyes dropped and to Harry it was almost as though the man shrunk a little in front of them.
‘If you do think of something that might be important, a name, anything, you’ll let us know, won’t you?’
Nick gave a nod then headed back to the door, before turning around on last time.
‘What happened, to John, you think someone did that to him? On purpose, like? Murdered him?’
‘I really don’t know,’ Harry said. ‘And that’s the honest truth, Nick. But if you know anything, even if you don’t think it’s important, you need to tell us, right? Whatever happened to John, we need to find out.’
Nick said nothing more and left the room, the door swishing shut behind him like it was shooing him out of the room on Harry and Matt’s behalf.
With Nick gone, Matt stood up next and stretched.
‘You don’t think he did it, do you?’ He asked, relaxing from the stretch. ‘You know, clobbered John a couple of days ago, took his phone, used it to send a text to himself, then drove out there, and hey-presto, he’s got an alibi?’
A wave of tiredness hit Harry. He screwed his eyes up tight, then opened them again, and they took longer than they should to focus on Matt. ‘We need the pathologist report,’ he said. ‘Hopefully that’ll tell us something. And a location request will have been put through to whichever phone network Capstick was with. So hopefully we’ll at least know where that message to Nick was sent from, but it sure as hell wasn’t sent from the field by him, was it?’
‘Reckon sleep is in order before then,’ Matt said. ‘I’ll lock up. What do you think about what he said about school?’
Harry really wasn’t sure. ‘I think John had a little gang and that, like Nick said, school was probably pretty hard. Kids pick on each other, that’s what happens. Linking what happened to John to primary school just seems like a massive stretch.’
‘Yeah, I can see that,’ Matt said. ‘But some of what he said, it sounded like something happened back then.’
‘Yeah, it did,’ Harry pondered.
Outside, with the office locked and Matt on his way home, the night had fallen to full dark, and Harry wandered back to his new flat, feeling no further on with what they were dealing with than he had been when the call had come in that morning. They had a dead body, a weird death, a missing phone, a mysterious text, no suspects at all – unless he counted Nick, which Harry’s gut told him was complete and total nonsense – and the overall general impression
