"So where are we with it now? Would the death of Mary Beckett impact on the development either way?"
Eric scrunched up his face. "I'm not there yet. But I'm working on it."
"Fair enough. You've made a good start," Tom said. He sank back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head and interlocking his fingers. "I'm surprised, though."
Eric looked over inquisitively.
"You implied there's a bit of push-back from the locals against the environmentalists regarding their campaign. In my experience, the locals around these parts are already quite environmentally conscious."
"I agree. I reckon it's all part of the agricultural heritage, living off both the land and the sea for generations," Eric said. "It's easy to see the disagreement just from reading the comment threads underneath the group posts. Some people don't pull their punches when they're sitting comfortably behind a keyboard."
"Keep plugging away. Come at it from all angles. Who has the most to gain from the proposal, besides Prometheus Energy themselves? Although I want you to find out as much as you can about them too. Furthermore, who's been leading the fightback against Mary and her group, and why? Did you find anything regarding this stalker Janet was referring to?"
"Stalker?" Cassie asked, entering the ops room and hanging her coat up. "Who's got a stalker?"
"Morning, Cassie," Tom said. Eric also smiled, offering her a brief wave.
She came to join them, casting an eye over Eric's desk as he rummaged through some papers, eventually producing a document which he brandished triumphantly.
"Here it is," he said, grinning. "It's an old crime report filed three years ago. Mary Beckett reported an incident down at the bird watcher's reserve at the back of Holm Dunes."
"What have I missed? Who's Mary Beckett?" Cassie asked, eyeing their takeaway coffee cups and apparently hopeful there was one available for her. "Does she have a stalker?"
"She's the victim Eric and I went to look at out at Blakeney yesterday," Tom said. "And no, sorry, I didn't get you a coffee. I'll do better next time."
DS Cassie Knight inclined her head, clearly disappointed. "Victim? Seriously, what have I missed?"
"Murdered," Eric stated.
"Wow. I take an early finish, having spent months working on beauty-spot break-ins, and you guys land a murder inquiry," she said with a wry smile. "Next time I want to head off early to the shops, stop me, yeah." Eric grinned whereas Tom raised one eyebrow in reply. "Any suspects?"
"Nothing concrete," Tom said. "Eric – the report?"
"Oh, yes. Right you are," Eric said, eyeing the paper bag in front of him as Cassie sat down. Tom guessed he'd missed breakfast. "It's going back a bit. Three years, to be precise. Mary contacted us after she was harassed late one evening on her way back to her car. Probably having done her rounds."
Cassie looked at Eric inquisitively and he waved away her question.
"I'll fill you in later," Eric said, handing her a clutch of paper.
Cassie accepted the reply, her eyes narrowing as she scanned Eric's notes made the previous day in a bid to catch up.
"Mary claimed to have someone stalking her, leaving nasties for her along with general harassment – malicious phone calls, tyres on her car let down. That sort of thing."
"Define nasties for me please?" Tom asked.
"Eric reread the document to ensure he got the detail correct. "In this particular case she said a clutch of birds were mutilated and strung up for her to find. Heads removed, gutted… pleasant."
Tom nodded sagely, his brow furrowing. "Standard practice for those twisted individuals looking to intimidate wildlife campaigners, to be honest. I've heard of them stringing them up on gates, porches or even nailing them to front doors, if they feel particularly brave on occasion." Tom sighed. "Anything come out of the investigation?"
Eric shook his head. "Nope. Uniform went down to the reserve to take a look and couldn't find any sign of the birds. There were calls made to Mary Beckett's mobile phone but it was an unknown number on a burner, so untraceable. With no one else to corroborate her story, she was advised to contact us again if something should happen, but there was no further action to take."
Tom rubbed at his cheeks with both hands, drawing a deep breath as he lowered his hands. "Any further reports on the matter?"
"No. If anything else happened, then Mary didn't report it to us."
Cassie chimed in at this point. "If she felt we didn't respond adequately, then she had no reason to believe we'd actually do anything. Present company excepted, obviously."
"Yes, well, we shouldn't judge our colleagues too harshly. It was three years ago. Maybe the harassment tailed off as they moved on to other things," Tom said.
"Or people," Cassie countered.
"True. Although, she did complain about it to her sister and nephew," Tom said. "At least that's what they conveyed to Eric and myself last night. It remains to be seen if it's at all related to her death, though. Too early to rule anything out." He looked at Eric. "It's a long shot but run that burner number through the system again. You never know, it might be active."
"If not, the number will probably have been reassigned to someone else by now," Eric said, sounding doubtful.
"Run it anyway. You never know."
Eric made a note to do so.
"And while you're at it, see if you can figure out who she was at odds with at the time," Tom said. "Hindsight's a wonderful thing but maybe this is the culmination of a long-held grudge."
Cassie looked up from her reading, catching Tom's eye. "From what her sister was saying, it looks like she made falling out with people something of a habit. This list looks like a local bingo card she was chalking off. One of them is Daniel Crowe.
