Close to the Bone

they can get all the stains out, who’s going to want to buy a house where someone was tortured to death in the kitchen? It’s not like we can make a feature out of it.’

‘And you’re sure everyone who viewed the place was on the list? ’

He waved a hand at the lever-arch file on the desk. ‘You’ve seen the paperwork. That’s everyone.’

‘So who else had access to the keys? ’

‘Well, I did, obviously; Jennifer on reception; Jake Smith, my partner; our trainee, Duncan Cocker; and a couple of people we use for viewing rural properties when it’s simply not convenient to send someone out from the office.’

Cocker. Cocker. .

Logan pulled out his notebook and went flipping back through the days until he got to Monday when they were interviewing Anthony Chung’s friends. ‘Duncan Cocker — young, bit vague, sounds as if he just wandered off the set of some awful American teenage rom-com? ’

A sigh. ‘At Willox and Smith we pride ourselves on quality and service. Duncan’s. . He still has a lot to learn.’

Damn right he did. ‘I need to see him.’

‘Well,’ Willox thumbed through a big desk diary, ‘he’s down to show a couple round a detached cottage with two bedrooms, sun porch, and excellent potential as an equestrian property, in twenty minutes, but you can-’

‘I don’t think you’re really getting the seriousness of this.’

‘We do have a business to run, and-’

‘Get him in here now.’

Willox puffed out his cheeks, ran a hand across his comb-over quiff. ‘I. .’ Then he leaned forward and pressed one of the shoogled buttons on his desk phone. ‘Jennifer, can you ask Mr Cocker to step into my office please? ’

Duncan Cocker shifted in his seat, licked his lips. Pulled on a twitchy smile. ‘Nah: honest, I got no idea, you know? ’

Logan sat back in Mr Willox’s executive office chair and steepled his fingertips, the top two just under the tip of his nose. Doing his best Superintendent Napier impression. Staring at Duncan Cocker in silence.

‘So, you. .’ A shrug. ‘It’s all OK, right? ’

More silence.

He started to rise out of his seat, so Logan gave PC Sim the nod and she loomed over him, both hands on his shoulders, pushing him back down. ‘Don’t think so.’

‘But I told you, I don’t know, it’s just, like, one of them coincidences? ’

Sim patted him on the cheek. ‘Tell me, Mr Cocker, do we look thick? ’

Pause. ‘No? ’

‘So why do you think it’s OK to lie to us? ’

‘But I’m totally not lying, and-’

‘Mr Cocker, it’s not polite to call someone thick, is it? ’

‘I didn’t say anyone was thick, it’s like a-’

‘Some people might take a lot of offence at that.’

He stared at Logan, hands up at chest height, as if miming the ‘Please, sir, can I have some more? ’ bit from Oliver Twist. ‘I didn’t tell anyone about me knowing Ton, ’cos I didn’t want to lose my job, and it wasn’t like I had anything to do with it, yeah? ’

Logan smiled at him. ‘You have no idea how much trouble you’re in, do you? ’

‘But. .’ A breath. Then he looked at the floor. ‘Ton would kill me.’

‘He’d have to join the queue. You see, the people he’s been stealing from aren’t the let-bygones-be-bygones type. They’re more claw-hammer-to-the-knees kind of guys. And as soon as they know you helped Anthony Chung rip them off. .’ Logan sooked a breath in through his bared teeth. ‘Well, they’re going to be very interested in paying you a visit.’

‘But I never-’

‘Do you like your kneecaps, Duncan? ’

Silence.

He wriggled in his seat, until Sim pinned him down again.

‘The Inspector asked you a question, Mr Cocker.’

‘I’ve. .’ A cough. ‘I kinda let Ton have the keys to a couple places we’re selling with vacant possession. You know, ones that haven’t shifted for over a year? He does a bit of business there.’

‘Until he ended up staked out and tortured to death in the Abernethy house.’

Cocker squeezed his knees together. ‘Nothing to do with me, I totally swear, I mean totally. I gave Ton the keys, he gave me a shed-load of weed. That’s it.’ He licked his lips and looked up at PC Sim. ‘Er. . All for personal consumption, yeah? I wasn’t selling it or nothing.’

Logan tossed his notepad onto the desk, then followed it with a biro. ‘Addresses.’

He made a little whimpering noise.

Bit his lip.

Then picked up the pen and scribbled down half a dozen of them. ‘You got to promise not to tell Mr Willox, yeah? I mean, you know, it’s my job and he might. . with the keys and everything? ’

Logan pointed at the notebook. ‘Sign it at the bottom. And date it.’

Cocker did. ‘And it don’t have to go any further, right? The other cop swore it’d be OK — you don’t have to drag me into it. She promised.’

Logan took his notebook back. ‘Other cop? ’

‘You know, yesterday? The woman with the curly hair and the boobs? She totally promised.’

He sat forward. ‘When yesterday? ’

‘Afternoon. . About half three, maybe four? I gave her the addresses, and that was it.’

The leads she was chasing down. The ones she said were dead-ends when she came through to volunteer for soup-kitchen duty.

Cocker cleared his throat. ‘So, I can go now, right? Got to show a couple round a house. .’

46

‘A right sodding disaster.’ On the other end of the phone, Steel sounded as if she was chewing on a mouthful of wasps.

Logan leaned against the roof of his rusty Fiat, notebook open in front of him. ‘You’re the one gave the job to Ding-Dong.’

‘Two injured officers. Armed standoff. Hostages. Bloody press everywhere. .’

‘What did I tell you? ’

‘Hostages! How can he screw up raiding a wee cannabis farm? Now it’s all Waco comes to Blackburn.’

‘Should’ve let me do it then, shouldn’t you? Now pay attention — I need you to get armed response units round to six houses. Have you got a pen? ’

‘Leith managed to raid his without anyone getting shot. .’ She paused. ‘This isn’t more cannabis farms, is it? Because we got in enough trouble last time.’

Good question. ‘No idea. Anthony Chung got keys to a bunch of properties from a friend who works for an estate agent’s. Most of them are out in the sticks. That’s why we could never find out where he and Agnes were staying — they just moved from house to house.’

‘Six addresses? You want me to get six addresses raided? What part of “Shotgun Hostage Drama in Suburban Cul-de-sac” did you no’ understand? ’

‘And you better get the SEB to go over them too, see if we can find anything else linking Agnes Garfield