‘Us telling Marcus Prescott when we’ve found it,’ Patrick finished.
Twenty-Six
Reg Fine welcomed them into the poky little office he shared with two other officers. ‘Good to see you both. Alec, how are you?’
‘Better, thanks. The bruises are now an interesting shade of green.’
Fine laughed. ‘So, what can I do you for? Sit yourselves down. Alec, grab a chair from behind that desk. Bristow’s in court so he won’t be needing it.’
Alec wheeled out a battered office chair from behind another desk, seated Naomi and found a wooden one that looked as if it had come out of an ancient school room for himself.
‘So, what do you have to tell me?’
‘First,’ Alec said, ‘I think we should up the publicity here. See if we can flush Kinnear.’
‘Oh? And what changed your mind?’
‘We now know what he was looking for at Fallowfields. He won’t run until he has it and, frankly, we’d rather have control of the situation than let Kinnear get impatient and do something we might not like.’
Fine nodded. ‘Seems to be making a habit out of that,’ he said. ‘So what did you find? What was Kinnear so desperate to get?’
‘Money,’ Alec told him. ‘Or rather, the means of recovering it.’
‘And what money would that be?’
‘The proceeds of two robberies,’ Alec told him. ‘From back in the early eighties.’
Fine raised an eyebrow. ‘And the connection with your uncle would be?’
‘We suspect Rupert might have been driving the getaway vehicle,’ Alec said.
Fine raised an eyebrow. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘You’ve got my attention. Tell me more.’
Quickly, but as concisely as possible, Alec filled in the details of the crimes and the part he suspected his uncle might have played.
‘You’re serious?’ Fine said at last. ‘You really think this Billy Pierce may have it right and your uncle was involved?’
Alec nodded reluctantly. ‘It fits the known facts,’ he said. ‘Believe me, I’d love to be proved wrong but in the absence of something disproving his involvement … Rupert was a clever man but he wasn’t always a wise one and I suspect ex-DI Pierce was right.’
‘Sam Spade,’ Fine laughed harshly. ‘I like that. But Alec, have you thought this through? Two men died. One an innocent bystander. Do you really think your uncle could have lived with that? Could he have just carried on as normal all these years? I didn’t know him, but the impression I’ve gained from those that did was that he was a good man. An honest one.’
‘That’s the one thing that causes us to doubt,’ Naomi agreed, ‘but, as Alec says, we have to work with what we’ve found out.’
‘But you’re only hypothesizing about the so-called code you’ve found in the journals. It might be completely unrelated.’
‘Of course it might,’ Alec agreed. ‘It might even be something Rupert used to throw Kinnear off the trail, but it seems to me that Kinnear believed that Rupe still had the money and from the look of the ledger Harry’s been working on, Rupert was drawing money back through the antiques business, effectively laundering it for Kinnear. There are purchases mentioned that he’s paid one price for and declared another. Items sold for a different rate according to which records you examine. Money diverted. Though we don’t yet know where. And when we compared this to the stuff his solicitor gave me, details to do with the house and his business and his ordinary accounts, you can’t but help see the difference.’
‘You’re pretty sure that the house and business are clean then. I mean, apart from his recent activities.’
‘Pretty sure, yes. It would need a forensic accountant to go back through the books.’
‘Well, I hope you’ve got deep pockets,’ Fine said. ‘They don’t come cheap.’
‘I was wondering, ‘Alec said. ‘If this became an official investigation …’
Fine threw up his hands in a gesture somewhere between horror and denial. ‘Alec, you’ve got to be joshing with me. There’s not enough evidence to warrant those kinds of resources. Bring me Kinnear, bring me a direct link to your uncle and something might be done, but as it is, no hope.’
Alec nodded. He hadn’t been expecting anything else but he thought he ought to ask. ‘But, the publicity,’ he said, ‘you can handle that?’
‘That I can do,’ Fine agreed. ‘We’ll get the local media involved and Kinnear’s picture out there with a statement to the effect that he’s wanted for the attack on you and an attempted break-in at the house of a recently deceased minor celebrity.’
‘Minor celebrity?’ Alec laughed. ‘Rupe would have enjoyed that.’
‘Well, he almost was,’ Fine said. ‘We’ll just give it a little spin. It shouldn’t be difficult, not with the local writer angle and the circumstances in which he was found. It might take a day or so to build, but I reckon we can get his picture and a brief statement in tomorrow’s papers. That would be a start.’
‘Good,’ Alec told him. ‘Then the next move will be up to Kinnear.’
‘There’s something else,’ Naomi said. ‘Probably unrelated, but Patrick’s befriended a young lad by the name of Danny Fielding.’
‘At the farm back of Fallowfields,’ Alec elucidated.
‘His mother went missing about the time of Rupert’s death. Danny is convinced it wasn’t as simple as her just leaving home. She’s not been in touch and no one seems to have seen her.’
‘And you want me to see if there’s any previous?’
‘Please,’ Naomi said. ‘It occurred to me there might be a history. I wondered if you could check out the local women’s refuges.’
‘I could get that done,’ Fine said, though he sounded a little wary. ‘You realize, though, that I couldn’t tell you anything. If she’s there it’s because she’s in need of protection. It’d be up to her if she wanted to make contact with her son.’
Naomi nodded. ‘I think it would be something for Danny to know that she was still alive,’ she said. ‘He’s convinced she would have been in touch if she’d been able.’
‘So, won’t knowing that she hasn’t been be harder still on the lad?’
‘I don’t know,’ Naomi told him. ‘But we promised to try and find out.’
Fine considered for a moment then pushed his chair out from behind the desk. ‘Give me a minute,’ he said.
It was in fact almost ten before he came back. He dropped a folder on the table. ‘Look,’ he said. ‘You know I can’t go into detail, but you were right. There is history. A half dozen calls in the past three years. Nothing before,’ he sighed. ‘It’s become more common round here of late to be called to domestics. Pressures on farmers have never been greater and tempers boil over. From my reading of the reports though, this was a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other. Sharon Fielding has a temper and so does her old man. She walloped him with a cast iron pan last year. Lucky not to crack his skull. Neither of them have ever pressed charges.’
‘I see,’ Naomi said. ‘So it could be that there was violence this time.’
‘You’re afraid Danny Fielding could be right?’
She nodded.
‘OK, look, I’ll do a ring round. I’m assuming they’ve called the hospitals and the usual stuff?’
‘You know, I’m not sure they have,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Patrick said that Danny had phoned family and friends, but he’s just a kid.’
‘Well, we can get on to that,’ Alec said.
‘They might not let on she’s there, you know. Depends if she’s told them not to,’ Fine reminded him. ‘And if she was unconscious and had identification then the family would have been informed. You can give a description, of course, see if they have any bodies they don’t have a name for. I’ll do the mortuary,’ he added. ‘Be easier for me.’