‘Chasing Marcus Prescott? I don’t understand.’
‘Kinnear,’ Fine said. ‘We assume he was following orders from Kinnear.’
‘Him. I told Derek he should just walk away but no, he said. He was going to come into money if he stuck with Kinnear. We could go off somewhere, start again.’
‘And you believed him?’
She looked sharply at Fine. ‘Yeah,’ she said softly. ‘I believed him, but you know what, after a little while it didn’t matter any more.’
‘And you two met, where?’
‘Oh, one of Rupert’s little get-togethers. He liked his storytellers to get to know one another. Thought if we exchanged information we might remember more. Oral history, he called it.’ She shrugged. ‘Actually, I liked old Rupert. He was one of the good guys. Kind, considerate, good listener.’
‘And Derek came along to one of these meetings?’
‘At the library, yes. We called ourselves a study group but … well, we’d have a good gossip, talk about Rupert’s latest bit of writing and then all go off to the pub. Mostly it was the same crowd but Derek turned up one night out of the blue and I fell. Big time. He was charming, curious, talkative and shy, all at the same time.’
‘Sounds like a contradiction.’
‘Yeah, well. Will he be OK?’
‘We hope so, yes.’
‘Your son tells me Kinnear came to the farm.’
She nodded. ‘Yeah.’
‘And did you have much to do with him?’
‘Too much. Look, it was obvious from the start Derek didn’t know anything about local history. He claimed his family came from round here and he wanted to find out more about his past. Their past. Rupert didn’t care and like I said it was more a social club anyway. But after a while, when we got more involved and I’d seen him hanging round with Sam Kinnear, he told me Kinnear was after something Rupert had. Something Kinnear thought that he was owed. He was scared of the man, too scared to tell me any more but one day when he was with me Kinnear phoned him. He wasn’t supposed to be with me but if he’d taken me home I guess he’d have been late answering his master’s call so he took me along. Not inside though, made me wait in the car and lie down on the back seat so Kinnear didn’t see but I knew where I was.’
‘You can take me there?’
She nodded. ‘I think so. It’s an old farm, deserted. There’s a few places round here just left to go to rack and ruin. The big companies take them over, use the land, leave perfectly good homes to fall down when there’s local kids crying out for cheap housing.’
Fine nodded. He knew. ‘But you can take me there?’
‘Yeah. Look, I need to talk to Danny, when can I go home?’
‘Tomorrow. Not tonight. The last thing your boy needs is his mum and dad rowing over him again tonight. Tomorrow I’ll arrange a meet, maybe at Fallowfields. He’s got friends there.’
‘You can’t stop me going home.’
‘No, I can’t but just now you’re going to take me to where Kinnear was holed up. You’ve not seen him for this long, best make a fresh start tomorrow, eh?’
She nodded slowly. ‘Friends at Fallowfields?’
‘The new owner, Alec Friedman, he’s got some friends staying. Patrick is just a bit older than Danny. They’ve hit it off.’
‘I’m glad,’ she said. ‘He never seems to have that many friends.’
She was fairly sure where the farm was but in the dark they made a couple of false turns which meant Fine’s car and the patrol cars that followed had to carry out some awkward manoeuvres on the narrow roads.
The farm had once been called The Ash Trees, or so the sign on the sagging gate claimed. Fine thought it was one of those owned by a big frozen food corporation but he couldn’t be sure. The dark and the twists and turns had lost him too and he was glad of his GPS which would at least be able to guide him home when he told it to.
The farm buildings were not in bad shape, he thought, or as far as he could tell in the light of his torch. The door was open, though not wide. He looked around, noting the outbuildings and rusting machinery, the muddied yard with the remnants of cobbles in front of the farmhouse door. They kept well back, vehicles pulling up on the road at the end of the drive. Once out of their cars, they all crouched in the shadows behind the engine block, although that still felt too exposed. Fine worried that he was still in there – for all that seemed unlikely. That he might be armed.
He signalled for the armed support unit to move in, content to let them do their own thing. They would search, make everything secure. He heard their commander calling out ‘armed police’ and instructing anyone inside to come out with their hands raised.
Nothing moved. Kinnear was gone, Fine was sure. All around them country silence reigned. Even the birds had shut up for the night and the faint rustlings in the undergrowth that Fine had been aware of when they first got out of the car had ceased as well.
‘Where was Kinnear holed up?’
Sharon pointed to one of the out buildings. ‘In there. Derek said the owners started a conversion, ran out of money, then they sold up and moved on.’
‘So he knew something about this place. Did he know the owners?’
She shrugged. ‘Maybe Rupert did. Rupert knew everyone. He might have mentioned it. They talked a lot about lost villages, the death of communities, that sort of political stuff. Round here Rupert was all het up about drainage or something.’
‘You mean way back when?’
She shook her head. ‘No, something about the water table. There was a report or some such a couple of years ago. I didn’t take much notice. Sorry.’
Fine nodded, he vaguely recalled it. There was some big debate about the extensions of the Peatlands trails and draining of what was left of the fenland. Worries too that peat extraction would lead to the flooding of farmland. Fine was familiar with the anxieties.
He watched as the armed commander pushed the door, then gestured the other officers forward. ‘Armed police,’ he shouted. ‘We’re coming in.’
Minutes later and he emerged again, gestured that Fine could come inside.
‘Long gone,’ he said. ‘We’ll secure the scene and get SOCO in first thing.’
‘Not tonight?’ Sharon asked
He grimaced. ‘SOCO are civilians. Hard to get them out after hours unless it’s an emergency. I don’t think this qualifies.’
‘Not like CSI then.’
‘No, not like CSI. Get back in the car. I’ve arranged a stay at a safe house for you tonight. Tomorrow I’ll take you to see Danny.’
It was late by the time Fine got to Fallowfields but everyone was still up.
‘We’ll be leaving in the morning,’ Alec told him. ‘Going home, I think. You’ve enough to do without protecting us.’
Fine nodded. The chair in which he sat was comfortable and he could easily drop off to sleep. ‘At least Danny’s mum’s OK. That’s one small blessing, though I think it’s going to be a long haul making up for all this.’
‘When will Reid be fit to talk?’
‘Morning, we hope. I’ve got someone with him all night. Not much more we can do. I just thought I’d bring you up to speed.’
‘Appreciate it,’ Alec said.
‘Oh, and there’s one more thing. The laptop and the books. I think we can safely consider them evidence now. I should take them away.’
‘Welcome,’ Alec said. ‘Patrick, will you do the honours?’
Fine bagged the books and laptop. ‘I’ll get these checked in tonight, then I’m off to my bed.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Alec agreed. ‘Reid should be able to give you the info on Kinnear and hopefully the worst is over now.’
‘I hope you’re right,’ Fine said. ‘I really do.’