Someone Who Isn't Me by Danuta Kot (romance novel chinese novels .TXT) 📕

to begin the important but dull work of tracking down the cars that had been on the roads that night. She had been learning a lot during her brief time on auto-theft. The activity on the roads was recorded far more than most people realised; CCTV, ANPR cameras, bus cameras, dashcams. What she had to do was identify the car that had taken Andy south, out of all the cars that had been driving round the area that night. It was needles and haystacks territory. She had a lot to do.

‘DC Mason!’ It was Mark Curwen. He looked as if he hadn’t slept, and his normally clean-shaven face was shadowed with stubble.

‘Sir?’

‘A word. Come with me.’

To Dinah’s surprise, he didn’t lead the way to the office but to the back entrance that led to the car park, and headed for his car. As he opened the passenger door to let her in, she protested. ‘I haven’t got time to go anywhere, I’m supposed to be—’

‘Checking the cars in Brid the night Andy vanished. I know. I can give you some short cuts, but I need you to listen to me. Sorry about the cloak and dagger stuff,’ he said, offering her a cigarette. She shook her head. ‘Tell me about the briefing. Are they getting anywhere?’

He and Andy had been friends as well as colleagues. They’d gone to the pub together after work, they’d spent a lot of time discussing the drugs operation in a way that had excluded her. There was no reason not to tell him what was going on. She ran through what Hammond had told them, the paucity of evidence, and the directions the investigation was going.

He grimaced. ‘Hammond’s not the sharpest tool in the box, if I’m being honest. And he’s got bugger all to work with. Listen, Dinah. I’m going to trust you to keep this quiet, for the moment, OK?’

She didn’t like this at all. ‘If it’s to do with the investigation, I can’t promise that.’

‘There’s more to it than you realise. Have they found his phone?’

She shook her head. ‘Not yet. Hammond thinks it probably went in the water.’

‘But they’re still looking?’

‘Yes.’

‘OK. Listen. I’m pretty sure Andy was following something up, something he wasn’t telling me about. I think he may have got hold of a lead to the people bringing the stuff in.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘The pub. The Smokehouse. Andy knew as well as I did that there’s something dodgy going on in there. I think he had his own private operation on the go. I think he was investigating the pub, and I think he found something.’

‘So why didn’t he tell you?’

‘Straight after that fuck-up of a raid? He’s going to come to me and say, Guess what I’ve been doing? He’d need something concrete, and he didn’t have it.’

‘We should tell Hammond.’

‘Don’t you see? Andy’s carrying out an unofficial investigation into drug dealing, but whatever he found – it’s gone. Hammond didn’t find anything related to that, did he? You know how Andy was placed. He was a single dad – you know about his wife?’

Dinah nodded. He’d told her once, when they were sitting in the car late one evening towards the end of their shift, eating bacon rolls from the van on the seafront. His wife, Mel, had been diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy. She’d refused treatment until after their daughter, Mia, was born and had died before Mia was six months old. Mel and Mia, Andy had said. He’d smiled. She liked that.

‘So, times were tough. He had a mortgage, he had childcare to pay for and all the rest of the shit you get when you’ve got a kid. What’s to show he was one of the good guys? Whatever he was doing, you can flip it – Andy was carrying out illegal contacts with drug dealers – he goes to places he shouldn’t, meets people we don’t know about, ends up getting killed. Live by the sword, die by the sword, you know?’

The idea that Andy could be have been bent silenced Dinah for a few seconds. ‘That’s… You don’t think that?’ It was more an accusation than a question.

‘I know he wasn’t dodgy. It’s a set-up. They get rid of someone who’s getting too close, we dismiss him as yet another bent cop. Before I say anything, I want evidence that shows Andy was set-up. If it’s anywhere, it will be in that pub, and I can’t go in there. Apart from anything else, the landlord knows me. He’d kick me out and put in the kind of complaint that would have me counting cars for the rest of my life.’

Now she knew what he was asking. ‘You want me to have a look?’

‘I told you. I can’t go in there. You’re a stranger.’

‘How do I explain it if I get caught?’ She’d be in trouble, she knew that.

‘Go in when you’re off duty. You’re allowed to drink where you want to.’

As if she’d choose a dive like the Smokehouse. ‘But what do I look for? I can’t just walk in and start asking questions.’

‘Two things. Take a look at the place. If you see anything that we can use to go after Carl Lavery, the bloke who owns it – anything at all – tell me. Second, Andy had a contact in there – the barmaid, Becca Armitage. Try and talk to her.’

‘But if she was Andy’s informant, then Hammond can follow up.’ She didn’t want to do this. She really didn’t. Something felt off.

‘She wasn’t, or not officially. She just gave him a few bits and pieces. I think she had a bit of a thing for him.’

Dinah stared out of the car window into the fading light. This story of unofficial investigations had shaken her. What had Andy been thinking of? What had he known that had made him do this? Curwen was hinting it could lead to accusations of corruption. If that was the case, the outcome