Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan (readict TXT) 📕

maybe, though it was hard to tell. She also said nothing, for a while, at least.

Documents and folders lay around the tables, some bearing the insignia of Public Health, some marked with other acronyms, other government departments and committees.

The door opened and Cooper stiffened at the surprise of the noise. She knew she needed to calm down. She—

The man in the red tie came back with Cooper’s water and set it down on a table next to an empty chair.

Cooper did not sit there.

‘You worked on a case for us, once,’ the woman said. ‘Years ago, now . . . We wouldn’t have spoken.’

There was something careful about her words. As if she was processing something in her mind, some hidden disgust that wasn’t about Cooper, wasn’t about any of them. Something that couldn’t let her go.

‘What case?’ Cooper asked, but even as she spoke, the doors opened once more. People came in with croissants, pastries, a covered plate of bacon.

‘Feel free to help yourself,’ said the man. ‘And please. Sit down.’

Cooper did so.

The waiting staff left.

The woman went on, buttering a croissant. It was a long time before she was finished, before she finally spoke.

‘Tell me about these horses,’ she said, a knife still in her hand.

‘What about them?’

‘How you came here. What the locals told you. Tell me about it.’

‘I mainly worked with the police,’ Cooper said. ‘I didn’t conduct many interviews.’

The woman kept staring at her, finally eating the croissant. Cooper went on.

‘The inspector – Harry Morgan – he phoned my office the afternoon the horses were found.’

‘What pieces were found?’ the man asked.

‘Decapitated heads. Tails, also.’

‘Was that all that was found?’

One of the documents on the table had a photograph of Alec on it.

‘Dr Allen?’ the man went on. ‘I asked if all you found were the heads and tails.’

‘Tyre tracks,’ Cooper said, turning back to him. ‘Nothing else from the body itself.’ She paused. ‘Someone had made a campfire nearby – a vagrant interviewed by the police the next day. He claimed to have witnessed the animals’ burial.’ Still they said nothing, they just waited for her to say more. ‘And there was . . . well, there was a bird outside the tents.’ She scratched her arm. ‘It was dying.’

The man looked over at the woman.

‘What happened to the bird?’ he asked, turning back. ‘What was wrong with it?’

‘It was infested with parasites. It was having difficulty breathing. I helped it.’

‘How?’ the woman asked.

‘I snapped its neck.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

The other vet – the quiet one on the phone, who’d spoken of a man and horse screams – she was dead. An overdose of ketamine, most likely stolen and written off as spillage from her surgery. The full catalogue of all those things she had taken, all those things she had ordered on her practice’s behalf, would not be uncovered for weeks. Wires, certainly. Sedatives. Tools.

Personal protective equipment was missing, large size coveralls too tall for her use, masks, disinfectant.

No one had noticed.

The authorities had gone to Kate’s home.

They had found evidence of blackmail there, a burner phone used around Ilmarsh for the past two months. She had been forced to do so many things. She thought she’d be helping steal the animals at first – that this was all.

Kate didn’t exist any more.

Cooper thought of Kate’s mug. I’m not sheepish about doing a good job.

She didn’t know what to say.

Kate hadn’t existed for a few hours now.

She didn’t know what to—

The man looked through his notes, then he asked Cooper a question. ‘What is your relationship with DS Alec Nichols?’

‘Is he OK?’

‘Answer the question first.’

Cooper hesitated. She drank some of her water. ‘He’s a professional. Can be a little . . .’

‘A little what?’

‘Nervous. Easily riled. He certainly doesn’t have a good appetite for, you know . . .’

‘No, I don’t know.’

‘He didn’t cope well with the bodies.’

The man straightened his back, looking over briefly at his superior.

‘Did Officer Nichols, or any other person in this place, ever discuss sickness, illness, disease, infection, or contagion?’

Cooper scratched at her nose. ‘Where is he?’

‘What did he discuss with you?’

The sun was rising now. The noise of people began to thicken on the floors below, like a chorus.

‘I’ve answered every question.’ Cooper turned to the woman. ‘Now answer mine. You haven’t even told me what—’

‘It was Bacillus anthracis,’ the woman said. ‘A strain of it, anyway. Fast acting. Killed the older police officer, George Hillard. Two others critical, Alec Nichols included. The evidence suggests anthrax spores were deliberately placed around the horse heads.’

No one said a thing.

‘Show her the letter.’ The woman turned to her colleagues.

The man in the red tie produced a photocopy from his pile of documents.

He passed it to Cooper.

The letter was typed. Before being photocopied by the authorities, it had been stained by some anonymous liquid.

There was anger in me once. I dreamt at times of being better. We killed to help and in helping I tasted something in me.

I have burned fires. I am awake and no one saw me and no one will. These things I did I did and no one knew until I let them. I have held the dancing plague. I blossom, now.

The smile is yours.

You could have saved him.

‘A number of dead birds were discovered in the night. We found copies of this letter in their beaks. Folded down their throats, wrapped in plastic. Their necks broken, just like your broken crow.’

‘Where?’ Cooper asked.

The woman didn’t answer the question.

The man spoke instead. ‘DS Alec Nichols’s fingerprints were found on the wrapping of several.’

He took the piece of paper back.

‘You were vaccinated years ago, weren’t you?’ The woman paused. ‘The full course. I read it in your file.’ She smiled. ‘It was like you were meant to come here. Like a hero from another hall, come to slay the monster.’ Her smile had no warmth, no feeling. She sat up straight. ‘I’ve read about you.’

Plants bloomed out in the gardens beyond.

‘You were hired for four days, if I understand correctly. We’d like to extend your