Cold Blood by Jane Heafield (great books to read txt) 📕

Glass. A black window in a white floor that was no such thing. Right then he knew he knelt upon the flat back end of the CaraHome, nose down in the lake.

Part II

38

‘Did you find Mum?’

Bennet had to wipe an eye and it took a few seconds before he responded to his son. Thankfully, the boy couldn’t see down the phone.

‘No,’ Bennet said. He thumped a fist into his own leg. ‘Look, I need to go. I’ll call you soon.’

He hung up and turned. The uniformed police constable held his hand out for the phone. Bennet shook his head. ‘I’ll be keeping this.’

The constable hadn’t expected that. ‘I was supposed to take your phone back after the call.’

‘Go tell your superior I refused to hand it over. It’s my phone and it’s staying with me. And the statement’s done.’ He pointed at two sheets of paper on the bed. ‘And I haven’t had any breakfast yet. And find out if Superintendent Hunter is here yet.’

The constable didn’t press it about the phone. Different police services or not, Bennet was still a DCI. The uniform took the sheets and left.

Bennet approached the window of the hotel room. Outside, police cars seemed to fill the grass car park, and beyond the closed gates were more vehicles. Not police though. These belonged to people with cameras and microphones, all eager to talk to someone in the Arrow Hotel. One of the reporters saw Bennet at the upper window and aimed a camera. Bennet shut the curtains.

There was all sorts of noise from outside the room. But not from traditional guests: the eight present had been kicked out to accommodate the abrupt influx of Derbyshire’s finest. The Arrow Hotel had been commandeered as a police command centre/incident room, a welcome change to a tiny room in a police station or a truck rolling around the village.

And because it was close to a major crime scene.

Bennet lay on the bed, stared at the ceiling, and waited. He’d been here for about three hours. Earlier, he’d been debriefed, here in this nice room with a cup of tea. Just one copper unloading info to help another. They’d given him his phone back and some of the hotel manager’s old clothing to replace his sodden gear. And they’d politely asked him to remain on-site in case they had more questions.

But Bennet knew the game and he wasn’t fooled. His chat with the other detective hadn’t been recorded, there had been no mention of a solicitor, but Bennet knew the ‘debrief’ had actually been the first of many interviews. He had his phone, but they’d taken it away for the first hour to scrutinise recent activity. His wet clothing was going for analysis. The door wasn’t locked, but a uniformed officer was stationed outside. His chief inspector status got him the sweet treatment, but he knew they hadn’t yet ruled him out. They were fifty–fifty on whether he was a witness or a suspect.

Such was the honour of those who discovered dead bodies.

The officer came back a few minutes later. Bennet didn’t even look away from the ceiling. ‘Superintendent Hunter arrived a few minutes ago. He will see you soon.’

Bennet said nothing, but he rose and headed for the door. The officer looked concerned.

‘No, you shouldn’t leave yet, sir. I’ll come get you when it’s time. You should stay here.’

Bennet had spoken to four different policemen and each one had used shouldn’t instead of can’t, but Bennet didn’t see the difference. However, the officer knew he couldn’t manhandle his charge, and Bennet stepped out of the room.

He was followed down the stairs, to the foyer. Immediately, he saw two suited men amongst the casually-dressed detectives and police officers. Seeing him, they approached. One was a middle-aged man, quite bland, with a bald head. The other was the dapper Superintendent Hunter. Hunter got there first and stepped into a quiet corner with Liam.

‘I was coming to see you,’ Hunter said. ‘Liam, are you okay?’

‘I seem to be being treated more like a suspect than a witness, sir. Did you read my statement?’

‘Yes. And I’ve spoken to people at the scene. There are inconsistencies, Liam.’

‘They think I lied?’

Hunter looked disappointed. ‘What’s going on? What happened out there? I mean, what really happened out there?’

Inconsistencies. Bennet’s thoughts turned to Joe, and the lie he’d told to his own flesh and blood.

39

This statement (consisting of …2…pages each signed by me) is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and I make it knowing that if it is tendered in evidence, I shall be liable to prosecution if I have wilfully stated in it anything which I know to be false or do not believe to be true.

I am a police officer of the South Yorkshire Police…

(page 2)

…I entered the woods. At the end of an old slipway, I looked into the lake and saw something two or three feet beneath the surface that looked white. I waded in, but the land slipped away after just a few feet and I fell forward. I landed on the object below the surface, which I realised was the flat back end of a vehicle with a window in it. My assessment was that the vehicle was a Weinsberg CaraHome belonging to Overeem. The vehicle had gone into the water, dropped over the submerged edge, and sunk nose down.

I ducked under the water for a closer look, using my phone torch. I could see a human body pressed up against the back window. I also saw three more bodies, sitting in the front seats with their seat belts in place. At this point my weight broke the back window and the body against the glass floated out and up to the surface of the water. Because she was face up, I visually identified the body as that of Lorraine Cross, my son’s mother. She floated to the shore and lodged there. I got out