Silent Crimes Read online

  SILENT CRIMES

  A totally captivating crime mystery

  DETECTIVE SOPHIE ALLEN BOOK 8

  MICHAEL HAMBLING

  First published 2019

  Joffe Books, London

  www.joffebooks.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this.

  The right of Michael Hambling to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  ©Michael Hambling

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  THERE IS A GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN THE BACK OF THIS BOOK FOR US READERS.

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  http://www.amazon.co.uk/CRIMES-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01B1W9CIG

  http://www.amazon.com/CRIMES-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01B1W9CIG

  A young woman’s body is discovered on a deserted footpath in a Dorset seaside town late on a cold November night. She has been stabbed through the heart.

  It seems like a simple crime for DCI Sophie Allen and her team to solve. But not when the victim’s mother is found strangled the next morning. The case grows more complex as DCI Sophie Allen discovers that the victims had secret histories, involving violence and intimidation. There’s an obvious suspect but Detective Allen isn't convinced. Could someone else be lurking in the shadows, someone savagely violent, looking for a warped revenge?

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: In the Woods

  Chapter 2: Background

  Chapter 3: Gossips

  Chapter 4: Going Nowhere

  Chapter 5: Hurry!

  Chapter 6: Another Witness

  Chapter 7: The Letter

  Chapter 8: Belligerence and Bus Queues

  Chapter 9: Mischief-Making

  Chapter 10: Probing the Past

  Chapter 11: The Quantock Hills

  Chapter 12: The Derelict Farm

  Chapter 13: What a Day!

  Chapter 14: Around Somerset

  Chapter 15: Catherine’s Story

  Chapter 16: Meeting the Snake

  Chapter 17: The Body Under the Beech Trees

  Chapter 18: What a Peach

  Chapter 19: The Package

  Chapter 20: Memories

  Chapter 21: Some Cards and a Few Quid

  Chapter 22: Under the Oak Tree

  Chapter 23: Kirkham House

  Chapter 24: Old Friends

  Chapter 25: Nice Guy

  Chapter 26: Where Do Your Loyalties Lie?

  Chapter 27: Like a Nest of Vipers

  Chapter 28: Liar

  Chapter 29: Durham and Berwick

  Chapter 30: The Back-Story Opens Up

  Chapter 31: Like a Beggar

  Chapter 32: The Search

  Chapter 33: The Cave

  Chapter 34: The Knife

  Chapter 35: Truth Will Out

  Chapter 36: Three Dinner Dates

  THE SOPHIE ALLEN BOOKS

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  FREE KINDLE BOOKS AND OFFERS

  CHARACTER LIST

  Glossary of English terms for US readers

  Foreword

  This is a work of fiction and none of the characters and situations portrayed bear any resemblance to real persons or events. That said, in the course of researching the novel, I came across several interesting snippets of information that I have referred to in the text. The Quantock Hills in Somerset were home to a Victorian-era religious cult. One of the lanes that cross the hills has a rough parking area next to a spot called “Dead Woman’s Ditch.” Make of this what you will.

  Prologue

  The western sky glowed orange, ablaze with the remnants of a glorious sunset. Was this the harbinger of a warm summer to come? Beyond the horizon, bats were already flitting between the trees, swooping on swarms of insects that had gathered in the fast-deepening dusk. The bats veered sharply, avoiding the small fire, despite the fact that it was now little more than a pile of smouldering ash. An unshaven, dirt-smeared tramp took a stick and poked the few remaining bits of branch into the embers, causing a myriad of sparks to fly into the air and a blaze of light to illuminate the small clearing. He placed the blackened pot on his dish, together with the spoon. He would rinse them in the morning when he went down to the shore to wash.

  A sudden distant sound, maybe a dry branch snapping, disturbed the near silence. His small dog raised its head and growled softly, and the tramp reached down to stroke it. The dog, still alert, lowered its head. Were there animals in these woods heavy enough to snap a dead branch? A fox or a badger? He rose and moved slowly towards where he thought the sound had come from. The dog followed, sniffing.

  The night was growing rapidly darker. Inside the woods, the dense overhead foliage blocked every remaining trace of light. Sounds were muffled. He waded through undergrowth up a gently rising slope. The dog had run off somewhere, probably chasing rabbits. The man heard a slight rustling behind him and half turned.

  The darkness exploding into a million stars that blurred into streaks. A searing pain.

  He crashed to the ground and lay still.

  Chapter 1: In the Woods

  Friday Afternoon

  ‘Bye. See you later.’ Jade Allen waved and turned away from her friends, towards the quayside and home. Today had been special, bringing relief together with sadness. Already she felt a bit wistful. She had just completed the last of her A level exams, a biology paper, surely a reason to feel cheerful. In a few hours’ time, she and the same group of friends were to meet for a night of celebration, pubbing and clubbing. But right now she mostly felt nostalgic. The great change, the giant step, was now upon her. She’d be at school just once more, in a week’s time, to return her books and attend a farewell tea with her teachers. And that would be the end of it. She’d be saying goodbye to Jade the schoolgirl, the carefree, fun-loving teenager. She frowned. That wasn’t exactly true. She’d been aware of the weight of moral responsibility for a few years now, having developed too large a social conscience to be quite as “freewheeling” as many of her friends. This sense of social responsibility was the reason she had waved goodbye to them just now, instead of heading into town for a quick celebratory drink before going home to get ready for their night on the town. Something had been at the back of her mind for days, and if she didn’t check up on it now, she might never forgive herself. She hurried home, collected some odds and ends of food from the kitchen, pulled her latterly underused bicycle from the garage and headed down to Wareham’s riverside quay. She crossed the ancient river bridge and turned left onto a waterside path that led east towards the picturesque village of Arne.

  It was a beautiful afternoon. Water birds frolicked in the reeds and swallows dived back and forth above the water, chasing insects. A few small boats nudged their way slowly upstream, their crews enjoying the June sunshine. A few of the women had even ventured out in bikini tops, hoping to catch an early summer tan.

  After half a mile, Jade turned south, away from the river. She followed a track that took her through the hamlet of Ridge and onto a narrow road that headed towards the heavily wooded and somewhat wild countryside of the Arne Peninsula, which jutted out into the wide, watery expanse of Poole Harbour, t
he largest natural harbour in Europe. The single-track lane was busy with visitors to Arne’s popular nature reserve. Jade wasn’t going that far, however. Instead, she turned off into the woods a mile before the birdwatching centre. At one point, the roadside fence struggled to hold back a dense thicket of trees and shrubs. She brought her bicycle to a halt at a point where the copse thinned somewhat, and a faint path could just be discerned beyond the fence. Jade dismounted, hefted the machine over the fence and clambered across. She left the bike behind some trees and began to follow the path through the woods, heading towards a slight rise a few hundred yards ahead. On the far side of the rise stood an old ramshackle timbered structure, half hidden in the undergrowth. The small hut had no door, but someone had lodged an old sheet of rust-streaked corrugated iron against the opening in recent years. This was now lying on the ground, several yards from the hut. Jade walked to the edge of the small clearing and stood still. She couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. The small open area was strewn with bits of cloth, as if wild animals had entered the hut and pulled things out.

  ‘Paul?’ she called. ‘Are you here?’

  Silence. No birds. Had they been singing before she called out? She moved forward slowly. Inside the tiny hut his meagre belongings were spread randomly across the floor. Foxes? Badgers? Or had someone been searching the place? If so, what for?

  ‘Paul?’ Something was seriously wrong. She peered into the shadows beneath the surrounding trees. A rook squawked nearby, startling her.

  ‘Paul? Algy? Are you there?’

  Was that the sound of something small moving through the undergrowth? Jade made her way through the trees in the direction of the river, towards the top of the low ridge.

  ‘Algy? Is that you?’

  She heard a dog bark. It sounded muted and weak.

  ‘Algy.’ There was a rustle in the thicket ahead of her, and a small, filthy dog emerged and limped towards her. She bent down and ruffled its skinny neck. It whined at her.

  ‘What’s happened, Algy? What’s wrong? Where’s Paul?’

  The dog barked again and limped back towards the pocket of shrubs. Jade followed, scrambling through the undergrowth, scratched by brambles. Algy’s rear left leg was dragging on the ground. Had there been an accident? Why was the dog so thin and filthy? She rounded a clump of bushes.

  On the ground in front of her lay a body, sprawled across the grass. She ran towards the motionless figure and bent down.

  ‘Paul?’ She was about to feel for a pulse, but a look at his face told her it would be pointless. The dog must have kept the rodents and other animals away, but it couldn’t stop the insects. She staggered back, her gorge rising. Was there a mobile phone signal here? What had happened?

  *

  They sat on damp logs, waiting for a forensic unit to arrive. Jade was sipping from a water bottle that she’d brought in her backpack. Sergeant Rose Simons was asking questions and Constable George Warrander was taking notes.

  ‘So, what brought you up here into the woods? I’m not clear on that point,’ Rose asked the tall, dark-haired teenager.

  ‘Paul’s been missing from his usual places in town for days now, maybe weeks. He’s usually either in the town centre or one of the underpasses.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘He’s a beggar, a sort of tramp. He’s here every summer. Surely you’ve seen him around town?’ Jade said.

  ‘We’re not normally based in Wareham. We’re over in Blandford or Dorchester. We’re just doing cover over this way for a few weeks. What’s your name by the way?’

  ‘Jade.’

  ‘Well, Jade, you’d better explain how come you know him so well, this Paul Prentice.’ Rose was watching the young woman carefully.

  ‘I bring him and his dog Algy some food a couple of times a week. You know, sandwiches, cake, maybe a pork pie. Sometimes I give him some money but not very often. He spends some of it on booze and I got a bit fed up telling him that it wasn’t doing him any good. He used to try to kip overnight in the town centre but you lot moved him on when some of the locals complained. He had nowhere else to go so I told him about this place.’ She waved towards the old hut. ‘And if he had some food, he’d sometimes make a fire and cook it here.’

  ‘Have you ever come up before to visit him?’

  Jade regarded the police sergeant warily. ‘Yes, but not very often. It was just that I hadn’t seen him in town for a while. I wanted to know he was alright.’

  ‘Why?’

  Jade’s voice rose. ‘He had no one. Don’t you see? If I didn’t do it, who else was there? I mean, what kind of world is it when someone has nobody to take care of them? We’re lucky. We all have someone, but people like Paul, they don’t.’

  ‘What else do you know about him?’ Rose asked.

  Jade sighed. ‘He was about thirty-six, but he looked a lot older. He didn’t come from around here originally, he was from the Somerset area, I think. In the winter he used to go to Poole, to spend the coldest months in one of the hostels. He told me he hated being cooped up with others and was much happier being out in the open. He didn’t like being “caged in,” as he put it. And he had his dog, Algernon Fortescue Blythe — Algy for short.’ She paused. ‘The thing is, he wasn’t stupid. He used to work in an office somewhere, but he’d had some kind of breakdown or seizure. That’s what he told me.’

  ‘He never caused you any bother? He never tried anything on with you?’

  Jade’s reply was abrupt. ‘Of course not. Do you think I’d have stayed on good terms with him if he had? Do you think I’m weak-minded or something? For pity’s sake.’

  ‘Look, I have to ask these questions,’ Rose said. ‘This is an unexplained death, and you might be the person who knows him best.’

  Jade snorted. ‘Well, I can believe that. No one else seemed to give a toss about him. He was either totally invisible or some kind of public nuisance. That’s how he was treated. Take your pick.’

  ‘Okay, I take your point. I’m not the totally cold-hearted bitch I might appear to be.’ Rose glanced at her colleague’s notes. ‘We don’t have a record of your surname or address, Jade. Apparently, you didn’t give it when you phoned in.’

  ‘No, I didn’t.’

  Rose waited, but the young woman said nothing further.

  ‘Do I have to ask you more forcefully?’

  ‘Please don’t,’ Jade replied. ‘Is there any way you can avoid identifying me? Please?’

  ‘No. You found a dead body.’ Rose was growing increasingly exasperated. ‘At the moment, you appear to know more about the deceased than anyone else, so we’ll need some written statements from you. Of course we’ll need your full name and address. What did you expect? What’s the problem anyway?’

  Jade looked at the ground. ‘This is just what I was worried about,’ she said. ‘I’m Jade Allen. You know my mum. In fact, everyone in Dorset police knows my mum.’

  ‘Oh shit,’ Rose said. ‘Sorry. Did I say that out loud? Can you conveniently wipe it from your mind?’

  Jade smiled for the first time in several hours. ‘Of course. And if I get a bit senseless in the town centre tonight, can you just deliver me home rather than throwing me in the cells?’

  ‘It’s a deal,’ Rose said. ‘Are you having some kind of celebration?’

  ‘End of A levels,’ Jade said. ‘I had my last one this afternoon. We all had a big night planned but I really don’t feel like it now, not after this. I might give it a miss.’

  Rose nodded. ‘I can understand how you feel, but to be honest, it might be better if you stick to your plan. You may not enjoy it much but at least it’ll take your mind off all this.’

  ‘Can you tell how he died?’

  ‘Not me, no. But it’ll all come out in the post-mortem.’

  *

  Rae Gregson was the first detective to turn up. She crossed the clearing and looked askance at Jade.

  ‘What’s the boss’s daughter doing here? Don�
�t tell me . . .’

  Rose pulled a face. ‘Exactly. It was her that found the body. She’s fine. George has been looking after her, giving her the five-star treatment. Actually, she’s a really public-spirited young lady. How do you know her?’

  ‘Just a couple of social events,’ Rae said. ‘I’d better phone and let Barry know. He’ll hit the roof if I don’t tell him, what with the boss being away in London at a conference today. We just thought it was a tramp found dead of natural causes and I only came because I was fairly close by. But you look a bit concerned. Is there something else I need to know?’

  Rose pursed her lips. ‘Maybe the fact that he’s been hit over the head with something heavy? The skull wound is pretty severe. It doesn’t look accidental, not to me. We haven’t mentioned it to young Miss Social Conscience over there — she’s upset enough as it is. I’m telling you, if my snotty son grows up to be remotely as caring as she appears to be, I’ll be over the moon. So far, his emotional attachments seem to extend only as far as the person who’s gonna supply him with his next dose of pizza and chips.’

  DS Barry Marsh arrived at the same time as the forensic team. He organised a search of the immediate area and conferred with the pathologist when he arrived. He exchanged a few words with Jade before getting George to take her home in a squad car, her bicycle loaded into the boot. Rose had been watching all this carefully. She’d heard that Barry had recently passed his inspector’s exam and hoped this didn’t mean he’d be looking for a transfer to another county. In Rose’s opinion, Barry Marsh was the best detective she’d ever worked with — apart from her ladyship, of course. When she saw that he’d finished his various discussions she sidled across to him.

  ‘Was he hit with a slab of wood?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ Barry said. ‘The doc thinks there are splinters in the head wound.’

  ‘Thought so. You’ll still be organising a fingertip search of the area, I’m sure, but I don’t think you’ll find it anywhere out there.’ She took his arm and pointed to the ashes of the dead fire. ‘See that central line of ash? It’s from something that was added after the rest of the fire died down.’ She pointed to the rim of the fire. ‘And look there. One end unburned. Here’s hoping someone forgot to wear gloves, eh?’