Chapter 3
"Come on, son, let's get you home to the bosom of your family." Reid tried, and failed, to sound more upbeat than he felt. Billy Duke rose unsteadily to his feet, and Reid noticed that the man's hand was trembling as he ran it through his hair.
"Thanks for the coffee, Pen," said Duke to the custody sergeant as they made their way out.
"No problem, pet, you just watch yourself now, and give them lovely kids of yours a big hug from me, all right?" she replied warmly, and cast Reid a sympathetic look.
Duke raised a hand in a parting salute, and shuffled through the doorway into the corridor leading to the car parking area, Reid in tow. They made the twenty-minute journey to Earl's home in silence, mainly because Reid didn't know what to say to the poor sod. Of course, Valerie Duke would be supportive because her husband had found a fellow officer shot in the line of duty, but did she know about or suspect Earl's relationship with Lindsay? If she didn't, perhaps there was a real risk that his grief would betray his infidelity. There was also a strong possibility that the police investigation into Sergeant Allan's death would bring the affair out into the open. Reid didn't envy Duke one little bit, but he didn't have much sympathy for him, either. The man had been unwise enough to play away from home and now it was coming back to bite him in a fairly spectacular way.
"Right, Earl, here you are," Reid announced somewhat unnecessarily as he parked in front of the Dukes' house. He started to get out of the car but Earl laid a restraining hand on his arm.
"It's OK, guv, I'll manage myself. You don't have to come with me." The misery in Duke's eyes stung Reid's conscience.
"Don't be daft. Come on." Reid walked round to the passenger door and opened it for Earl when it looked as if he would just sit there, putting off the hard thing. "In you go."
They walked side by side up the garden path, and after a bit of fumbling with the key in the lock, Earl managed to get the door open. The noise had obviously disturbed Valerie, because she was halfway down the stairs in her dressing gown when the two men entered the hall.
"Billy!" she cried, her tone a mixture of alarm and relief at his dawn return from work, as well as his dishevelled appearance. She looked enquiringly at Reid, who shepherded the couple into the living room, mainly to avoid disturbing the sleeping children upstairs.
"Billy's had a bit of shock tonight...last night – well, we all have," explained Reid. "He'll tell you about it himself later, but the long story short is that he came back to the station and found one of our sergeants dead. I can't say much more than that because it's not public knowledge yet, but he wasn't in any fit state to finish the shift after he'd given his witness statement, so..."
"Dead?" echoed Valerie, horrified. "Who?"
"Lindsay Allan. Did you know her?" Reid's poker face came in handy.
"I...I remember Billy mentioning her sometimes, but I don't think I ever met her...or if I did, at a Christmas party or something, I don't really know..."
Reid, with a strong twinge of self-reproach, realised that he was instinctively treating Valerie as a potential suspect, observing every little nuance of the woman's face, her gestures, the words she chose, to try and discover if she'd known – but there was nothing there to indicate that she'd been aware of Earl's adulterous liaison. Either that, or she was a very good liar indeed.
"What happened? Oh, sorry, you said you can't tell me..." Valerie sat close to Earl, holding his left hand in her two, solicitously looking at him every now and then.
"All I can really say is that it wasn't natural causes, I'm afraid," Reid said. "And Billy'll need to come in to the station later today to review some evidence, but there's no rush. If he can get some sleep, I think that would be the best thing right now. He's absolutely shattered, as you can see."
Reid suddenly realised that neither of them were any longer aware of his presence, and he felt he was an intruder on a very intimate moment as Valerie Duke gently stroked her husband's cheek, like a mother consoling an upset child. He quietly let himself out and drove back to the station.
It was mid-morning before Reid managed to return home himself, have a shower, a shave, and forty winks, then get back to Edmund Street for a sit-down with Shah and Gardiner. The superintendent had thoughtfully arranged for a working lunch to be served in his office, and Reid was pleasantly surprised at just how much he enjoyed it. He realised with a sense of satisfaction that after only one day of quitting, his taste buds had begun to revive. It wasn't until his sixth sandwich that he was aware of his two fellow officers staring at him, and the ham and tomato bap halted in mid-air.
"Something the matter?" he mumbled round his mouthful.
"I was just wondering if the lunch was to your liking." An amused smile played around the super's mouth, and he and Shah exchanged knowing grins.
"Very much, thanks," Reid replied, calmly tucking in again and not rising to the bait.
"More coffee?" Gardiner offered, jug in hand.
"Please." Reid extended his cup for a refill.
"Lost your appetite and found a horse's, eh?" enquired Shah, with a chuckle.
Reid made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whinny, and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"Better leave room for dessert, Terry, I've asked Gwen in the canteen to make us her excellent plum upside-down cake. And custard," added Gardiner, with a twinkle.
"I can't wait, sir. How did you get on at the Allan house, Deep?" enquired Reid.
"No better than you'd think, I don't suppose," was the response. Shah reflected on the experience and continued, "Andy couldn't really take it in, poor bugger. I called his mother and told her, and she came right over. They'd been together longer than I realised, him and Lindsay. Turned out they met when they were cadets, only Andy decided after a year to jack it in and go back to being an electrician. More money in it, that's for sure."
"Did you get any feel for whether he knew about Lindsay and Billy Duke?" asked Gardiner cautiously. Like Reid and Shah he was already mentally lining up possible suspects.
A shake of the head indicated Shah had seen nothing. "That doesn't mean he didn't know; as I said, he wasn't really functioning at all after Penny broke the news. He realised as soon as he opened the door and saw her, and my uniform, that something was badly wrong. How did it go with Earl?"
"Much the same, really," Reid answered. "He was in shock, Val was worried about him...I told her he'd be needed here again later today, sir," he said to Gardiner. "And I watched her reaction when I mentioned Lindsay Allan's name. Not a flicker."
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised. Officers getting shot on the job doesn't happen every day, and when it does, 90 per cent of the time it's by known criminals, not their nearest and dearest. Come in!" Gardiner finished in response to the knock at his door. "Ah, Gwen, thank you very much," he enthused, jumping up and holding the door open for the cook as she wheeled in the remainder of their meal.
"Now, I've brought you another pot of coffee, some mineral water, and cheese and biscuits, as well as the pudding," she recited.
"God knew what he was doing when he sent you to us, Mrs. S.," declared Reid in appreciation of the trolley and its cargo. He was rewarded with a proud smile and a spring in Gwen Stewart's step as she left the room.
Gardiner resumed their discussion as he helped himself to dessert. "We're really at the mercy of the pathologist and the forensic team. Once we have their reports plus their detailed analysis of the CCTV, hopefully we'll start to move forward more quickly. At the moment we've no reason to believe the shooting was anything other than random. Meantime, Deep, can you look at the recent cases and convictions that Lindsay was involved in, make sure there's no-one connected with them that might have wanted to harm her?" He paused to take another spoonful of cake.
"I'll do the same with DC Duke, just in case," volunteered Reid.
"Thanks, Terry. Help yourselves to more, you two, I daren't send back any leftovers or there'll be trouble."
Shah and Reid got stuck into the plum pudding and custard without any further arm-twisting, but Reid regretted it about an hour later as he was ploughing through Billy Duke's case files and found himself almost asleep.
"Time for some coffee and a...damn!" Reid's absent-minded search for his lighter ended with the abrupt recollection of his smokeless status. He told himself sternly that it was a good thing, he wouldn't have appreciated the super's lunch half as much if he'd still been smoking – nor, of course, would he have eaten a fraction of what he had. He gazed down at his waistline, which wasn't all that sylph-like to begin with, and began to consider what he would need to do to prevent the weight from piling on, which is undoubtedly what would happen if he didn't take steps. Maybe he should take out that gym membership he'd been thinking about, or rather, which Sheila had nagged him about the last time she'd run a minor campaign to try and get him to quit.
Reid knocked off before three in the afternoon, having done practically an all-nighter, and then some. On his way home, he stopped off first at the health club to find out about their fees, and then at Tesco's for some low-calorie, low-fat, no-taste microwave meals. He nobly by-passed the crisps and chocolate aisles, and opted instead for a few different types of fruit. He was trying to decide whether to get peaches or nectarines when he realised someone was standing behind him and to his left. Looking cagily round, he came face to face with a worn out-looking Valerie Duke.
"Val! Are you OK?" Reid scanned the shop floor, and asked, "Where's Billy, is he with you?"
"No, he's gone back in to work, I dropped him off on my way here. Had to get some shopping done before the kids get home from school," she explained, gesturing at her half-full trolley. "I wanted to ask you..."
Here it comes, thought Terry with a knot in his stomach, she's going to try and find out about Lindsay.
"...about the sergeant that died. Will there be a collection for her? Only Billy's not really got his head round things yet, and I wanted to set aside..."
"Just a couple of quid'll be fine, Val," said Reid reassuringly, a wave of relief sweeping through him. "That's all that's expected from colleagues. It's the brass that have to cough up the most," he added, trying to lighten up the conversation.
"That's great. I just wondered...was she well-liked, Sergeant Allan? I tried and tried to remember what Billy had said about her, but I don't think it was ever anything specific – not that I can remember, anyway. And Billy just can't talk about it. All I know is what you've told me." The unasked question in her eyes was "How did it happen?"
"Well, it'll come out eventually, but it would really be better if you didn't mention it to anyone else," replied Reid. "She was shot at the front desk, and Billy was the one who came in and found her. It must have been a terrible experience for him."
"Oh, good God!" Valerie's hand covered her mouth at the ghastliness of the idea. "Poor Billy. It never occurred to me it could have been a...a shooting." Something seemed to strike her. "The security at the station can't be all that great."
"We really don't know yet what happened, Val. Listen, I have to go, but I'll make sure Billy's OK tomorrow at work, if he's up to coming in. The super might suggest he takes some personal leave, and he'll be referred to the police counselling service as well. You make sure he goes to that – you can go too, if you need to. You're entitled." Reid patted the woman lightly on the arm in a gesture of comfort, and walked towards the checkouts.
It was only when he was loading the shopping into the boot of his car that he realised he'd picked up neither peaches nor nectarines. There was no way he was going back in for them, and run the risk of being chinned a second time. He would simply have to make do with what he had. But the innocent nature of Valerie's questions meant that his feelings of gratitude and reprieve persisted as he drove home. Crisis averted, the cloud of scandal that had been lingering drifted away, for the time being.
All Reid wanted to do by the time he got back to Bracken Hill was lie down on the sofa and stare at the telly while his tea cooked, but he had a couple of other obligations to see to first. Charlie, the big ginger-and-white tomcat who'd adopted Reid on his return to Denton, was sitting on the front doorstep looking as though he might go and grass Reid up to the RSPCA if he didn't get some food immediately.
It was whilst Reid was hopping round the kitchen with a tin of cat-food trying to avoid falling over the insistent animal that he noticed the flashing light on his answering machine and realised with a stab of conscience that he hadn't rung his ex in London to make arrangements for the weekend. Worse, he was now going to have to ring her, late, and tell her that he was likely to be tied up at the station and unable to come down.
In the event, the news was received with relative calm, although this was largely because Louise was out at her mother's with Katie and it was her husband Paul and fifteen-year-old Danny who Reid actually spoke to.
Paul, with his customary common-sense, simply said: "Course you can't come down, mate, not with that to sort out. I'll talk to Lou and Katie for you."
When Danny came on the line Reid debated whether to tell him the whole story, but reckoned to himself that it was better for his son to know the truth of what he did, rather than him having a sanitised version and resenting Reid for not being available.
Danny listened whist Reid explained, then said, bluntly: "Bastard!"
"Oi!" Reid reprimanded automatically.
"Oh, come on, Dad! Shooting an unarmed woman through the head? If that's not being a bastard I don't know what is!"
"That's as may be, but I don't want you using that language where Katie might hear you."
"She'd have trouble hearing me from Gran's house," his son pointed out with unassailable logic. "How long d'you reckon it'll take to find this bloke, then?"
"To be honest, Danny – I've got no idea. Might be a couple of days if we get a tip-off, might be weeks. Anyway, I can't make it down this weekend. And maybe not the one after, if things are still bad. Do me a favour – explain it to Katie, will you? I know Paul said he'd talk to her, but she'll listen to you."
"Yeah, no worries. Hey, Dad? You'll be careful, won't you?"
"I'm always careful, mate. Give everyone my love, yeah?"
Reid put the phone back on its base and went to microwave a diet lasagne, feeling thoughtful. He was used to having to reassure Louise and Sheila, but this was the first time Danny had ever openly expressed anxiety regarding his safety. On the one hand, it was oddly reassuring that Danny cared enough about him to be considering his wellbeing; on the other that made one more person Reid now felt he had to justify himself to, and he wasn't sure he wanted to account for his movements to a fifteen year old. Families, even at a distance, were complicated things, he concluded.
The ping of the microwave ended his musings and he busied himself with finding a plate and scanning the Radio Times to see if he could find something suitably brain-dead to watch. He could do with switching his head off for an hour or two if he was to stand any chance of a decent night's sleep.