Burnout by David Hodges

Author:David Hodges [Hodges, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2022-10-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Mary Lane had only just left Mike Dexter at Kitty Morrison’s cottage when she received the call on her personal radio from the Area Control Room. Within fifteen minutes she had pulled into the rear yard at Gilstone Police Station and was climbing the stairs.

‘So, what gives, Dennis?’ she demanded curtly as she strode into the large almost empty CID office and tossed her car keys onto her desk. ‘Control said something about a camera being found.’

Detective Constable Dennis Skinner glanced quickly over one shoulder, a cigarette protruding from the corner of his mouth as he finished pouring himself a cup of coffee from the machine in the corner. ‘The camera more like, Mary,’ he replied. ‘Want some coffee?’

She nodded and settled on the edge of her desk. ‘Black, please. So what have you got to tell me?’

The stout bearded DC tapped the appropriate buttons and waited for the second plastic cup to fill, the characteristic rasp of his breathing from years of smoking competing with the hiss of the machine. ‘Area Four, Jim Staples, checked two kids – twelve, thirteen year olds, something like that – on the Mid-Shires towpath. They should have been at school but had apparently bunked off to go fishing.’

He turned away from the machine to hand her an overfull cup of coffee, then leaned against the lip of the opposite desk to slowly sip his own. ‘They did have fishing rods with them, but they also had an expensive looking camera they claimed to have hooked out of the canal.’

‘What sort of camera?’

‘Canon 35mm SLR.’ His heavy-lidded eyes gleamed. ‘And one with a nice little metal plate riveted to the base, engraved with the name of our man, Quentin Fuller.’

She drew in her breath sharply. ‘Fuller? You’re sure about that?’

He waved an arm towards the windows. ‘See for yourself. It was a bit damp, so I put it on a towel on the windowsill to dry off.’

She followed the direction of his gaze and nodded. ‘No hurry. I’ll take a look once Scenes of Crime have done the business.’

He shook his head. ‘Unlikely SOCO will find anything of value. As well as dripping water, it’s still plastered with mud and there are bits of weed tangled up in the mechanism.’ He frowned. ‘No film in it, though, which struck me as rather strange in view of all the photographic kit Fuller had in his car.’

‘Maybe the kids took the film out and slung it?’

‘Not according to them. They say they didn’t even open the thing when they recovered it.’

‘They would say that, wouldn’t they?’

‘Why should they lie? We’ve already got them in possession of the camera anyway. The film’s not going to make much difference, is it?’

‘So, you reckon the kids’ story about hooking it from the canal could be true?’

He shrugged. ‘Can’t see anyone nicking a camera, then throwing it in the canal, can you?’

‘Not unless it was the film they were after.’

He raised his eyebrows slightly. ‘You mean our late pressman

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