Monsters in the Mist: There are worse things in Wales than vampires by Williams Tom

Author:Williams, Tom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Big Red
Published: 2023-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13: Meanwhile, back in Wales

One of the armchairs had been overturned. It must, Galbraith thought, have been quite a struggle to tip over such a solid piece of furniture. He bent and lifted it back onto its feet.

“Shouldn't we be leaving everything alone? It's a crime scene, after all.”

Galbraith suppressed a sigh. Ellis had an enthusiasm for following protocol that he would have expected someone with her experience would have grown out of by now. Perhaps it was the result of working for Pole. The vampire did like to feel in control and that might lead him to discourage his junior officers from showing too much personal initiative.

“We’ve got a situation to deal with, Ellis, and this isn't only a crime scene: it's also the only shelter that we have up on this hill. And I don't think we'll produce our best work squatting on the floor. So sit down, get comfortable and we'll try to work out a plan of action.”

Ellis’s face registered an inner struggle as she presumably remembered all her training in ‘preserving the crime scene’ but she overcame it enough to sit carefully on the very edge of the other chair. Galbraith smiled reassuringly. Given time, he was sure he could get her to take the more flexible approach to the rules which he considered was essential for anyone who was going to make a successful police career.

It seemed reasonable to Galbraith to assume that Perkins had been taken by people who objected to the presence of Section S on the hills. And that rather pointed to the mystery men at Cwm Cerdin.

“So our first question,” he said to Ellis, “is, ‘Is he alive or dead?’”

Ellis frowned and seemed to be considering her answer.

“It’s not something we need to waste time thinking about, Ellis. If he's dead we can't do anything about it, so we have to assume that he's alive. And if he’s alive it's up to us to help him.”

“How are we supposed to help him?”

“The old-fashioned way, Ellis. We must rescue him from the bad people. And we have to do that tonight because, if he is alive, we can’t assume he’s going to stay alive for long.”

“Why do you think they’ve taken him?”

“Presumably to question him. We turn up here, and they draw the obvious conclusion that we are investigating the murder. Which must be considerably annoying after they’ve seen the police arresting a useful scapegoat in the local pub. Perhaps they have the police squared away. We can’t know. The important thing is that nobody has been connecting Cwm Cerdin with the killing but now here we are. Who are we? What do we know? Can we be stopped?”

“Hardly.” Ellis sounded quite affronted at the very notion. “Section S operate outside the normal structure of law enforcement for a reason. We can’t be turned on and off like a tap.”

“That’s all well and good but the downside of being an ultra-secret organisation is that whoever's running Cwm Cerdin quite probably doesn't know what they're up against.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.