The Ghost Village Murders (Dorset Crime Book 9) by Rachel McLean

Author:Rachel McLean [McLean, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ackroyd Publishing
Published: 2023-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

One squad car and a police van were already at Tyneham Village when Dennis and Stanley arrived.

Dennis felt his heart sink. He hated it when he was last on the scene.

“Right,” he said. “You stay here, I’ll go and speak to the officer in charge.”

He got out of his car and walked towards the vehicles just as a woman emerged from the squad car.

He gave her a nod. “PS Dewberry.”

“Dennis. We haven’t been here long, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

He looked around the car park. Other than the three police vehicles, including his own, it was empty.

“No sign of your DC Vedra,” Sergeant Dewberry said.

Dennis frowned. “Maybe there’s another car park.”

Dewberry shook her head. “The only places you can leave a car are on the road coming in, and right here.”

“Did you see her car coming the other way as you arrived?”

“If I’d seen her, I’d have told you.”

Dennis felt his skin prickle. He took out his phone and dialled Meera.

Voicemail.

He put a hand to his neck, feeling a chill run down it.

Meera, where are you?

He typed out a text message to her: DC Brown and I are at Tyneham. Please report your whereabouts asap.

Stanley was emerging from the car. Dennis waved him back inside. It’s not safe.

He turned to PS Dewberry. “Any sign of the two men she was following?”

“None.”

“She reported a white van.”

“We haven’t seen it.”

“Have you—”

“I’ve phoned it in, Dennis. Along with DC Vedra’s car. If either of them are spotted, we’ll know.”

“I want to check the barn.”

Dewberry nodded. “Is that where they were when she was watching them?”

“It is.”

Dennis turned and gestured for Stanley to get out of the car. He didn’t like this. David Watson hadn’t been seen for weeks. Now he’d turned up at an unrelated crime scene, talking to a PSD officer…

But then he’d disappeared again. Along with one of their own team.

“Stanley,” he said as the DC approached. “Apparently there’s no sign of Meera, or the men she was following.”

“DI Collingwood?”

Dennis shook his head.

Stanley turned back towards the car. “We should go looking for her, Sarge.”

“Where exactly do you suggest we start?” Dennis could feel his heart rate rising. “No. We stay here. Uniform are looking for her.” He hesitated. “I’ll need to tell the boss.”

“What d’you want me to do?”

“Go to the barn where she was watching them. The house too, where they found DC Dugdale. Why aren’t FSI here?”

“They finished yesterday, Sarge. The crime scene’s been fully investigated.”

Dennis looked past the DC towards the village and the house where DC Dugdale had been found.

Poor woman.

She’d been quiet in his interview. Almost like she wasn’t even present.

Was that normal, for her and Collingwood? Was it how they operated?

Or was she scared of him?

He drummed his fingertips against the side of his head. Watson meeting Collingwood.

Think, man.

Why would the two of them be meeting? Could Watson be a witness for PSD, providing evidence against a corrupt officer who’d been working with one of the gangs?

Or was there more to it?

Either way, they had to find Meera.

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