The Stone Gospel by Derek E Pearson

Author:Derek E Pearson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: GB Publishing Org
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

[27]

‘They wanted to arrest Croker? You’re kidding me.’

‘No, I’m not, but it wasn’t for long. At one point the Worthing CID guys were thinking of remanding him for questioning, but first they had to wait until he was patched up. Phil was almost cut to ribbons, poor sod was badly beaten up and he’d suffered a major loss of blood, but as soon as he was conscious he told everyone how Charlie had saved his life.

‘I don’t actually know if Croker was ever aware that he was a suspect. Sounds like the man acted like a cast iron hero. Phil’s sure he’d be dead as mutton if it wasn’t for Charlie stepping in. Says he owes the man a damn good drink.’

‘A drink? And the rest. So, what are they saying happened up there?’

‘Exactly the same as the place where you got stabbed and Sharif got clobbered. No evidence of anything untoward. No evidence of anything at all. There’s blood of course, and plenty of it. And there’s footprints and scuffmarks all over the place, but they all belong to the victims. Hines is calling it a forensic dead end. And you can bet she’s not happy about losing her gopher to a hospital bed. I bet she’s already got her feelers out for some other poor sod she can push around. I’d stay away a bit longer if I was you, Rose. You might look like the favourite.’

‘Thanks for the warning, Sarge. I’m not due back until next week anyway, but I’ll keep my head down in the meantime.’

Rose raised her pint and tipped it towards Fowler. He drained his and asked if she could face another, his round. She nodded, and he levered himself up from the table and headed towards the bar. She had been enjoying her quiet drink with the sergeant. He was good company away from the station.

She wondered if she should get some of Flo’s tonic to the latest victims but decided to see how they were doing after a few days. Two of the town’s police force off the beat in a week. It reminded her of the five officers who had volunteered to help police the Notting Hill Carnival, three of whom had ended up in hospital. She remembered Fowler’s comments at the time, ‘Carnival? Fucking carnage more like. They should shut the bastard thing down; and they would if it wasn’t for where it is and the sorts who run it.’

Cutbacks in numbers left them with no reserves. Injury and sickness always meant the station was short-handed, which was great for overtime but lousy for stress levels. She had become so exhausted trying to help fill gaps left by those three being off work she nearly drove a marked car into a wall. The sergeant was sure to be trying to work out how to compensate for her and Coombe’s absence. He returned with two pints and two packets of dry roasted nuts. He handed one of each to her.

He grinned, ‘Nice to see you out of uniform, so to speak, Rose.

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