Winter's Lament by Robin Roughley

Author:Robin Roughley [Roughley, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-18T22:00:00+00:00

64

Bannister sat by Spenner's bedside, Shannon facing him.

Spenner's face was still a mess though he was smiling faintly through the bruises as he sat propped up in the hospital bed, the lights in the room muted.

'So, how are you feeling?' Bannister asked, fiddling nervously with the phone in his pocket.

'Not too bad, Tess has been visiting me as much as she can – armed with the contents of a fruit farm and Lucozade factory,' he waved a hand to the cabinet at the side of the bed, the plastic bowl loaded with fruit, grapes, bananas, oranges, there was even a whole pineapple thrown in for good measure.

'I love grapes,' Shannon said as he grabbed a handful and started to toss them into his mouth.

Bannister shook his head as he gave in to temptation, pulled out his phone and checked the screen. 'I thought Lasser or Odette would have been in touch by now.'

'Yeah well, I hope Sergeant Lasser gave Lanark a knee in the bollocks from me,' Spenner said with a dark scowl.

Bringing up Ryan's number, the DCI hit the call icon, the phone bleating in the small private room.

'I take it you're going to make the most of this time lounging in bed?' Shannon asked.

Spenner grinned sheepishly as the doctor winked at him surreptitiously.

'As soon as you're up to it I want you out of that bed, we need a bloody lift out there Spenner, so don't be a lazy sod,' Bannister growled, the familiar scowl in place as the phone continued to ring.

'Who are you trying to get in touch with?' Spenner asked in an effort to change the subject while Shannon moved on to a banana.

'That bastard Ryan.'

'Why, what's he done?'

The DCI looked closely at Spenner and then sighed. 'Ryan has been trying to hunt Lasser down, I have no idea why, so when we were at Cooper's house, we got DI Pendleton to ring him and say that Lasser had turned up at the house.'

'Who's Pendleton?' Spenner asked with a frown of confusion.

'One of Ryan's cronies, at first he was all bullshit and wind but, in the end, he agreed to ring Ryan. We expected the bastard to be there sharpish, he didn't show but an hour later the nutter with the gun turned up, killed Pendleton and almost killed Carole Henson in the process.'

Shannon stopped with the banana halfway to his mouth. 'And now you want to know why Ryan didn't show up, but the killer did?'

Bannister grunted. 'Ryan wanted to get at Lasser, we led him to believe he was at Cooper's house, so why the fuck didn't he turn up and why has he been ignoring his phone for the past two hours?'

Spenner tentatively touched the bruising on his chin, his eyes suddenly keen. 'You think Ryan tipped the killer off about Lasser being at the house, don't you?'

Bannister nodded slowly. 'It's the only thing that makes sense, I mean, why would a guy with a gun turn up and go on the

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