Cold Blood by Jane Heafield

Author:Jane Heafield [Heafield, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books - crime, thriller and mystery
Published: 2021-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

32

Downstairs, Bennet slapped the curtain aside. The landlord, Jonesy, was right before him, his back to Liam as he cleaned the till with a small towel. He turned.

‘Find what you need? Only looked at Sunday, didn’t you?’

Liam ignored him and passed through the bar hatch. He went to the framed picture of the staff and jabbed Barmaid Vicky’s photo. ‘Get me her phone number.’

Jonesy pulled his mobile and recited it. Bennet typed it into his own phone.

‘That it, we done?’ Jonesy said.

‘Everyone in this village is an idiot. You included.’

Jonesy threw his towel on the bar hard enough to make a slapping noise. ‘Police or not, you’re now barred. Well done, because I’ve never barred anyone in my life. Maybe you should just not come back to Lampton at all.’

‘Don’t you need the Keys to make that judgement?’

Back in his Pathfinder, in the secret car park, Bennet called a number and, despite the early hour, it was answered quickly.

‘Vicky, from the Lion? My name–’

‘Jake? I told you I wasn’t interested. And it’s like the crack of dawn.’

Yet it sounded like she was in the midst of a party. Oh, to be young and wild. ‘Not Jake. Maybe Jake got the message. Detective Chief Inspector Bennet, South Yorkshire police. You were working in the Lion last Sunday night, Jan 19th.’

A pause as she yelled at people behind her to keep the racket down. ‘Yes. Why?’

‘Lopers who upped and offed. Four members of a film crew. They got kicked out.’

‘Yes. But not by me. Mr Jonesy runs the place, so he–’

‘I know it wasn’t you. Keep calm. I saw the CCTV of that night and you spoke to one of them, a black man. His name is Francis Overeem. Was he looking for someone?’

‘I’m not sure. I don’t know. Who?’

‘You tell me. He looked around, spoke to you, then you looked around and shook your head and checked your watch.’

‘Oh, yes. No, he was asking if we would get busier, that was it.’

‘For sure? You’d need to check the time for that? Because it looked to me like he asked you if a certain someone was in, and then you had a look and said this person wasn’t there.’

‘No, nothing like that. I think the time thing was to see if we’d reached our peak yet. And they didn’t stay long. So what have they done?’

‘Keep this phone nearby, Vicky…’

‘London. Vicky Anna London. Look, am I in trouble or something?’

‘Another officer will call you, and they’ll want to visit, so stay where you are and talk to the officer when he calls.’

Bennet deflected more questions and hung up. He then sent another of his team a text with Vicky’s name and number and details of her less-than-convincing answers, and an order to perform a follow-up, face-to-face interview. After that, he set out on the job that had brought him to this neck of the woods.

Because now he had a good idea where the film crew might have stayed on Monday night.

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