Date with Evil by Julia Chapman

Author:Julia Chapman [Chapman, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2023-02-15T17:00:00+00:00

16

‘Why am I only hearing about this now?’

Rick Procter’s terse demand was met with sullen looks from the two men standing in the barn doorway of Twistleton Farm, the early evening light casting up onto the fells, turning them golden. It was a stunning location, the farm buildings surrounded by hills on three sides, with only sheep for neighbours. The isolation of what had once been the O’Brien home had been the attraction for Procter Properties. That and the fact it was owned by a drunkard and therefore a cheap buy. As far as the locals were concerned, it was currently under development to become a high-end residence. In reality, it was up and running as a cannabis farm and turning out a steady supply. Despite this latest hitch.

‘Well?’ he snapped, anger and fear rising in him in equal measure.

One of the men stared at the ground, the other shrugged his huge shoulders. It wasn’t insolent. But it was bordering on it. And it reflected the growing shift in Rick’s relationship with these hired hands, given to him to oversee operations by the crime syndicate he was in partnership with.

‘So you’re saying the men we’ve been looking for are connected?’ he persisted, trying to rein in his temper. Aware he couldn’t afford to burn bridges just yet. ‘And probably together?’

‘Brothers,’ muttered the smaller of the two, his foreign accent rasping over the word. He flicked his head towards the barn, shadowy figures moving around in the gloom behind him. ‘One of the workers told us.’

Rick glanced in the same direction and then looked away, his conscience more than able to cope with what he was endorsing but not liking to dwell on it. A workforce that came supplied, no questions asked. That didn’t get to leave the premises at the end of the shift. That didn’t get paid. And which spoke next to no English.

But this string of disasters was forcing him to dwell on the matter. First a worker escapes from the premises on Gunnerstang Brow just after it’s been set up, while Rick is still dealing with the fallout from the sudden death of Bernard Taylor. Then, with police crawling all over the quarry and the surrounding area, further hampering efforts to trace and catch the escapee before he can alert the authorities to what’s going on, another man breaks out from here in Thorpdale. With several miles and a lot of bleak, empty countryside between the two, Rick had been happy to accept the claims from the men in charge that these were isolated incidents, staffing issues caused by momentary lapses in supervision.

Such lapses should have been punished, of course. Like they had been after the trespass at the property near Roundhay Park in Leeds, only the presence of a Rottweiler keeping the intruder from discovering the true purpose of the house undergoing renovation. The trespasser, in what Rick now accepted was a freak of coincidence, had been O’Brien; the guard responsible had paid for his carelessness with his life.

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