Non-Suspicious by Ed Church

Non-Suspicious by Ed Church

Author:Ed Church [Church, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916324602
Publisher: Double Time Books
Published: 2020-04-26T22:00:00+00:00


Chapter 28

Saturday, 23rd April 2016

Peak View Care Home, Sheffield

Brook headed back out to reception and introduced himself to the new person at the desk. The member of staff’s name was Nick. It turned out he had only just started his shift and had missed all the drama. Floppy hair, black-framed glasses and in his early 20s. He would have looked at home in some ‘tech start-up’ company.

‘So, you’re the detective from London who Debbie fancies?’

He didn’t beat around the bush.

‘Umm… I’m a detective from London. I wouldn’t know about the rest. You don’t sound like you’re from round here either.’

‘From Cheshunt, originally. That used to be part of the Met but it switched to Hertfordshire Police when they changed the boundaries.’

‘Good knowledge,’ said Brook.

‘Yeah, I’m up here studying criminology at Sheffield Uni. This job’s just part-time for some extra money. I’d quite like to do what you do, actually.’

First Debbie, now Nick. What was it with this place and people wanting to be detectives?

‘I’m sure you’d be more successful than me,’ said Brook. ‘Listen, since the person I came to speak to about this next of kin search has… died… I was wondering if you might be able to help me find the guy he met this morning. It’s one step removed, granted, but he still might be able to help.’

It sounded plausible enough in a vague kind of way.

‘Sure,’ said Nick, opening the visitors’ book and spinning it round to face Brook. It took only a moment to see that the Tourist’s entry was both helpful and unhelpful in equal measure.

Each line of visitor information comprised seven columns – date, time, resident name, visitor name, phone number, address and signature. In the case of ‘Logan Baird’, the phone number was one digit short while the address, once again, was John Logie Baird’s old house (1 Station Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex). The signature was a meaningless scribble. He had apparently arrived at 10.05am.

The useful part was that it showed a link between Victor’s and Harry’s deaths. After all, here were the same details (one lot obtained via DNA) in venues over 150 miles apart where both dead veterans had spent final or near-final moments. In terms of finding out who Logan Baird really was, however, it was entirely useless.

‘Is this filled out by the visitor or staff?’ asked Brook.

‘Visitor normally.’

‘I think he forgot a digit in his phone number.’

‘Shit. Sorry. At least you’ve still got his address.’

‘Mmm.’

Brook glanced up and noticed a CCTV camera above the desk.

‘Perhaps I could ask another favour…’

Moments later, he was standing next to Nick, both men hunched over a monitor with a quartered display – the camera in reception, another one covering the front path, and a third over the patio that led to the garden. The final quarter of the screen stayed black.

‘Not exactly Big Brother, is it?’ said Nick.

He went back to Logan Baird’s recorded arrival of 10.05. The front-facing camera was angled in such a way that it only picked up the bottom half of people walking past on the pavement.



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