Legacy of Lies

‘Police cars? What’s happened, Alec?’

Alec’s mobile phone rang. It was Patrick.

Naomi told Da

‘Chased him from the shop?’ she could hear the awe in his voice. ‘Shit! Sorry.’

‘No, I think the bad language is quite appropriate,’ Marcus said with dignity. ‘That is precisely the way I feel.’

‘Patrick says Fine’s arrived and is coming up with them. The scene’s been secured and SOCO called. There’s nothing more he can do until it’s released to him so he’s going to come and talk to us.’

‘What does all that mean?’ Da

‘It means they’ve found the car that hit Marcus?’ Naomi asked.

‘On its side in the ditch. No sign of the driver.’

‘The uniformed officer will have to make sure the scene is secured, that means no one can go into it. They’ll lay a single path that everyone has to follow, then the crime scene officers will come in and do their stuff. Then DS Fine will be allowed back and he’ll be told what’s been found so far.’ Naomi explained. ‘Alec, any idea what condition the driver might be in?’

‘Patrick says there was blood, but he’s nowhere close so … hard to tell. Da

The boy shook his head. ‘Couple of weeks back.’

‘Before or after Rupert died. Do you remember?’

He thought about it. ‘Must have been before,’ he said finally. ‘The other man gave my mum a lift home and she said he was a friend she had met at this meeting with Mr Friedman.’

‘She hadn’t driven herself.’

‘Can’t have done if he gave her a lift home,’ Da

‘Friends?’

Da

‘Da

Da

Fine a

‘I thought we should be prepared,’ Patrick said. ‘But I’d better not leave it there now, someone might think it’s part of the crime scene.’

Fine laughed. ‘It might muddy the waters,’ he agreed. ‘I’m relieved you didn’t have cause to use it. I might have been arresting you too.’

Patrick shrugged. ‘You think he’d have gone far? You know who he is?’

‘Well, the descriptions point to it being Derek Reid,’ he said. ‘He was always top of our list. Fu

‘Fear can make people behave in some very odd ways,’ Harry commented.

‘True. Is Marcus up to being questioned?’

‘Provided Naomi didn’t give him any more brandy. By the time we left he was calming down somewhat. I imagine Alec and Naomi will have got his story from him anyway.’

Derek Reid was lost. His one thought had been to get away from the scene. His neck hurt and his head throbbed where he’d cracked it on the steering wheel. The seat belt had dug deep into his ribs when he had been thrown forward and he’d managed to crack his head a second time on something when the car rolled. He’d hit the back end of Marcus’s car at an angle, his speed and the angle causing the passenger side to lift and he had flipped, then rolled, ended up on his side confused and shaken and hurting like hell.

He did not recall getting out of the car but did know that he had not had the strength to climb over the gate. Unable to open it, he had slithered beneath on his belly and then stumbled across the cow churned field as fast as his shaking legs could take him, his one thought that he should get away.

Now, two fields or three fields over and disorientated, he wondered what to do. The day was warm and there were no cows here to snuffle in that curious way they had. Instead he lay at the edge of a field of wheat or barley, he didn’t know which but had the vague memory that he had once known the difference. He lay down on the swathe of uncut grass at the field edge and listened to his body complain.

‘God, Derek, your dad was right,’ he told himself. ‘Can’t get a bloody thing right. Not ever.’

Except Sharon, he thought. Sharon was right. He’d known that from the start.

Thinking about her gave him the strength to get up and he felt in his trouser pockets for his phone only to realize that it was in his jacket and his jacket was still in the car.

Groaning in despair and disbelief he remembered that it had been cool first thing and he’d slipped his jacket on when he’d gone shopping for Ki

His dad had been right, he thought again. Never could do a damn thing right. It did not seem in the least bit strange that here he was, a man in his early thirties still stung by the words of someone who had disappeared from his life when Derek had still been in his teens.

‘Can’t do a bloody thing right. Bloody waste of skin.’

Derek sighed and considered the irony that he was in this situation precisely because for once in his life he had tried to do the right thing. Driving away from Ki

He remembered Ki

Spitting blood through the split lip Ki

So Derek had decided when he had left Ki

But it seemed that his father’s damnation of him had to thwart even his best intentions. Marcus had seen him and taken off like a scared rabbit and Derek knew that his chance was gone.

He wasn’t sure why he’d tried to run Marcus off the road but he’d sort of figured it might be the only way to get to talk to him, convince him to go along with his scheme. Failing that he would have dragged Marcus’s sorry ass back to Ki