Buried (DC Jack Warr #1) - Lynda La Plante Page 0,86
on earth would they be digging up Dolly?’ Angela dragged Connie away before she could be overheard. ‘Calm down, this doesn’t have anything to do with us. I can see Dolly’s grave from here and they’re nowhere near it. They’re round the front somewhere.’
As they walked away, Angela looked back at the faint glow of portable LED lighting coming from the main churchyard. Whoever the police were digging up, they were important enough to have one of the big graves out front.
*
It took another hour to dig down as far as the coffin and hoist it out onto the grass. The brass plate on the lid read ‘Harold Rawlins’, another reminder for Raeburn of the mistake they’d made all those years ago. The coffin was put into the back of an undertaker’s van, and Ridley, with Raeburn in his passenger seat, followed.
Foxy was in early so that he could open the coffin as soon as it arrived. This was the ‘bag of bones’ Jack had spoken to him about. When he popped the lid, all that was inside the coffin was an incomplete skeleton. It was easy to see every inch of the coffin without having to move the body itself. There was nothing else. No diamonds. No bag or box that could possibly contain diamonds.
Raeburn walked away.
‘What was she expecting?’ Foxy asked.
Ridley headed for the door. ‘A promotion.’
CHAPTER 22
Audrey Withey was furious about being brought into the station at 7.30 in the morning. She’d not even had time to dry her hair so, as she sat in Interview Room 1 dunking biscuits into her coffee, she complained about uncontrollable frizz.
‘I’m not having my picture taken!’ she shouted. ‘I flatly refuse!’
The female PC standing just inside the door was used to disgruntled visitors and was, therefore, perfectly able to block out the noise of Audrey’s voice.
Anik’s early morning knock on Audrey’s front door had been designed to catch her off guard. It was an uncomfortable start to the day if you had something to hide. Audrey, with a lifetime’s experience of being around criminals, was suitably wary. Her aggressive attitude and posturing came from uncertainty ‒ perhaps even fear.
On the other hand, Susan Withey, who sat in Interview Room 2, was a naturally early riser. So, when Laura knocked on her door at 7.30, she’d already been up for a couple of hours. She was calm as she sipped her tea. She had no experience of police interview rooms and, therefore, no ingrained fears; she simply assumed that they wanted a chat about Mike.
Ridley and Anik joined Susan and offered her more tea, which she accepted and then sat down. Anik tucked his legs neatly under the table, but Ridley sat further back, giving himself the legroom to put his left ankle onto his right knee. He was relaxed, so Susan was relaxed.
‘We need your help, please, Mrs Withey,’ Ridley began politely. ‘We now have evidence that suggests Mike was involved in the Aylesbury train robbery back in ’95. This isn’t what either of us expected or wanted to find out, right?’
Anik hid his smile. In one sentence, Ridley had put himself firmly on the same side as Susan and they were now allies.
‘Obviously, with Mike being a police officer, we want to be certain that the evidence isn’t misleading us. I can’t divulge the details, but if you could provide us with Mike’s whereabouts on several specific dates, that would be incredibly helpful.’
Anik opened his notebook in preparation for the next phase of the interview.
‘DC Joshi has a list of the dates in question. He’ll also be asking you about the money Mike received from the sale of the Spanish villa and the money he used to buy the house you currently occupy. I’m sorry that these are intrusive questions. They’re unavoidable at this stage.’
Ridley doubted Susan knew anything about her husband’s criminal activities. If she was a victim, she needed to be treated with the respect and empathy that deserved.
When Susan spoke, it was with absolute honesty.
‘My husband, DCI Ridley, was a drunk, a gambler, a womaniser and . . . and he could be a violent man. He was weak in that sense. But he loved the law. He felt terribly let down by it – his sister was murdered, his brother’s locked away in a system that clearly doesn’t work – but he respected it.’ Unconsciously, she straightened her back, raised her chin and all the love she had ever felt for Mike could be seen in her