The Whitby Murders (A Yorkshire Murder Mystery) J. Ellis (distant reading TXT) 📖

And Christ receive thy saule.

From the Lyke Wake Dirge

It was early on Monday morning when Alice Granger knocked on Lesley’s bedroom door.

‘Lesley, can I come in?’

‘Yeah.’

Granger went inside to find her daughter still in bed.

‘Aren’t you going to school today?’

Lesley turned over and yawned. ‘Yeah, later. I don’t have a class till History at ten o’clock and I’m not going to registration. It’s a complete waste of time. It’s just like when we had form period when we were younger. We never do anything.’

Granger would normally have challenged her daughter, but in the circumstances decided to pass it over. Lesley had gone straight to bed on the Saturday evening after the trauma down at the Old Ship, spending most of Sunday in her room, no doubt frantically texting her friends about what had happened.

‘We need to talk about Saturday,’ said Granger, sitting on a chair by the side of the bed.

‘Do we have to? I’m okay about it, really.’

‘I’m glad to hear that, but I was thinking with my police officer’s hat on. I told you yesterday that a body has been found in the water near where the last shot was heard.’

‘Yeah, well, I wasn’t surprised. They were obviously mad.’

‘That’s why I need to talk to you: you’re a witness, you see, so I need to ask you some questions.’

‘God, I never thought about it like that.’

‘If you don’t like it I can get one of my detective constables to come out and interview you instead.’

‘Are any of them fit?’

Granger laughed. ‘Yes, I suppose one or two are, but I don’t think they’ll show any interest in you, especially knowing that you’re my daughter. Can’t you just tell me what you saw?’

‘Okay.’ Lesley sat up in bed and closed her eyes as she summoned up her memories of Saturday night. ‘We were outside sitting at one of the tables. I was facing down Church Street and there were lots of people in goth stuff, you know. The street was packed with them. I saw this person coming down the street staggering from side to side. I thought they were drunk until they got close and I saw they were dressed like Dracula. They stopped near the pub and just looked towards it for a while, then pulled out a gun. I don’t know what it was, but something made me think this was serious. I mean guns aren’t really a part of goth costumes so what were they doing? Some people thought it was a joke and were laughing, but I called to my friends to get down. We were just getting under the table when they fired the first shot; then there was another. Then there was chaos: screaming, people running all over the place, chairs turned over. There was a third shot in the distance. We stayed underneath the table until everything went quiet and then crept out slowly. Mandy was in a right state, but I felt okay.’

‘Why was that?’

‘Because I don’t think we were ever in danger. I don’t think they meant to shoot anybody. They deliberately aimed at things rather than people. That’s why I’m not surprised they killed themselves; they were obviously deranged. Anyway, after that I called you and we walked back to the bridge.’

‘Right. I think you were very sharp to notice what was happening and very brave.’

Lesley shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

‘I just want to ask you a bit more about this figure. You keep referring to them as “they” even though they were dressed as Dracula. He’s usually a man, isn’t he?’

‘Not necessarily. Women dress as vampires too. It was a fairly tall figure but there was a mask over the face, so it was impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman.’

‘They didn’t say anything then?’

‘No.’

‘And nothing to give away whether it was male or female?’

‘No, but as they found the body, don’t you know that it was a man?’

‘Probably, but we have to be very careful not to make assumptions: in this case that the figure you saw was the person whose body was found. Anyway, thank you for that. You’ll have to write it up as a statement but that won’t take long. You could do it now.’ Granger got up from the chair. ‘I’ve got to get off for work. So get out of bed now and tomorrow you’ll have to make it to registration. I’m sure it can’t be that bad.’

Lesley sighed and pulled the duvet back over her head.

‘It’s getting worse over there, Jim.’ Back in Harrogate, Oldroyd was in Tom Walker’s office. ‘I saw it on the news last night; a body found in the harbour.’

‘Yes, Tom, not entirely unexpected. He’s the suspect, and he’s been on the run and behaving strangely since the murder. He threatened to kill himself and it seems like he has. So this could be the end of it.’

Walker looked at him closely. ‘You don’t think so, though, do you?’

Oldroyd smiled. ‘To be honest, no. It’s an instinct thing again. You know how you sometimes feel after many years in this game. There are some things that don’t ring true for me. I won’t bore you with the details.’

‘So you want to carry on over there for a while?’

‘Yes, if that’s okay. I have a plan of what I’d like to do and it may involve swapping DS Johnson for DS Carter at some point if that’s okay?’

Walker grunted. ‘Well, I’ve had such a glowing report from Inspector Granger over there about how helpful you’ve been and asking if the secondment can continue. It’ll be a big feather in our cap if there is a twist to this case and you can crack it. So you’d better get over there. I’ll be able to tell Watkins what an excellent force he’s got here in Harrogate. He should be proud, but he’s not interested in real police work, just bureaucracy and image. Do you know what the latest thing is? He’s . . .’

Oldroyd