No Place Like Home Jane Renshaw (best books to read for beginners TXT) 📖

possibly metal, with a flat surface two or three centimetres across. The best guess is a hammer.’

God. That would be the hose bracket, which was about the same width as a hammer, although it wasn’t round, it was a sort of scroll shape, which would surely give more of a rectangular impression where it – where it smashed into Finn’s skull. But maybe there was so much damage that it was impossible to isolate individual impressions?

‘David is saying he only hit him a couple of times with the air rifle – although the footage shows it was three times – and that, although he did go after him into the wood, he didn’t find him. But if this goes to trial, the prosecution will maintain that David went after him, found him, hit him with another weapon and killed him.’

Linda shook her head. ‘But you’ve just said there’s no way David could have disposed of the body.’

‘DI Cromer’s theory is that he had help.’ He flicked a look at Kirsty. ‘Probably from Fraser. Fraser has no alibi for the rest of the night. But she’s also going to be looking at you and Bram. You’re going to have to give DNA samples for forensic testing.’

‘Okay,’ said Kirsty numbly.

Scott left the room, and as soon as he’d gone, Linda burst into tears. Kirsty was still holding her when the door opened again and David barrelled in, grabbed Linda and crushed her to him. ‘It’s okay, love, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.’

Bram backed away until he was standing in the bay window, his heart knocking against his chest, his mouth dry. Phoebe and Stuart were out there in the garden, incompetently kicking a ball about and trying in vain to interest Bertie in it, while Max sat slumped on a bench under an apple tree.

‘Hey, Bram, relax!’ David chuckled, patting Linda’s back and looking over her shoulder at Bram and Kirsty. ‘The two of you are like kids with their hands caught in the sweetie jar! I get it, that you had to offer up the Bertie-cam footage to clear Max. Don’t worry, I get it.’

‘Uh–’ Bram couldn’t think what the hell to say.

He supposed that David could understand, if anyone could, what a parent might be prepared to do for their child, but nevertheless, it was very generous of him to be so forgiving. Was he really such a bad guy? Look at how loving he was with Linda, with Kirsty, with Phoebe. He wasn’t, surely, the monster Kirsty thought him. Maybe the Owen thing had been just an accident? He had just been giving the guy a scare, but had dropped him over the bridge by mistake?

‘We had to,’ Kirsty croaked.

David nodded reassuringly at her. ‘And yeah, I know, I should have come clean about what happened, but how was it going to look, eh? How does it look? The theory the police seem wedded to is that I killed Finn and Fraser disposed of the body – with a mind-boggling incompetence I’d hope would rule him out from the get-go, but apparently not. That bitch Cromer is determined to pin this on me.’

‘Really?’ Bram got out.

David took a tissue from his pocket and gently wiped Linda’s face. ‘Okay, love?’

Linda nodded. ‘But surely the police are clutching at straws, trying to bring Fraser into it?’

‘Aye, but Cromer doesn’t want to hear any other theories. Mine in particular.’

God. ‘Which is?’ Bram had to know.

‘Someone else must have had a set-to with Finn, right? The boffins have found other wounds on his head, not just a dunt with the butt of a rifle. Someone had a good go at the lad. Here’s what I’m thinking. Finn toddles off back home whining to Daddy about having been jumped, his rifle taken off him and used as a weapon against him. Andrew’s incandescent. Finn was bested by a bloody pensioner who got the rifle off him, and now it’s maybe going to be traced back to the Taylors? He goes for the lad.’

‘Oh, now, David.’ Linda rubbed his arm. ‘I don’t think that’s likely.’

‘He goes for the lad,’ David went on as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘Realises he’s killed him, panics, dumps the body.’ He looked from one to another of them as if expecting a prize.

‘I suppose it’s possible,’ muttered Bram.

He escaped as soon as he could to the garden, lowering himself onto the bench next to Max, and, when Phoebe came running over to wriggle between them, Bram gave her a hug.

‘Well, kids, Grandad’s back!’ He tried to sound upbeat about it. ‘He’s been released because Bertie-cam shows he can’t have, um, done what they thought he’d done. Well, he’s been charged with some other things, but hopefully he’s not going to be in too much trouble.’

Phoebe’s face lit up and she raced off inside, shouting at the top of her voice: ‘Grandad!’

Max stood to go after her, then turned back to Bram. ‘Bertie-cam?’ He frowned. ‘I thought it was Bertie-cam that put Grandad in the frame in the first place?’

Bram explained what had happened. ‘Although it seems the police still think David killed Finn. And maybe Fraser disposed of the body.’

‘Of course he didn’t kill Finn!’ Max rapped out. ‘I was there. Grandad didn’t hit him hard enough. Finn wasn’t even badly hurt. He ran off into the wood afterwards. If the police are saying Grandad went after him and hit him again – there’s no way that happened. Yeah, he went after him, but he didn’t have any other weapon, a hammer or whatever – and if there’d been a second set-to I’d have heard it. And he was only gone like a couple of minutes.’

‘The acoustics in woods can be strange – the trees have a damping effect on sound. That’s why people who live on busy roads plant hedges and trees, to cut out the noise.’

‘So you actually think Grandad did this?’

Bram stood and put an arm round him. ‘He has a history of violence,’ was