Death on the Lake, Jo Allen [e reader TXT] 📗

A movement behind her, the sharp click as if a safety catch were being released on a gun. She turned and saw only a black shadow among the greyness. ‘Ollie?’ she whispered.

And a voice. ‘Goodbye, Miranda.’ And then the shot.

Jude’s car chased the shadow of a cloud down the Ullswater shore, catching up with its fading remnants in the shape of a rainbow hovering over Howtown pier. He pulled up beside the patrol car parked up by the pier, where Ashleigh was deep in conversation with two uniformed police officers, and wound the window down. ‘Any joy?’

Ashleigh lowered the clipboard. ‘None.’ She ended the discussion with the two officers and drifted over to Jude while they returned to their patrol car. ‘I think we’re just about finished here. We’ve spoken to everyone we know was here, and I’ve put out an appeal for anyone who was walking up there yesterday, but I’ll be surprised if we find anything, to be honest.’

‘No, I think you’re right. All the signs point to it being a very smart piece of work. So smart I almost wonder if it was a professional hit.’

‘On Luke? You really think that?’

‘I do. Hop in and we’ll have a chat about it. I want to go down there and have another look around in case I can find any more inspiration, and I’d also like to talk to Robert Neilson about it.’ Faye hadn’t liked that idea but it had become increasingly difficult for her to argue. They were at the point where not speaking to him would look suspicious. ‘He’s bound to have crossed the wrong sort of people at some stage.’

‘I’m done here anyway, so I can spare you some time before I head back to the office.’ She got into the car and clipped on her seatbelt. A red car, driven by a grey-haired woman who he recognised as Neilson’s PA, drove past and headed up the steep hill, very slowly, as if the driver wasn’t used to the sequence of hairpin bends.

‘Good. I’ve been scratching my head over this and it infuriates me. It’s so neat, so tidy. A murder committed on a public road with no evidence left behind. It can only have taken seconds. I can’t imagine it was somebody with a personal grudge who met up with Luke on the road. It’s far too professional for that.’

They followed the red car, catching up with it at the bridge where Luke had died, and there Jude turned off while the car continued on its sedate way towards Waterside Lodge.

‘Is it possible someone could have paid a hitman to take out Luke?’ asked Ashleigh.

‘Oh yes.’ Jude stopped the car on the grass verge just beyond the bridge, outside George’s cottage where he’d pulled up on the day the old man died. ‘I want to satisfy myself as to where you can see the bridge from. I don’t think you can see it from the church.’

‘Nobody saw anyone going down the dale,’ said Ashleigh, flicking through the papers on her folder as he stared down the road. ‘There’s a chance whoever it was got away through Boredale and down to Patterdale, but Tyrone spoke to a witness at one of the farms down there who’s adamant that no-one went down the road.’

‘I was wondering if they’d cut up behind the church and headed up into the hills that way.’

‘You wouldn’t have to be a serious walker to do that, but you would if you wanted to make a clear getaway. But you’ve already thought about that, haven’t you?’

Jude got out of the car and she followed him. ‘Yes.’

‘So let me guess. You suspect Ryan Goodall.’

He walked down towards the church, hands in his pockets. ‘It makes sense. He’ll have all the skills he needs to do the job, he’ll blow through and disappear. If you’re an opportunist — whether you’re someone who wants to take out Luke Helmsley or whether you have a grudge against Robert Neilson — then he’s ideal, and he had every reason to be about in the dale if anyone saw him.’

‘But he wasn’t here.’

‘He told Becca he wasn’t here. That’s not the same thing.’ Jude frowned. It had never occurred to him to question Becca’s version of events. Maybe Ryan had guessed that. ‘I know it’s improbable but I wonder if he was here all the time. Waiting. And he did the job and disappeared.’

They stood and scanned the dale. There were a dozen escape routes if you wanted them, if you knew your territory. Jude himself knew this section of the eastern fells as well as most other people, and the terrain was rough but by no means as unforgiving as some of the fells further west. Given a good start — a few minutes would be enough — all you had to do was make the cover of the rising bracken. From there, especially if you were dressed in the greens and greys and browns of the hillsides, you could pick your way to the skyline, choose your moment to get over it, and then you were out of sight and away. ‘If you pick your route, you’re only twelve miles or so from Penrith and no-one’s going to look twice at a guy with a rucksack there, are they?’

‘There’s CCTV at the station, isn’t there?’

‘Yes. I’ve already got Chris looking at that. But it occurs to me. Luke might not have been the man he was after, but just the man in the way. In which case, maybe he’s still here.’ It wouldn’t be the first time a criminal had hidden in plain sight. ‘Let’s head up the hill and have a look.’

‘We’re hardly dressed for it.’ Ashleigh looked at his suit and brogues, then down at her own flat shoes.

‘We won’t go far. You don’t have to go far up there before you get a really good