‘She. The dog is a she.’
The officer shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well, whatever the sex, it shouldn’t have been digging. Might have destroyed a crime scene.’
Carlos raised his eyes at the man’s ridiculous comments. ‘I can assure you, she hasn’t destroyed anything. She used to be a police cadaver dog, as I just said. I’m sure my brother-in-law would have mentioned it as well!’
‘He did say something about the animal. Difficult to hear in these woods.’
Carlos clenched his fists in his pockets. ‘Yeah, although I heard you coming long before you arrived, but perhaps your hearing’s less acute than mine, PC Brandon.’
The officer stopped what he was doing. ‘How did you know my name?’
Carlos swung his torch over the officer’s shoulder. ‘It’s on your epaulette.’
‘Can you shine that thing elsewhere?’ Brandon growled. ‘Anyway, as you can see, I need to get on.’
‘No problem, Officer. Come on, Lady. Good girl, time to go.’ Carlos gave her more treats, praising her as they left the scene. He very much doubted PC Brandon would get on with anything other than wait for senior officers to arrive, but was glad to see the back of him. He would try to find out more about the cause of death when whoever was in charge interviewed him.
Lady relaxed now she was released from duty and bounded ahead towards Gary, who they found pacing back and forth along the path.
‘Sorry, Carlos. I couldn’t face that sight again.’
‘I get that. Not pretty.’
On the way out of the woods, they noticed torch lights approaching from a different direction, cutting through the undergrowth rather than taking the path. They veered off out of sight.
‘I don’t think that copper liked coming out on his own. Complained the whole time he was with me that he should have someone with him and how he’d only just cleaned and polished his shoes. Then he moaned about cutbacks before trudging after Lady. I’m not sure he believed there was a body at all.’
‘He gave me much the same impression, a true professional.’ Carlos couldn’t keep the sarcasm or his annoyance at the officer’s attitude back any longer. ‘He’s in for a long night once forensics is on the scene.’
Gary didn’t say anything else until they were almost at his house. The drizzle continued to add to the macabre atmosphere following their discovery. Carlos knew his brother-in-law was shocked by the experience.
Carlos spoke first. ‘I have a sinking feeling that might be your neighbour’s missing husband.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Too much of a coincidence not to be. Obviously, we won’t know until the body has been identified, but how likely is it to be someone else when a man goes missing and a body in the right state of decay turns up a week later, hardly a mile from his home? I had a closer look while you were away. The hand was that of an elderly white male, so unless you’ve got a geriatric serial killer in the neighbourhood, my money’s on it being him.’
‘Poor Mrs Sissons.’
Carlos felt relieved when he noted she was no longer sitting in the window. ‘Get some sleep while you can,’ he whispered.
It was well after midnight when Sophie suggested they go to bed having been brought up to speed with the grisly find. She had taken the information in her stride as she always did, except for the part about the probable identity of the body. Carlos hugged her goodnight and she looked up, tears welling.
‘Poor Meg. I do hope it’s not Harold – she’ll be devastated, you know. They doted on each other; she hardly ever went out without him. She’s been completely lost since he went missing. I was going to talk to you about his disappearance. When I told her what you did for a living, she suggested she could hire you to trace him. The police told her he’d done a bunk. They haven’t been helpful at all, she tells me.’
‘That’s the bit I don’t get. Why did the police think that? It seems an odd conclusion unless they have evidence she doesn’t know about.’
‘I’m not sure; you’ll need to ask them if it does turn out to be Harold.’
‘I will, and from the sounds of the racket outside, I won’t have to wait too long. You go up to bed, Gary needs the rest. I suspect he won’t want to relive the scene again tonight, delicate man that he is. I’ll deal with the police.’
‘You’re right, he hates anything gory. The only TV he ever watches are scientific documentaries and football. I have to record my crime programmes and watch them when he’s working in his study or at a Mensa evening.’
Carlos hadn’t realised Gary was a member of Mensa, but it figured. ‘That must be challenging. The crime thing, rather than the Mensa. I know how much you like a good thriller.’
Sophie smiled up at him. ‘It’s no hardship, Gary’s a wonderful husband.’
Carlos opened the front door before any more noise woke the old lady next door. He was about to tell the police to be quiet until he saw the brawny man with the familiar snake tattoo on the right side of his neck, poking its head above his loose shirt collar and overcoat. Carlos scowled, hoping this was a bad dream. His night had just got a whole lot worse.
‘Jacobi. I heard that a guy going by your name had found a body in my neck of the woods. Not many people with that, erm… surname in these parts.’
Any hope that the man in front of him might have changed evaporated when the lightly veiled anti-Semitism surfaced.
‘Masters, I didn’t know you worked in these parts.’ The man had aged a bit, but looked the same arrogant idiot he’d always been. No wonder the poor woman next door had been told her husband was AWOL. This explained everything.
‘Well, I do. DCI Masters now. Shall we do this outside or are you going to invite me in?’
Carlos stood to one side while Terry Masters brushed past, bursting into his sister’s lounge followed by a smaller round guy, also in plain clothes, who Carlos assumed was his detective sergeant. Carlos closed the front door and the door to the hallway and followed the men. Lady sensed Carlos’s distaste for Masters and stayed put, emitting a low warning growl while the insensitive man threw himself down on an armchair.
‘Jacobi, McDonald.’ A slight tilt of the head. That was all the introduction he was going to get.
Carlos and McDonald eyed each other cautiously, giving swift nods of greeting.
‘I was just telling McDonald on the way here how I’d served with a man by the name of Carlos Jacobi in the specials. Didn’t imagine it would be the same one, though. Last I heard you were working in London as some sort of pretend investigator.’
Carlos had wondered how long it would take before the next snipe came. ‘I’m just visiting my sister for the Christmas break. This is her house. Her husband and I found a body in the woods. I assume that’s what you’re here about?’ Carlos was growing impatient with the dancing around, but Masters clearly wasn’t finished.
‘Good, so you won’t be staying long, then? I don’t want amateurs poking their nose where it doesn’t belong. Know what I mean?’
‘Are you here to interview me about the body I discovered in the woods? Because if not, I’ve had a long day and would like to get to bed.’ Carlos knew from experience the sparring had only just begun and Masters would box for ages until he felt he’d won. He was doing his best to stay calm. The worst thing he could do would be to nudge Masters into a place where he might be seen to lose face, particularly in front of someone he was doing his best to impress.