Free The Unquiet Grave by Steven Dunne Page B

think about you.’
    ‘No,’ agreed Brook.
    ‘How’s your hand?’ said Noble.
    ‘It still needs ointment occasionally but it’s a lot better, thanks.’
    ‘Never seen you looking so fit,’ said Noble, still scrutinising him. ‘Suspension seems to agree with you.’
    Brook managed a thin smile. ‘Does it?’
    ‘I didn’t mean. . .’
    Brook held up his good hand. ‘I know what you meant.’
    ‘Glad to be back?’
    Brook took a deep breath. ‘Honestly, no. I hardly slept a wink last night.’
    ‘And you make it sound so unusual,’ teased Noble.
    Brook emitted his one-note laugh, insomnia contributing to his unaccustomed levity. ‘How are things with you?’
    Noble blew out his cheeks. ‘Hard. Sixteen-hour days at the moment. We could’ve used you this week.’
    ‘The Wheeler kid?’
    Noble confirmed with a dip of the eyes. ‘Even Charlton’s been coming in before eight to deal with all the garbage.’
    ‘I did offer,’ said Brook. ‘My suspension finished two months ago but Charlton insisted on medical clearance.’ He held Noble’s eye. ‘Four days now.’
    ‘Four days,’ repeated Noble. ‘Four nights.’
    Brook pursed his lips. They both knew if the first forty-eight hours passed without finding a missing child, then things were unlikely to end well.
    Noble looked at his watch and then at the door. ‘Well. . .’
    ‘You’ve cleared the Wheeler boy’s parents?’ said Brook, keeping Noble on the subject.
    ‘I think so,’ replied Noble. ‘Mum and Dad are separated and, though they’re not Charles and Camilla, they’re solid working people who’ve walked into every parent’s nightmare.’
    ‘A bit careless walking into two,’ observed Brook.
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘Their eldest boy’s already in the system,’ said Brook.
    ‘Callum, right,’ nodded Noble. ‘Career criminal in the making.’
    ‘A chip off the old block?’
    Noble hesitated and Brook realised that he might be under orders not to discuss the case with his disgraced senior officer. Before the younger man could stumble into an evasion, Brook let him off the hook. ‘You can’t talk to me about it, John. I understand.’
    Noble sighed, coming to a decision. ‘The father’s got a cast-iron alibi so we’re looking at everyone connected with the party, all the other parents and everyone at Scott’s school. A few parents have got some minor previous, but we’re talking twocking and D and D from fifteen, twenty years ago. We look long enough we might dig out some benefit cheats but so what? There’s not a stand-out child killer anywhere on the horizon.’
    ‘You’ve widened the checks?’ asked Brook.
    ‘We’re looking into everyone , digging deeper on all male adults in the area but nobody’s jumped out at us yet.’
    ‘So you think it’s sexual.’
    ‘We don’t know.’
    ‘You’ve been through the SO Register?’
    ‘Not a sex offender within miles,’ said Noble. ‘Normanton’s a solid, working-class area, racially relaxed – everyone minds their business.’
    ‘What about leaning on Social Services?’ suggested Brook. ‘They can be slow to put clients in the frame, in case it comes back to bite them.’
    ‘I. . . we’ve done everything you would have done, sir.’
    Brook nodded. ‘I’m a bit rusty, John. What would I have done?’
    ‘You would have knocked on every door within a mile of the party, checked every resident’s background, searched every garden, every outhouse and been over every local CCTV film with a fine-tooth comb. You would check hospital records for all the kids at the party, thirty of them, going back ten years, to see if we couldn’t scare up some unseen pattern of violence in any parent likely to be on or near the scene.’
    ‘I sound like a good copper,’ smiled Brook. ‘And what would I have found?’
    ‘Nothing,’ replied Noble.
    ‘You’ve been on Facebook and—’
    ‘We’re trawling through all the social network sites and all Scott’s personal accounts.