Free Close to Home by Peter Robinson Page A

The job’s going well. I’m getting back into yoga and meditation. And I’ve been doing some painting again.”
    â€œI kept you away from all that?”
    Annie laughed. “Well, it’s not as if you twisted my arm, but when you’ve got as little time as people in our line of work have, then something has to go by the wayside.”
    Banks was about to make a sarcastic reference to that something being him this time, but he bit his tongue. He wouldn’t have done that two weeks ago. The holiday really must have done him good. “Well,” he said, “I’m glad you’re happy. I mean it, Annie.”
    Annie touched his hand. “I know you do. Now what brings you back here in such a hurry? I hope it’s not serious.”
    â€œIt is, in a way.” Banks lit a cigarette and went on to explain about the discovery of Graham Marshall’s bones.
    Annie listened, frowning. When Banks had finished, she said, “I can understand why you’re concerned, but what can you do?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Banks said. “Maybe nothing. If I were the local police, I wouldn’t want me sticking my nose in, but when I heard, I just felt…I don’t know. It was a big part of my adolescence, Annie, Graham just disappearing like that, and I suppose it’s a big part of me now, always has been. I can’t explain, but there it is. I told you about the man by the river, the one who tried to push me in?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œIf it was him, then maybe I can help them find him, if he’s still alive. I can remember what he looked like. Odds are there could be a photo on file.”
    â€œAnd if it wasn’t him? Is that it? Is this the guilt you talked about before?”
    â€œPartly,” said Banks. “I should have spoken up. But it’s more than that. Even if it’s nothing to do with the man by the river, someone killed Graham and buried his body. Maybe I can remember something, maybe there was something I missed at the time, being just a kid myself. If I can cast my mind back…Another?”
    Annie looked at her glass. Half full. And she was driving. “No,” she said. “Not for me.”
    â€œDon’t worry,” said Banks, catching her anxious glance as he went to the bar. “This’ll be my last for the evening.”
    â€œSo when are you going down there?” Annie asked when he came back.
    â€œFirst thing tomorrow morning.”
    â€œAnd you’re going to do what, exactly? Present yourself at the local nick and offer to help them solve their case?”
    â€œSomething like that. I haven’t thought it out yet. It’ll hardly be high priority with the locals. Anyway, surely they’ll be interested in someone who was around at the time? They interviewed me back then, you know. I remember it clearly.”
    â€œWell, you said yourself they won’t exactly welcome you with open arms, not if you go as a copper trying to tell them how to do their jobs.”
    â€œI’ll practice humility.”
    Annie laughed. “You’d better be careful,” she said. “They might have you down as a suspect.”
    â€œIt wouldn’t surprise me.”
    â€œAnyway, it’s a pity you’re not sticking around. We might be able to use your help up here.”
    â€œOh? What’s on?”
    â€œMissing kid.”
    â€œAnother?”
    â€œThis one disappeared a bit more recently than your friend Graham.”
    â€œBoy or girl?”
    â€œDoes it matter?”
    â€œYou know it does, Annie. Far more girls are abducted, raped and killed than boys.”
    â€œA boy.”
    â€œHow old?”
    â€œFifteen.”
    That was almost Graham’s age when he disappeared, Banks thought. “Then the odds are good he’ll turn up none the worse for wear,” he said, though Graham hadn’t.
    â€œThat’s what I told the parents.”
    Banks