Free A Cast of Falcons by Steve Burrows

the point. No progress. No prospect of a meeting with Prince Yousef. A silence had followed, in which Maik fancied he could hear the distant bleating of sheep and the occasional rush of a passing car. “Then a senior executive, Sergeant, the highest member of the Old Dairy board available. Set it up, please.”
    And that was it. Maik had no idea if this new request was related to Jejeune’s doubts about the prince’s alibi, or some new approach entirely. All Danny knew for certain was that this was not heading in a direction he was keen to follow. The sooner the DCI returned to relieve him of his temporary responsibilities, the happier he would be.
    H olland wasn’t back in five minutes, but it wasn’t much longer. He approached them, casting his gaze to the ground and nodding. “I know,” he said, “she knows who it was. I suspect she realized as soon as she called me. By the time I got here there was a message on my phone telling me not to bother coming.”
    Both Salter and Maik waited in silence for Holland to get around to telling them. “It was her father.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œHe lives next door. They’re not speaking. He objects to her hacking the birds — free flying them — over his land. I think she probably does it deliberately, just to wind him up. He was a harvester himself for most of his life. Falconer, hunter, fisherman, the lot. But now he’s reformed, and, these days, he’s all about protection and conservation. He’s one of those leading the protests up the hill. Apparently, he’s become a real zealot. Darla thinks he might have found God.”
    â€œI’ll cancel that missing person’s report then, shall I?” asked Maik dryly. “If it was her father who broke in, what would he have been looking for in that cabinet?”
    â€œKeys. He told her he was going to release all the birds one day. He said they shouldn’t be kept in captivity.” Holland shook his head. “I dunno, magnificent animals like that, you see them flying, you think he might have a point.” He looked up at Maik. “I know she shouldn’t be wasting police time like this, Sarge. That’s why I didn’t want you to come out in the first place. But she’s on edge. They all are around here. Leave it to me. I’ll go and have a word with the old man.” A thought seemed to strike him. “Here, d’you reckon the DCI would know anything about Gyrfalcons?”
    â€œI’d imagine so,” said Maik. “He seems interested in all kinds of birds.”
    â€œPerhaps I’ll have a chat with him when he gets back, before I go see Darla’s dad. If I can talk to the old man about falcons, a bit of common ground, you know. Can’t hurt, can it? Maybe I can patch things up between him and Darla while I’m there.”
    Tony Holland, trying to broker a reconciliation between a father and his estranged daughter? Maik might have to dig out that tux after all.
    D anny Maik sat in his Mini for a long time after Holland and Salter had left. Had she seemed reluctant to accept Holland’s offer of a ride back? And what about that strange backward glance she had given him as she climbed into the Audi? Maik’s car door was open, and he turned to take in the gentle swaying of the tall grasses on the hillside. Over the speakers, The Velvettes were telling him how hard it was to find a good man — a needle in a haystack .
    He got out of the car and walked over to the high hedgerow that marked the boundary of the Old Dairy. From all sides, Maik could hear the sweet, insistent burble of birdsong, though the only birds he could see, crows, gulls and the like higher up the hillsides, were not making any sounds at all. He leaned on the gate and stared out over the untilled fields of Niall Doherty’s property. The high sun dappled the land; a pattern of dark shadows lying across the