Free No Name Lane (Howard Linskey) by Howard Linskey Page B

God,’ said the headmaster.
    ‘Jesus-Christ-almighty,’ added the councillor for good measure.



CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    Ian Bradshaw took the call. The first voice he heard was a woman’s, the police sergeant on the front desk, asking to speak to Kane.
    ‘Detective Chief Inspector Kane is at Michelle Summers’ mother’s home,’ he said precisely.
    ‘DI Peacock then?’ she asked hopefully, as if she couldn’t possibly entrust her news to the station half-wit.
    ‘He’s with the DCI. Perhaps I can help?’ he added reasonably, knowing their absence had painted her into a corner.
    There was a pause while she weighed this up. Was he considered that much of a liability these days? It seemed he was. Finally she spoke and there was a trace of resignation in her voice. ‘They’ve found a body,’ she told him, ‘at Great Middleton School.’
    Bradshaw was determined to be discreet. He would take the DCI to one side and quietly inform him the girl’s body had been found. He would spare the family any unnecessary anguish until the time came when they could be spared it no longer. He knew if they realised Michelle had been found their first instinct would be to go to her, but how could forensics pick up anything if the grieving relatives contaminated the crime scene? Bradshawclimbed out of the car, straightened his jacket, marched purposefully up to the front door and rang the bell.
    ‘Who found her?’ asked DI Peacock moments later as Bradshaw’s car sped down the hill towards the school.
    ‘A JCB driver,’
    ‘Where is he now?’ DCI Kane was in the back seat, with DI Peacock riding shotgun in the front.
    ‘In the headmaster’s office with a cup of tea and a biscuit, so he can’t blurt anything to the press or passers-by.’ He could tell by their silence they were happy with that. ‘The kids are all in the main hall in the centre of the school, for a “special assembly” until they work out the best way to get them out of there with the minimum of fuss,’
    ‘Anyone else know about this?’
    ‘Another workman, he’s also in the building,’ Bradshaw repeated virtually every word the desk sergeant had told him, ‘and there is a local politician – a borough councillor who was walking the grounds with the headmaster when the body was found,’
    ‘That’s all we need,’ muttered the DI
    They got out of the car then walked round the building towards the playing fields at the rear. Bradshaw told himself that the outcome had been entirely predictable. Nobody expected poor Michelle Summers to turn up alive and now they would concentrate on finding her killer. In a strange way, as he walked side by side with the DCI and his DI it almost felt like he was back in the fold.
    There was a uniformed officer standing by the JCB andnewly ploughed earth piled up by its digger. Bradshaw could see the rim of a distinct but uneven hole and he began to prepare himself for the sight of the young girl’s body.
    They walked briskly across the first playing field until they reached the spot the JCBs had been levelling. The ground was muddy and their progress slow. The uniformed officer looked as if he wanted to snap to attention when the three detectives reached him. ‘It’s over here, Sir,’ the PC told Kane unnecessarily as he gestured towards the hole.
    Kane reached the spot and peered over the edge to survey the scene. Then he froze. ‘What’s this?’ the DCI rounded on Bradshaw sharply. ‘What the hell is going on?’
    Bradshaw was behind him and had no way of knowing what he was referring to. He could only watch as DI Peacock stepped forward and looked down into the hole.
    ‘You have got to be kidding me?’
    Detective Constable Ian Bradshaw stepped forward then, almost lost his footing on the soft pile of earth. He peered down into the hole made by the digger but couldn’t begin to comprehend the sight that greeted him.
    Mary Collier didn’t believe in a sixth sense but some form of instinct must have drawn her