Free DEAD & BURIED a gripping crime thriller full of twists by Helen H. Durrant Page A

go home.”
    “Shut the door!” bawled someone from within.
    “Who else is in there?”
    “There’s only me and Beanie. Wayne’s in hospital.”
    “And who are you?”
    “Addy — Greg Addison.”
    “Well, Greg Addison, there is a distinct smell of cannabis wafting through your front door.” Calladine nodded at Rocco and the two detectives pushed their way inside.
    “You’ve no right . . .” The lad’s attempt to block their way was half-hearted. He didn’t look as if he had any fight in him.
    “You Beanie?” Calladine spoke to a face peering around another half-open door leading off the room.
    The lad nodded. Calladine could see intense light spilling through the gap at the bottom. “What have you got in there?”
    He shook his head. His eyes darted towards his friend.
    “Rocco, take a look.”
    Addison made as if to stop the DC but then thought better of it.
    Rocco kicked the door open. The light was so bright it made them all blink. “They’re growing the stuff!” said the DC.
    The plants were everywhere, in huge pots all over the floor and on shelving around the walls. The heat and the smell were overpowering.
    Calladine took out his phone. This pair would be taken in. “Who are you working for?” he asked.
    “Ourselves. It’s for private use,” tried Addison.
    “Come off it, lad. There’s enough weed here to sort the entire town. This has taken some setting up.” Calladine followed the wiring from the heaters fixed to the ceiling to its source. “Those are plugged into the mains. You paying the bill?”
    Greg Addison shook his head. “We’re taking it from the flat downstairs. It’s empty but the lecky is still on.”
    Calladine’s phone rang. He was expecting it to be the nick confirming they were on the way, but it was Birch.
    “This is turning out to be some morning,” she began. “A report has come in of a missing teenager. Ordinarily I’d leave it a while — he is nineteen. But his name is on the incident board. One Mick Garrett. Mean anything?”
    “Yes. He’s one of Archer’s crew. What makes him missing?”
    “Tearaway he might be in the daytime, but his mother likes him home nights. She rang in this morning. She’s not seen him in two days and his mobile is turned off. She can’t get hold of Archer either and thinks something is going on. Given what we know, she could be right.”
    “Problem is where to look. It looks to me as if they’ve gone to ground. I’ve found where Archer’s been dossing down, Garrett too on the odd occasion, but neither are here now. I’m sending in two scallys from Egret House. They’ve been growing cannabis in an empty flat. I’ll give them the third degree later.”
    “And DCI King has asked to speak to you.”
    “Has she said what about?”
    “No, and I didn’t ask. I’ll tell her you’ve been delayed.”
    The two lads were leaning against a wall. Neither looked as if they’d seen any water or food in days. “You’ve been hard at it?” asked Calladine.
    Addison shrugged. “Got to get the stuff right.”
    “Who are you doing this for?”
    “It’s a sort of co-op. We all get a share.”
    “Archer in on this?”
    “He’ll do me if I talk to you lot. He’s not like the others — he’s dangerous.”
    “Where is Archer? Do you know who his contacts are? Who is he seeing about this little lot?”
    “He doesn’t tell us anything. When he sells, we’ll get a cut. That’s all we’re interested in. We’ve not seen him these last couple of days.” He looked at Beanie, who nodded.
    “What about Mick Garrett?”
    Addison nodded again. “The same. He and Archer were dossing down in there.” He indicated another room.
    “We’ll get forensics down here, see what they come up with.”
    * * *
    The nurse looked up briefly from her desk at a porter pushing a wheelchair. “Bed six. He needs to go to X-ray.”
    The porter nodded and walked down the centre of the ward. In bed six was a man with a leg in plaster and next to