Free A Full Churchyard by Nicholas Rhea Page B

However, there are many minor reported crimes that are more of a matter of record without having precious time spent on them as fruitless investigations. Inspector Horsley considered the matters too minor to involve expensive police investigations. As we are aware, some small crimes are reported merely to obtain a crime number so that the loser’s insurance companies will compensate the loss; those are also listed as undetected.’
    â€˜Surely those are the concern of the town duty inspector, not me?’
    â€˜Of course but among all those unsolved minor crimes, I’ve found one of considerable interest!’
    â€˜Really? I must hear this but do you think we should wait until Detective Sergeant Wain returns? I’d like him to hear what you have to say.’
    â€˜Yes, of course, Mr Pluke,’ and there was a hint of disappointment on her face as she placed the file in his in-tray. She had expected more interest from him.
    â€˜Thank you, Mrs Plumpton. We will deal with it as soon as we can, I assure you. Right now I need you to retrieve all files dealing with sudden deaths that have been dealt with at this station during the past ten years. I need cases that have been subjected to normal “sudden death” enquiries by the uniform branch whether or not they were followed by a post mortem or an inquest. And of course, I need the files of any deaths that were investigated by CID officers on the grounds they were initially considered suspicious, even if they were later proved not to be so.’
    â€˜Yes, of course, Mr Pluke,’ and she drifted from his office to carry out his instructions. She thought he was being very masterful at the moment but she was determined to explain her own successful detection work. She regarded it as important.
    Alone for a few minutes, Pluke flicked through the pile of forty or so files she had left in his in-tray. Although these cases appeared in the statistics of Crickledale Police Station, they had not been dealt with by CID officers – they included reports of thefts of sweets from shops, handbags and purses stolen from parks, gardens and supermarket trolleys, tools taken from open garden sheds, thefts from cars left unlocked while parked, thefts of garden gnomes – all minor crimes that would be recorded but not necessarily investigated.
    However, the additional file that Mrs Plumpton had left had been highlighted by her. He picked it up to read. It concerned a reported theft from a dwelling house. He was surprised that this had not been recorded as burglary although a quick glance through the papers showed some official uncertainty about its category. The stolen object was a gent’s gold watch on a gold bracelet, and the victim was Mr Edgar Lindsey who, at the time of the crime, had been 89 years old. He lived alone, his wife having died some years earlier.
    His son had reported the crime because his father’s watch had vanished from the house but the precise time and manner of its disappearance could not be ascertained due to the old man’s poor memory and delicate state of mind. There was a possibility he had lost it in his garden or perhaps whilst pottering around town or doing his shopping. The report had been dealt with some eight months ago during the summer – last June in fact – when the old man might have spent some time out of doors. The town’s uniform branch had made enquiries and the disappearance of the watch had been recorded as a crime in case it reappeared in a car-boot sale, flea-market or antique dealer’s shop. An entry had also been made in the Lost Property Register in case the watch was found in the street or elsewhere, and handed in at a police station. Pluke was somewhat amazed that this should be recorded as a crime when to all intents and purposes it was a watch that had been lost or misplaced by its elderly owner.
    No doubt the town inspector had had his reason for recording it as a crime