Free Unlikely Graves (Detective Inspector Paul Amos Mystery series) by Rodney Hobson Page A

murderer,’ Amos continued. ‘As you know, sir, the overwhelming majority of murder victims knew their killer and most murders are committed by family members.’
    Fletcher knew no such thing, having never been a detective nor ever having summoned up much interest in crime of any sort, but he could hardly admit his ignorance and retain his superiority.
    ‘So, we’ve got a corpse we can’t identify and another who may or may not have a son who may or may not have killed him and who could be living anywhere. That’s about it, isn’t it? Hmmm,’ said Fletcher.
    Amos looked at the ground. There was no disputing that little progress had been made in either case.
    ‘And there is no obvious link between the two?’ the Chief Constable went on.
    Again, Amos said nothing. He could not contradict what Fletcher was saying.
    ‘I think it would be a good idea, then,’ Fletcher concluded, ‘If I took the first corpse off your hands and gave it to Grimshaw. I don’t think you can cope with two investigations at the same time.’
    Fletcher looked squarely at Amos. He knew the inspector and his rival of the same rank, Derek Grimshaw, were barely on speaking terms and that either would hate to have a case removed from their grasp and given to the other.
    Amos made the unfortunate mistake of failing to conceal his relief. Fletcher had judged, incorrectly, that Amos would prefer to keep the body on the tip as being by far the more interesting and intellectually challenging of the two.
    However, in Amos’s view it was better to keep the fresh case with fresh leads and a reasonable prospect of success. Grimshaw would get nowhere picking up a cold case and there was always the possibility that Amos could prize it back later, especially if it subsequently transpired that the two deaths were linked after all.
    ‘No, no,’ Fletcher commented reflectively. ‘Perhaps it would be better if you took the old case as you’ve had time to get a grip on it. You’re just the chap to tackle an awkward assignment. I’ll give Grimshaw the Randall case.’
    It was at this point that Swift, who had been listening outside the door judging developments within, burst dramatically onto the scene.
    ‘There is a link,’ she declared breathlessly as if she had just run up the stairs. ‘It looks like the body on the rubbish tip was Randall’s son.’

 
     
    Chapter 18
     
    ‘You really can be remarkably devious,’ Amos told Swift on the way back to CID.
    ‘It did the trick though, didn’t it?’ the detective sergeant replied with a self-satisfied smirk.
    Chief Constable Sir Robert Fletcher had conceded that Amos should keep control of both cases, insisting unconvincingly that it was what he really wanted ‘just as long as there was a genuine link’.
    Only as they were coming down the stairs did Swift admit that the link was hardly less tenuous now than it had been all along. She had not heard the full conversation between Amos and Fletcher but had hovered outside the door listening unnoticed to the later stages to see how the wind was blowing before making her dramatic intervention.
    She had not, in fact, intended to make the link quite so palpable. She knew Amos’s golden rule that the less you told the Chief Constable the better. The aim was merely to convey that Randall did indeed have a son, a discovery that did at least suggest that the inquiry was making a modicum of progress. Swift had rightly judged, however, that something a little more spectacular was required.
    By now members of the team had returned from further door-to-door inquiries in North Hykeham. Amos called them together in his office where they could update him without any possibility of others overhearing what was said. There was no point in risking a leak back to Fletcher.
    DC Yates, who had been in charge of gathering information from the county education department, had fared better than expected despite the department’s protestations to the Chief Constable.
    John