Free Superstitious Death by Nicholas Rhea Page A

required for the creation of an incident room, someone picked up a phone which was already ringing and said, ‘Detective Inspector Pluke, it’s for you.’
    He accepted the instrument and identified himself.
    ‘Hart, Headquarters,’ came the brusque reply. ‘What the hell’s going on in Crickledale, Pluke?’
    ‘Barughdale, sir, to be precise.’
    ‘Stop being pedantic, Pluke. It’s within Crickledale sub-division. I have a garbled message here at Headquarters to say you’ve requested Horsley to set up an incident room in Crickledale.’
    ‘Yes, sir –’
    ‘Now the force is involved in a cost-cutting exercise and we want no unnecessary expenditure… so is this murder or not?’
    ‘I am treating it as murder, sir.’
    ‘I don’t care how you are treating it, Pluke, I want facts, not your bizarre theories. Is it murder or isn’t it? That’s all I want to know. It’s a simple question which requires a very simple answer – yes or no. And while I am talking to you, I must say that you’re not exactly in the top league of operational detectives, Pluke – your record of dealing with murders is pretty thin to say the least and your record of solving them is even thinner. I’m not sure you are the man to deal with an extended investigation, murder or otherwise, and it wouldn’t surprise me if you didn’t know a murder from a bit of malarkey –’ 
    This is a highly suspicious death, sir,’ Pluke interrupted this flow of venom as he tried to reason with Detective Superintendent Jack Hart. ‘The woman was found in a shallow grave with head injuries –’
    ‘All sorts can cause head injuries, Pluke. Falling off a bike can cause head injuries, banging your head against a brick wall can cause head injuries… I do it all the time!’
    ‘This one looks like a puncture wound, sir. The pathologist is examining the victim at this moment. I don’t think it was a self-inflicted wound, it was far too deep, consequently I am awaiting his judgement.’
    ‘But is it murder, Pluke? That’s all I want to know.’
    ‘I must be honest and say I am not sure at this stage, sir. The injury is in her right temple, a deep hole in the head to be rather crude, a puncture wound by an object yet to be identified.’
    ‘She fell on something, maybe?’
    ‘I had not ignored that possibility, sir. Furthermore, she was buried in a disused quarry and found by a hiker. And her identity is not known. It all suggests something highly suspicious.’
    ‘Go on, Pluke.’
    ‘Well, sir, those circumstances compel me to treat the death as a possible murder. I should know the pathologist’s opinion very soon, and this will assist me to determine the matter. Meanwhile I am conducting a murder-type investigation. I do need that kind of commitment from my officers if I am to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion.’
    ‘Well, if it’s not murder we can’t go to the expense of running an incident room and all the costly trappings that go with it, Pluke. Dozens of detectives on overtime, high telephone bills and all that. We have a budget for serious crime, remember. We can’t go spending money as if we’ve won the lottery.’
    ‘I am very aware of the financial restraints, sir, but I am also anxious that justice is done. The administration of justice should not depend upon the limitations of provincial police budgets, sir, with all due respect.’
    ‘Well, it does depend upon precisely that,’ snapped Hart. ‘And I have to work within that budget, like it or not. So keep me informed, call me the minute you have the pathologist’s report. If this is not murder, then I can’t approve an expensive long-running investigation of murder-type proportions, can I?’
    ‘No, sir.’
    ‘And I should not have to remind you that unauthorised or unconventional burial isn’t necessarily an indication of murder, Pluke, especially if it’s preceded by accidental death… People who hide secrets are not always murderers,’ and he