Harte Read online

  Jacqueline did not seem to hear him. She appeared unable to take her eyes off Tom, merely holding onto Blake’s arm and looking like she was fighting back tears.

  When the paramedics arrived, Blake explained the situation to them and then watched as Tom was lifted onto a stretcher and loaded into the back of the ambulance.

  As Jacqueline climbed onboard, Blake put a hand on her shoulder.

  “We’re going to have to speak to you at some point, Jacqueline, okay? We need to know what his movements were last night, anything you can think of. Someone will be at the hospital later. Call me if there’s any news.”

  Jacqueline nodded, her eyes shiny with tears. Then, as she reached across to grip Tom’s limp hand, the doors were slammed shut and the ambulance sped off down the road with its sirens blaring and the blue lights flashing incessantly.

  As it disappeared, the door to Blake’s cottage opened and Mattison stepped out, looking bleary eyed. He was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jogging bottoms.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, looking around, confused. “Was that an ambulance?”

  “Tom’s been attacked,” Harrison replied. “Blake thinks somebody hit him on the head with something. We found him, just lying in the street.”

  Mattison rubbed the sleep from his eyes, looking slightly dazed. “What? When? Last night?”

  “Yes, Mattison, last night,” Gardiner cut in sharply. “So, I suggest you get yourself dressed and get to the station. Inspector Angel will be there already and I’m sure he’ll want this investigating.”

  “But I don’t start my shift till twelve,” Mattison protested.

  “Do I look in the slightest bit interested?” Gardiner replied. “You’ll only be called in anyway, so I suggest you save the station the phone bill. Besides, I’d have thought you’d want to see your girlfriend. Whichever one you’re with at the moment.”

  Mattison glared at Gardiner, clearly holding back a furious retort. He then turned on his heels and stormed back into Juniper Cottage, slamming the door behind him.

  “Was there any real need for that?” Blake said.

  “As for you two,” Gardiner interrupted, “I think you better come along with me, don’t you?”

  It had never occurred to Blake quite how intimidating it was to be sitting in one of the interview rooms at Harmschapel police station, waiting for an officer to come and speak to him. Although he knew neither he nor Harrison had anything to do with Tom’s attack, he was surprised that he felt quite nervous.

  He pictured the suspects and witnesses he had interviewed in this room since arriving in Harmschapel amongst all the bizarre cases that had been presented to him over the past couple of years. Then, his mind wandered back to the interview room in Manchester and Thomas Frost, and the insane look that Frost harboured in his eyes when he was gleefully telling Blake all about the murders he had committed. The thought made him shudder again, so he shook his head to try and dislodge the image of Frost from the forefront of his mind.

  Blake then realised that before most interviews, he would gather his notes in the side room, behind the one-way mirrored windows around him, and keep an eye on who he was about to interview. Standing up and wandering towards the mirror, he put his hands in his pocket as he envisioned Gardiner doing precisely that, with a lot more glee.

  “Come on, Michael,” he called. “I haven’t got all day, and neither have you.”

  He cupped his hands against the window and peered through. Although he could not really see anything, he did know the layout of the room behind the glass and was fairly sure he could make out the outline of somebody standing behind the desk, facing him. He smiled sarcastically and waved.

  A few seconds later, the figure appeared to move and then the door to the interview room opened and Gardiner stepped in.

  “Having fun?” Blake asked him. “I could see you, you know.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gardiner replied, though his smug expression told a very different story. “I was just gathering my notes.”

  “Where’s Harrison?”

  “Being spoken to by Patil and Fox.”

  Blake raised his eyebrows. “You’ve put them together in the same interview?”

  Gardiner shrugged. “They’re both officers, aren’t they? I hardly think asking for a bit of professionalism between them is too much to ask for when they’re interviewing a suspect.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Michael, we are not suspects.”

  “I beg to differ,” Gardiner replied. “Take a seat.”

  Blake stared at Gardiner in disbelief for a moment, then sighed and sat down opposite him with his arms crossed.

  “Now then,” Gardiner said, unable to hide how much he was clearly enjoying himself. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

  “You want to talk about professionalism? Really?”

  “I hardly think you’re in any position to be giving me a lecture.”

  Gardiner leant across the desk and pressed the button on the tape recorder then made a great show of checking his watch.

  “Interview commencing at 08:05 AM. Present in the room are Sergeant Michael Gardiner and Blake Harte.”

  Blake rolled his eyes and leant across the desk, stopping the recorder.

  “Inspector Angel’s authorised you to do this, has he?”

  Gardiner chuckled and crossed his hands together.

  “Let’s not get all sensitive here. Can we try and do this with some level of maturity? It’s a simple matter of police investigation. If you were in my position and had found me standing over the body of a man who I was known to have had run ins with, you would be doing exactly the same as me. You can’t deny that. I am being an officer of the law.”

  “I can think of a few things you are being.”

  Gardiner’s lips thinned and he irritably slammed the recorder back on again.

  “Interview commencing at 08:06 AM. Still present in the room are Sergeant Michael Gardiner and…”

  “Detective Sergeant Blake Harte,” Blake said with annoyance. “Just get on with it.”

  Gardiner threw Blake a glib smile and then opened the folder he had brought in with him. It contained very little, aside from a few sheets of paper onto which Gardiner had clearly scribbled everything he could think of to do with what he knew about Tom and Blake’s relationship.

  “Talk to me about where you were between the hours of midnight and five AM last night?”

  “I was in bed.”

  “Can anybody vouch for this?”

  “Where do you think Harrison sleeps? In the garden?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “I just did,” Blake retorted. “I was in bed, with Harrison next to me. All night long till about half past six this morning.”

  “Your partner was asleep, I take it?”

  Blake closed his eyes in annoyance.

  “Yes.”

  “So, how could he vouch for your movements all night?”

  Blake bit his lip. The most irritating factor was that Gardiner was asking the exact same questions Blake knew he would in the situation.

  “I’m fairly sure he would know if I crept out to go and clobber somebody.”

  “You’re certain that Mr Pattison was clobbered then?”

  “He had a wound on the side of his head,” Blake replied. “I’ve seen enough attacks of that sort to know them when I see them.”

  “You said you woke up at six-thirty. Why was that? You aren’t due in today till later this morning.”

  Blake narrowed his eyes. The only reason he had been awake so early was because of the nightmare he had been having, though he was not about to divulge that to Gardiner of all people.

  “I just couldn’t sleep. So I got up and went for a walk to the shop.”

  “The shop doesn’t open till seven,” Gardiner replied quickly. “I’d say it only takes about five minutes at the most to get from your cottage to the shop. What were you doing in that time?”<
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  “I took the long way around the village,” Blake said. “I knew the shop wouldn’t be open for a little while, so I went for a walk to wake myself up a bit.”

  “And then just happened to come across Mr Pattison on the ground?”

  “Correct.”

  Gardiner crossed his arms with an expression of faux confusion. “You’re telling me that you left your cottage, which is directly opposite the cottage of Mr Pattison and his mother, and didn’t see him lying there?”

  “He was lying between his wheelie bins, Michael, of course I didn’t see him. I told you, I left the cottage and went one way, walked around the village and came back the other way. The way me and Harrison walked back, he was easier to see.”

  “So, let’s talk about Harrison,” Gardiner said, leaning back in his chair. “Why was he up and about so early?”

  “You’d have to ask him.”

  Gardiner narrowed his eyes.

  “Spoken like a true suspect.”

  Blake rolled his eyes and threw his head back in exasperation.

  “I presume he was concerned about me. He wakes up before seven, sees I’m not there, and went to look for me.”

  “How touching.”

  “That’s what happens in a loving relationship.”

  Gardiner’s lips thinned, possibly as he took Blake’s words as a jibe at his own failed marriage. The moment was quickly cleared from Gardiner’s expression.

  “So loving that Tom was putting your relationship at risk?”

  “He wasn’t threatening anything.”

  “No? Didn’t exactly get on with him though, did you? From the way I heard it, he was flirting with your boyfriend and you didn’t like it.”

  Blake shrugged. “And? Is that suspicious to you? You’d have kept your mouth shut, would you, if you’d actually seen your brother flirting with your wife before she left you?”

  Gardiner glared furiously at him.

  “And anyway, it was more than that,” continued Blake, glad of the obvious annoyance from Gardiner. “There’s something not right about that guy. There’s a…I don’t know, it’s hard to describe. Something dark about him. Like he’s not quite programmed right. He and Harrison got on well at first, then he made a move on him. Harrison, of course, rejected him.”

  “Of course he did.”

  “And ever since then, he’s had this really sinister undertone to him.”

  “So you felt threatened by him, is that what you’re saying?”

  Blake shrugged again. “I don’t know if I’d say threatened.”

  “You seriously expect me to believe that you and Harrison were just walking along at seven in the morning together and just happened across the unconscious body of a man you both apparently despised?” Gardiner asked with an incredulous chuckle. “Pull the other one. C’mon, Detective. Tell me the truth.”

  “I am telling you the truth, Gardiner,” Blake replied, starting to lose patience. “This is a complete waste of time.”

  Gardiner shrugged.

  “It’s only a waste of time if you continue to lie. Now, come on!” He leant forward and banged the table with his fist. “I want to know the truth. Tell me. Why couldn’t you sleep? What was keeping you so awake that only a walk around the village at that time of the morning was going to help?”

  Blake stared at Gardiner, hoping that his expression was not telling him anything he did not want it to. As well aware he was that his pride was at risk of making the situation worse, he would rather be the main suspect in Tom’s attack than confess to Gardiner that a recurring dream had been the thing keeping him awake.

  “Well?” Gardiner said sharply. “Quite a long hesitation for an innocent man, wouldn’t you say? It’s not a difficult question. Why couldn’t you sleep?”

  Blake opened his mouth to speak, but the words became stuck in his throat. His brain whirred furiously, trying to think of some excuse as to why both he and Harrison would have been out in the village so early in the morning, but nothing came.

  Then, a familiar voice echoed around the room.

  “Are you having fun, Sergeant Gardiner?”

  Gardiner quite suddenly went rather white.

  Blake glanced at the mirrored window where their boss, Inspector Jacob Angel would now be standing, talking into the intercom that was connected to the room.

  “I suggest you wrap this ‘interview’ up, Sergeant.”

  Gardiner turned quickly in his chair and spoke furiously to the room.

  “Sir, he is a suspect in Pattison’s attack!”

  The door to the interview room opened and Angel walked in. His skeletal and graceful figure always reminded Blake of a ballet dancer and often left him wondering just how Angel would ever handle the likes of some of the burly thugs he had dealt with during his own career.

  “Sergeant Gardiner,” Angel said calmly as he switched off the recorder on the desk. “I take it you have an excellent reason for interrogating DS Harte in this manner?”

  “Of course I do,” Gardiner replied, suddenly appearing a lot less sure of his own convictions. “Harte and his soppy boyfriend just happened to be walking around, at seven AM, when Pattison was discovered, someone who they both have had a turbulent relationship with! You don’t think that’s suspicious?”

  “No, not really,” Angel replied airily. “And neither do you. You are merely using a police interrogation room in order to give yourself a bit of an ego boost and to make somebody that you have your own professional ‘turbulence’ with feel uncomfortable. I’ll see you in my office in an hour, please.”

  Blake tried to supress his amusement at Gardiner’s face, which was a mixture of fury and embarrassment.

  “You’re free to go, DS Harte,” Angel continued.

  “Thank you, Sir,” Blake said, standing up. “Shall I begin with finding out what was on Tom’s mobile? The way it was just discarded by his side would imply that he was speaking to somebody on it at the time he was attacked.”

  “I think you misunderstand me,” Angel said, holding his hand up. “I mean you are free to go home. As wrong as Sergeant Gardiner was to interview you in this manner, he is right in a sense. My understanding is that you and Mr Pattison shared a mutual dislike to one another to the point where it may be professionally questionable for you to be too personally involved in this particular case. From what I have just taken from Mr Baxter’s conversation with PCs Patil and Fox, it seems there was rather a lot of unrest between the two of you. I would suggest that you step back from this one.”

  Blake stared at his boss incredulously.

  “You’re taking me off the case?”

  “On the contrary, DS Harte, you were never on it. I would suggest you begin your time off as of today. Besides, having you as the officer in charge for only one day would hardly be beneficial.”

  Blake went to argue, but Angel pulled the door open and waited. The conversation was clearly over.

  With an annoyed sigh, Blake zipped his coat up.

  “I take it I’m getting paid for today?” he snapped. “I mean, I’m not supposed to be on holiday till tomorrow.”

  Angel raised an eyebrow as Blake stormed out of the room, the door closing sharply behind him.

  Blake stood in the empty corridor for a moment taking in what had just happened. He had never been taken off a case in his entire career. He found himself feeling utterly furious at the man currently lying in a hospital bed. It was typical of Tom’s behaviour since he had arrived in the village to be giving Blake problems even when he was unconscious from a head injury.

  But then Blake thought of Jacqueline. She had been very good to him since he had arrived in Harmschapel and had been the perfect landlord, making sure that anything that went wrong with the property was immediately fixed, the rent was more than reasonable, and it had been partly down to her that Blake and Harrison had become a couple in the first place. Her son might not have been the nicest of people, but he was still her son and she was Blake’s friend.
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  At that moment, Mattison burst through the station door, looking breathless and now dressed in his uniform.

  “Matti, where have you been?”

  “Sorry, Sir,” he gasped. “I couldn’t find the key you left me. It was in the fruit bowl.”

  “I know it was in the fruit bowl, that’s where we keep the keys.”

  “Well, I know that now,” Mattison replied, looking sheepish. “How’s it going? What’s happening?”

  “Well, I’ve been interviewed by Gardiner, and by interviewed, I mean accused, and now I’m just waiting for Harrison.”

  “Where is he?”

  Blake sighed as he pointed to the interview room opposite. “In there, with…”

  But he was saved from saying exactly who Harrison was being interviewed by when the door opened and Patil stepped out, closely followed by Fox.

  Mattison’s face dropped as he saw the two women.

  “Erm…Mini. Hi.”

  Patil threw him a filthy look as she opened the door to the interview room wider so Harrison could step out into the corridor.

  “Thanks very much, Harrison,” she said crisply. “We’ll get in touch again if we need you.”

  She slammed the interview room door closed and stormed away down the corridor.

  Fox flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder as she watched Patil vanish around the corner.

  “I bet she’s off to Angel’s office to complain,” she said with a shake of her head. “Fancy putting the pair of us together in an interview after…”

  She nodded at Mattison who looked like he wanted nothing more than for the ground to swallow him up.

  Blake found himself suddenly glad that he was not going to have to deal with the aftermath of the triangle during the investigation.

  “Come on, Harrison,” he said. “Let’s go home.”

  Harrison looked surprised. “Are you not staying?”

  “No,” replied Blake as Angel and Gardiner appeared behind him. “Apparently I won’t be needed on this case.”

  “All fully explained to you, DS Harte,” Angel said loftily. “I’m sure I don’t have to be concerned about you being overly sensitive and taking it personally, do I?”