Left You Dead

69

Roy and Cleo arrived home shortly after 1 p.m., to be greeted by Humphrey holding another of his collection of ragged stuffed toys in his mouth — with half the stuffing gone, like most of them. He was wagging his tail but seemed more subdued than usual. Grace knelt and hugged him. ‘Brought me a gift, have you, fellow? Thank you.’

Humphrey dropped it, a small bear with both eyes missing that had once been Noah’s before he’d appropriated it, then looked at him, a tad balefully. Did he sense something? Roy suddenly remembered a book Cleo had given him for his birthday last year, a volume of short stories titled Explaining Death to the Dog. Did this creature understand something? That Bruno wasn’t coming home again?

Roy heard beeps and tings and a series of quacks and grunting sounds coming from the lounge — Noah was active in his play area, with his noise-maker toy.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kaitlynn approach. ‘I thought you guys might be hungry,’ she said gently in her Californian accent. ‘I’ve done you a tuna salad and I found some bagels in the freezer which I thought I’d toast to go with it. There’s no need to speak, I know how hard this is for you both. Just know I’m here and can help when you need.’

‘Thanks,’ Cleo said, ‘that’s really thoughtful of you.’

Roy stood up and smiled his thanks, not trusting his voice.

‘I’ve taken Noah and Humphrey for a good walk, so you don’t need to worry about Humphrey for a while,’ she added.

‘Just going to go up to Bruno’s room,’ Roy said to Cleo. ‘See what I can find for some ideas for his—’

‘I’ll come up with you,’ she said, and turned to Kaitlynn. ‘Lunch in ten?’

‘Sure, tell me when you’re ready. You OK?’

Cleo nodded and said in a quiet voice, ‘Yeah, thanks, trying to hold it together — we just feel like we’re in a daze.’

They went upstairs and entered Bruno’s immaculate bedroom. His trainers, football boots and shoes all neatly in a row in front of his white wardrobe. Grace looked at the two posters of Bayern Munich football team on the wall. Alongside them was a large photograph of his local hero, the German footballer Pascal Groß, who had joined Brighton and Hove Albion and was dressed in the team’s blue-and-white strip. Below, sat a red model Porsche Turbo on a shelf beside a row of books and computer games.

‘I’m pleased we can have his coffin printed in the Bayern Munich colours,’ Cleo said.

Roy’s reply was interrupted by his job phone ringing.

‘Detective Superintendent Grace,’ he answered. And heard Glenn Branson’s voice at the other end.

‘Boss, sorry to intrude, but you said to call if we found anything.’

‘Tell me?’

‘The team excavating the deposition-site area have found a bone — they think it might be human. Lucy Sibun’s assistant attended and says it could be a lower arm radius, but we might not know for sure until Lucy gets here — which is not going to be until early evening. Meantime, they’re emailing photographs of it to Dundee.’

Dundee University ran the UK Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification. They could normally identify bones as being human or belonging to another animal within a few hours.

Grace thought for a moment. Glenn had the search under control and, strictly, he wasn’t needed. But as the SIO, with there being a potentially significant find, he wanted to be there. And besides, not really wanting to admit this to himself, it would be a welcome, temporary distraction.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’d like to see the site.’

‘I’m heading there, want me to pick you up? I could be with you in forty-five minutes.’

Grace thought briefly. He didn’t feel like talking to anyone at the moment and wondered about driving there on his own. But maybe it would be good to have the company of his friend. ‘Sure. Where exactly is it?’

‘Want me to give you the what3words location?’

‘Thanks.’

‘It’s boil.stunner.throwaway,’ Branson said.

Memorizing them, Grace entered them in the what3words app on his phone. The app had recently become an invaluable tool for the police. The entire world had been gridded into three-metre squares, each of which was given a three-word ident. boil.stunner.throwaway showed him a location in Ashdown Forest a short distance from what looked like a parking area.

Thanking him, Grace ended the call and told Cleo.

‘Probably do you some good,’ she said. ‘Focus on something else.’

He nodded. ‘It’s the only way I can deal with this horrendous time. I’ve got to distract myself, though I know it’s not how everyone would deal with it.’

And in the meanwhile, there was nothing he could do, other than mope around. Plunging back into work was the best way to take his mind off it.

Half an hour later, he heard the sound of a car pulling up outside. He scooped some tuna salad onto the two halves of bagel that Kaitlynn had toasted, squished them together and wrapped them in several sheets of kitchen towel, then went outside.

‘You want some lunch?’ Grace said as his greeting.

‘Thanks, boss — I’m starving!’

‘Fill your boots,’ Grace, who had no appetite, said sullenly, passing him the package.

The DI devoured the bagel in five bites, then started the engine and did a fast U-turn, narrowly missing the only tree on the entire driveway.