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Back A Change of Circumstance Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Fifty-Nine
  61. Sixty
  62. Sixty-One
  63. Sixty-Two
  64. Sixty-Three
  65. Sixty-Four
  66. Sixty-Five
  67. Sixty-Six

‘They’d likely been on watch, waiting for him to get back, and when he did, burst their way in before he’d had time to get his hoodie off. Several blows with our friend the blunt instrument, any one of which would have killed him, and needless to say nothing found, they’ll have taken it with them and thrown it in water a hundred miles away. No prints of course, no DNA so far but they’ve still got the fine-tooth comb running through on the van interior. Talking of vans, one was found parked up on the other side of the building site, behind a run of derelict sheds and that’s on its way in, because the only thing found on the body was a set of keys, which fitted. Lucky strike, that. His living space has given us nothing but the van had his prints all over it and a couple of screwed-up bits of paper on the floor with some phone numbers scribbled on.’ He pointed, and enlarged. ‘Those will have to be trawled through.’

‘Phone?’

‘Nope but if it was on his person they’ll have taken it, extracted the SIM card and sent the shell the way of the murder weapon.’

‘Do we have an ID yet?’

‘Sort of. He was known as Fats, and that was what he called himself when asked for a name, but also as Ginger and Weasel. In the side door of the van he’d stuffed dozens, literally dozens, of betting slips from the dog racing at Bevham stadium, he was obviously a regular, these weren’t from a betting shop. Bilaval?’

The DC nodded. ‘Surprisingly easy, this one. There was a meeting on Thursday night, and to anyone who’s never been to a greyhound meeting, I’d recommend it, good cheeseburgers and hot dogs from the stands, lots of buzz, most exciting – I got quite carried away. But compared with a horse-race meeting, the place is small and there were only a few bookies and their slips ID them, so I found the name of the one on every single slip pretty quickly – Graham Reason, known as Bald Graham, though you wouldn’t know it because he never takes his hat off. He was on to me in a nanosecond, wouldn’t give me anything. He’s in this somehow but for the time being I left it, got myself lost among the punters and found another bookie, asked him about regulars, ones likely to have a big stash of slips. He was a talker. Not many of those, he said, but there were a few guys who were there every meeting. One description fitted.’

‘You didn’t show him the pics?’

‘No, guv, but I had them in my head pretty clearly. Height. Build. Clothes. And ginger. The name he used was Fats. Unfortunately, that’s the only one he knew.’