Chapter 15

Kelly and Will studied the CCTV footage when they got back to the office. There were two cameras situated not far from Wordsworth Towers and the data controller for Penrith Council had readily handed over the files. As expected, most of the male figures around the estate wore hoodies and bandannas covering their faces, but Will seemed to know a thing or two about the more prominent characters hanging about.

‘When I worked patrol, I was partnered with my old schoolmate,’ he explained to Kelly.

‘You still keep in touch?’

‘Of course. He ribs me about being out of uniform now and I wind him up about being still in it.’

‘What does he do?’

‘He heads up patrol for that area; he’s Sergeant Liam Brook now.’

‘Impressive. He must be good at his job.’

‘The best. He’s got plenty of informants, but not surprisingly, he’s not that keen to hand them over.’

‘I understand. It’s tricky, but we could come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement.’

‘That’s what I said to him.’

‘You discussed it already?’

‘Kind of. These two look like the main players: the Cotton brothers. They haven’t been round here long – they’re from Lancashire originally – but they dominated pretty quickly, and they’re fairly brutal.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘Liam and I talk. He’s my best mate. I’d die for him and him for me. We went through some stuff, you know?’

Kelly was taken aback by Will’s candour, as well as impressed with his emotional disclosure. Not many men would readily admit this kind of respect and love for another man. She didn’t ask what the ‘stuff’ was they’d been through together.

‘So he gives you the low-down on the local thugs? Why are you so interested?’

Will didn’t answer straight away, and she thought she’d leave it, not wanting to pry, but he’d stoked her curiosity.

‘Can I meet him?’

‘Of course. He’s a top bloke. I know he’s on duty today because he asked me to ring him when I’d looked at the footage. Can he see it?’

‘Why don’t you give him a buzz and see if he’s free now?’

Will nodded and walked away from her desk with his mobile phone. Kelly went to check on the rest of her team, who were working tirelessly on leads for both murders. It had been a shock for everyone coming into work this morning to face a second murder. She’d briefed them about the coroner’s findings when she and Will got back from Potton Pond. It was a double-edged sword of a meeting: on the upside, they had two knives from the pond that were being examined in the lab; on the downside, they had two sets of perps, judging by the coroner’s initial assessment that the MOs were too different to be connected.