was, thank God, a newsagent’s shop in the village, and it was open, if not altogether welcoming. A portly, ruddy-cheeked old chap in a tweed jacket eyed me from behind the counter in some kind of appraisal or other, his eyes boring into the back of my head as I grabbed three cans of coldish Coke from a chiller that was probably older than me. I forced myself not to meet his eye, instead scanning dusty shelves packed with canned goods and decade-old toys, looking for something I might want to eat at this time of the morning and happily finding a box of Nurofen that was, surprisingly, in date. That would do, although I grabbed a handful of Twixes and a mint Magnum for good measure and finally gave the guy a smile as I dumped the lot on the counter. ‘Morning,’ I said.
He gave me a tight nod and a casual ‘How are you today, officer?’ as he rang up the till.
My neck prickled and my breath caught in my throat and I instinctively flashed a look over my shoulder at the empty shop. Was his face familiar? Should it be? Was mine? ‘I’m sorry?’
He paused for a beat, then hit a button on the till with a sound like crashing thunder. The total flickered green on the little pop-up display. ‘How are you?’ he repeated.
I held his stare for a moment, perhaps a moment too long. His left eyelid began to twitch. ‘I’m good,’ I said. ‘Thank you. Sorry, have we met?’
He narrowed his eyes, flickered an inscrutable thought and said, ‘I don’t think so, Miss, no. That’s six eighty-five.’
What does six eighty-five mean? Mind racing, panic setting in. This was not expected. ‘Six eight—’ I noticed the till then: £6.85, all squared off and glowing green. Right. ‘Right,’ I nodded, shaking the blankness out of my head and fumbling for my purse. Only then did I realise that I was still wearing the lanyard around my neck, which of course made me bark a startled laugh that must have made me look even more special than I already did. ‘Right,’ I reiterated, holding the badge up meekly as I handed the guy a tenner. ‘God, I thought you’d recognised me from somewhere. Sorry, I’m not awake yet,’ I smiled, in an effort to pretend I wasn’t suddenly entirely on edge.
He relaxed visibly, even if he didn’t return my grin. ‘Best part of the day,’ he said, handing me my change.
I took the opening. ‘It is peaceful,’ I said, ‘I’ll give you that. I don’t suppose you have the need to call my lot out too often, do you?’
He regarded me curiously, a blue twinkle flashing across his bloodshot eyes. I’m sure he knew as well as I did that I already knew the answer to that. He humoured me, though. ‘Not really,’ he agreed. ‘We don’t have a lot of differences we can’t take care of between us. They say strange things pass through here at night, but the streetlights go out at eleven so I don’t see none of ’em.’
I hid the shiver that ran down my spine, and asked him, ‘What about in the daytime?’
He just shrugged. He wasn’t going to tell me anything, but he might at least be able to save me some time, so I pressed on. ‘Maybe you can help me,’ I said, undeterred by his blank expression. ‘About a mile back that way, on the right-hand side, there’s a concrete track with a gate across it. Can you tell me where that goes?’
He gave it a moment’s thought. Probably figured it was nothing I couldn’t look up on a map anyway. ‘The old airfield,’ he said.
‘It’s not an airfield any more?’
‘Not since the war. Bomber base.’
‘So what is it now?’
‘Wheat and barley now.’
‘Can you tell me who owns it?’
‘That’ll be Giles.’
I waited for him to crack a smile, but his poker face was strong. ‘And Giles is a farmer?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Farmer Giles.’
He nodded slowly. ‘I never heard it like that before,’ he said. ‘That’s funny,’ though he still didn’t smile.
I quit while I was ahead.
Farmer Giles timed his arrival perfectly. I knew full well that the creepy shopkeeper would phone him the second I was out the door, so I saved myself some hard work and just sat in the entrance to the old airfield until he turned up, which he did, in a brand-new Range Rover, just as I was nibbling the last of the chocolate from my ice cream stick.
‘Giles, is it?’ I said, stepping from the car as he did the same. ‘Thanks for getting here so quickly. I’m Detective Sergeant Green. I was wondering if you might be able to help me out with something.’
‘Giles Wynne-Parker.’ He extended his hand to shake mine. ‘What can I do for you?’ Cut-glass accent. Neatly cropped hair, greying at the edges. Strong, dimpled chin.
I flicked the Magnum stick away to shake his hand. He watched it fly with a raised eyebrow. ‘Oops,’ I said. ‘There’s probably a law against that.’ I paused, just long enough for his face to register that his jig was up. ‘Your tractor could do with a service,’ I suggested, indicating the trail of oil on the ground.
Giles sighed and nodded at his strangely unmuddied Buckler boots. ‘I know,’ he conceded with a resigned smile. ‘It’s hydraulic fluid. I’ve got a leaking piston.’
‘I’d get that seen to before you leave any more anonymous donations,’ I said, ducking my head to peer up into his eyes. ‘But thanks for giving us our car back, we’ve been wondering where it went.’
He snapped his head up at that, and the eyes that met mine now were a little wider than they had been a moment ago. ‘Your car?’
‘Oh,’ I laughed, ‘yeah, it’s a police car. That’s not really the worst of it, though.’
‘Oh bloody hell,’ he said. ‘How much trouble am I in?’
I chewed over that for a moment; let a few scary thoughts roll through his head, just for the sake of it. Finally, I said, ‘Let’s not worry about that. I mean, yes, you’ve been a bit of a plank, honestly, and you did dump it right next to the sign telling you not to dump anything, which, you know, we could easily take as you sticking two fingers up at us, and on a personal level, I’m not actually supposed to be at work today, so I kind of wish you’d waited until Monday, but right now, what I really need more than anything is for you to take me to wherever you moved it from because there are a few bits still missing, and it’s also potentially a murder scene.’
The colour drained from his face faster than piss from a flushed toilet. ‘Murder?’
‘Why did it take you two months, Giles?’
‘Two months?’
‘That’s how long we’ve been looking.’
‘I . . .’ He shook his head, eyes wide, nervous. ‘We were away. Florida. We’ve only been back a fortnight, and I don’t really use this gate. The main one’s at the other end of the runway. There’s nothing over here. I only came because some of the chickens got out. I . . .’
‘Why didn’t you call us?’
