With A Vengeance

Chapter 4

4

Jack Culverhouse always did a great job of looking pissed off when his downtime had been disturbed by virtue of being the on-call DCI when a new case came in, but in reality he was pleased to have the distraction. His personal life certainly wasn’t boring or empty. Quite the opposite. It was a car crash.

Once again, Emily would likely wake up and find her dad gone, back into work again for another case. He wondered how long he could carry on doing this. He’d already lost her once, his wife taking off with her when Emily was a toddler, citing Jack’s obsession with work as her reason for leaving. Although Emily was now in her teenage years and seemed much more forgiving of his lifestyle than her mother had been, there was a definite underlying anger that he needed to help heal.

He poured the hot water from the kettle onto the instant coffee granules, then added some cold water from the tap. He was going to have to drink it quickly.

‘Knight. We’ve got a juicy one. Fire over at Little Walgrave. Arson, they reckon. Just had the call to confirm. It’s closer to yours, so get your skates on and I’ll meet you over there. I’ll be a few minutes behind.’

He heard Wendy sigh as he took a swig of coffee. ‘I’m not on call. Do you really need to be bringing people into the office for an arson? The duty team can deal with that.’

‘I wish it could,’ Culverhouse replied, knowing that the Chief Constable, Charles Hawes, would be even more mindful of budget restrictions and overtime bills than anyone, ‘but that’s not the full picture. It’s a residential address.’

He could almost hear Wendy looking up at her clock, noticing the time and realising what that meant.

‘s**t. Are there bodies?’

‘I don’t know. It’s not clear yet. It’s still early days so I don’t think they know what’s gone on. All the fire chief said was that it was immediately obvious it was an arson attack. No possibility of an accident. So either way we’ve got a crime scene. But apparently one of the neighbours came over and told them there was one guy living there on his own. At this time of night, I imagine he would’ve been in there, yeah.’

In cases of arson, it was always vital that the police acted quickly. Often, arsonists would either hang around or return to the scene to watch their work in action. You could almost set your clock by it. And with fire, the great destroyer, actively attempting to eradicate the evidence, it was crucial that the emergency services worked together to salvage what they could and act whilst the scene was fresh.

He heard Wendy sigh from the other end of the phone. ‘Can you pick me up at least? I’ve had a drink. Only had a glass or so, but I’m not going to risk it.’

Culverhouse shook his head, knowing she couldn’t see him. Back in his day, there would have been no doubt about a CID officer dropping everything to attend the scene of a crime. There was a passion, a hunger to get justice at all costs. Nowadays that’d all been eaten away by red tape and bureaucracy. Had it been him twenty years ago, he would’ve jumped in a cab — hell, he would’ve sprinted over hot coals — if it meant getting to the scene and starting to oil the wheels of justice. Now, though, things were different. There were budget cuts and Working Time Directives. Jack Culverhouse didn’t give a s**t about any of that. All he wanted was to catch the people responsible for the crimes that plagued Mildenheath. And he was still willing to do that at all costs.

‘Right. Well get your f*****g shoes on and wait on the road. I’m not sitting in the car while you fanny around with your high heels.’

Jack Culverhouse ended the call, put his phone back in his pocket and downed the rest of the mug of coffee.

It was going to be a long night.