Inspector Stone Mysteries

1

Detective Inspector Nathan Stone maintained a bland expression as he watched Will Simon collect his things before being shown out of the station. He had no intention of letting either Simon or his solicitor know how frustrated he was.

Only when the two men were out of sight and earshot did he let his feelings show. He swore loudly and scowled in a way that made the uniformed officers in the custody suite hurry past him, doing their best not to draw attention to themselves.

“Are you certain Mr Larkin won’t make a statement or testify?” Nathan asked of the man at his side once he stopped swearing.

Unlike the uniformed officers, Detective Sergeant Burke had no problem meeting his superior’s gaze. Having partnered with Nathan for years, he was used to his temporary fits of frustration and anger when a case failed to go the way he wanted it to, and he knew they generally disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

This time, he suspected Nathan’s anger might last longer for it was not the first time Will Simon had assaulted someone and got away with it. As on previous occasions, it was because the victim was too scared to testify against him or his boss, especially his boss.

Burke nodded. “I’m afraid so. As far as he’s concerned, he has no idea who attacked him, or even why he was attacked. He’s too scared even to admit that he’s a regular at Xanadu, let alone that he owes Mrs Hobbs more than ten thousand pounds and tried to pay her off with a dud cheque. I was as persuasive as I know how to be, but no go.”

“Well, if you can’t get him to testify, no-one can,” Nathan said with a sigh. Running his fingers through his tangled mess of black hair, he reflected that it was past time he had a haircut. If his wife were still alive, she would never have allowed him to let it grow so long. It was hanging past his collar and in another couple of weeks it would be long enough for him to put it in a small ponytail.

His hair was not the only aspect of his appearance that had suffered following the loss of his family. He had lost weight, through a combination of working too hard and not eating well enough, which was especially noticeable in his face, and his clothes were rumpled because he rarely got around to ironing them.

“I don’t suppose that coffee you put on earlier will still be fit to drink, will it?” he asked hopefully.

“Not by anyone who appreciates coffee,” Burke said, by which he meant himself. He knew only too well that while his partner enjoyed the expensive coffee he brought in and brewed in his personal coffee machine, Nathan was just as willing to drink the cheap and tasteless coffee available from the canteen. “Are you still avoiding going home?”

Nathan nodded. “Ever since April got together with her new guy, she’s been acting like a lovestruck teenager. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad she’s found someone new and thinks he’s ‘the one’. It’s high time she had some luck on the romance front. And I appreciate that their schedules don’t coincide very often because they’re on different routes. When their schedules do match, though, they can’t seem to keep their hands off one another. I wouldn’t mind that, but they can’t seem to keep it behind closed doors. Every time I go in a room, there they are, all over each other. There’s nothing worse than going into the kitchen to get a drink or something to eat and finding your half-n***d sister pressed up against the fridge by a guy who doesn’t seem to understand either modesty or privacy. They’re both home for the next three days, so I plan on being there as little as possible.”

“Why don’t you move into your nan’s place until the lovefest is over?”

“It’s a good idea,” Nathan said, “but no longer possible. It got sold last week. The deal’s still being finalised by the lawyers, but essentially the house is no longer mine and April’s.”

“So, what are you going to do, hide out here for the next three days?” Burke asked. “That won’t be good for you.”

Nathan gave a half-hearted shrug. “I’ll go home to get changed, shower, assuming the shower isn’t occupied, and sleep when I need to. The rest of the time I’ll keep myself busy catching up with paperwork. The time should fly by.” He laughed at the dubious look on Burke’s face. He was still annoyed about the Will Simon situation but did feel a little better after laughing. “I may even spend a bit of time looking for a place of my own.”

“What brought that on?” Burke asked as he darted up the stairs at the end of the passage two and three at a time, as he always did. He had to wait on the first floor for Nathan, who ascended the stairs at a more sedate pace. “I thought you were okay with living with April, and she was happy to have you there.”

“I was, and she is,” Nathan said when he reached his friend. “But I’ve been there a while now, and it’s beginning to feel like I’m imposing, especially when I keep walking in on April and her guy. I think it’s time we both had some space, and now I’ve got the money coming through from nan’s house, I can afford to start looking for somewhere.”

“Will it be enough on its own when you have to share it with April? Or are you putting it with the money from your old house?”

Nathan’s face darkened at the reminder of the fire that had cost him his family. An event that would have been hard enough to deal with had it been an accident, which was not the case. It had been started deliberately by a murderer with a grudge.

The fire was never far from his mind, no matter what he did or how hard he tried to forget it. In the space of one night, he had gone from a husband and father to a widower who had lost both his children, and virtually any reason for living. It had taken months of therapy and medication to get him to the point where he no longer wanted to die, and he was willing to return to work.

He still wasn’t over what had happened and was haunted almost daily by his loss, but he was now able to function, which was an improvement on how he had been in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

“I haven’t got that yet. The insurance company’s finished the renovations, and it’s on the market, but it hasn’t sold yet. I’ve had some interest but no offers. The agent thinks the fire is putting people off. He says I may have to decide what to do with the place soon; either move back in, rent it out, or reduce the price if I’m determined to sell.”

Nathan couldn’t bear the thought of moving back into the house where his family had died, even if it did look very different after the insurance company’s renovation, and selling below the house’s value seemed wrong to him. He wasn’t sure about renting the house out either, he didn’t fancy the extra work that was likely to come with being a landlord.

“I can at least start looking for somewhere while I decide what to do. Come on, I really need a coffee and a sticky bun.” He continued up the stairs to the second floor so he could finish up some paperwork and bring an end to what had been a very annoying day.