NO AGE TO DIE: The release of a dangerous prisoner leads to murder (DCI John Blizzard Book 9)

they’ve had to second a couple of officers to it. She went to St John’s, didn’t she?’
‘She did, yes.’
Ronald gave him an exasperated look.
‘I’m sorry, John,’ he said. ‘But it comes over like you’re taking any opportunity to make trouble for the place. I mean, why reopen the case when we’ve got all this other stuff going on?’
‘I can’t help thinking that it’s important. I just don’t know why.’
‘Well, don’t waste too much time on it, that’s all I’d say.’
A few minutes later, with their tea drunk and a slight tension still hanging in the air, Blizzard snapped out the light and the two friends left the shed and walked across the wasteland to their cars. Before getting into his vehicle, the inspector stood and looked pensively across at the bright lights of the city centre.
‘Penny for your thoughts,’ said Ronald.
‘You’ll need more than that,’ replied Blizzard.

Chapter fourteen
Colley hobbled into Blizzard’s office shortly after seven thirty the next morning and winced as he tentatively lowered himself into the chair. The inspector, sitting behind his desk, eyed his sergeant with amusement.
‘I thought,’ he said, ‘that last night was supposed to just be a practice?’
‘You know what Denny Whatmore is like,’ said Colley. He twisted in the seat so that his injured knee was not too painful.
‘Say no more. They’ve never had a lot of brains in the Tactical Support Group.’
‘Certainly haven’t. How was your evening with the Puffing Billy? Did you come to any conclusions while you were mucking about with your big end?’
‘That’s cars,’ said Blizzard.
Before he could say anything else, Graham Ross entered the room. Blizzard ran his eye up and down the forensic officer’s customary immaculate attire – charcoal grey suit, red silk tie and crisp white shirt with the top button fastened.
‘You’re not modelling for a catalogue again, are you, Versace?’ he said.
‘I may be before the day is over,’ said Ross. He sat down and turned troubled eyes on Blizzard. ‘You see, I fear we have fucked up. I have fucked up.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Blizzard. The levity of moments before had dissipated.
Ross looked at him gloomily; he had been dreading the moment and had still not settled on the right words. In the end, he opted to tell it straight. If there was one thing that John Blizzard detested more than mistakes, it was officers trying to cover over them.
‘We were so preoccupied with Jamie Holdsworth that we did not think enough about Jacob Reed,’ said Ross. He sighed. ‘We committed the deadly sin of jumping to conclusions. We assumed that because he was lying on the floor with a head wound and a brick lying next to him it was obvious what caused the injury. I reckon that is what we were meant to think. The brick was certainly thrown through the window with some force.’
‘If there was a mistake, we all made it. I take it you think differently now?’
‘I think it was staged,’ said Ross. ‘When I reviewed the notes on Jacob Reed, something was a bit off. The angles didn’t seem quite right so I went back to the hostel. The more I looked at it, the more I doubted that the brick was what injured him. That was confirmed when I went to the hospital and talked to the doctor who treated him. I reckon that Jacob Reed was assaulted.’
‘Assaulted?’ Blizzard sat forward in his chair and looked intently at the forensics officer. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I am. By good fortune, the nurse who cleaned him up in A & E was also there when I went to the hospital. She remembers having to pick out several small splinters of wood from the wound. I think someone attacked him then threw the brick to make it look like one of the protestors did it.’
‘So, what was the weapon?’ asked Blizzard. ‘Nothing was found at the church.’
‘But we didn’t exactly look very hard, did we? So, I went back to the church and found a bookend that is used to hold Bibles. It had been wiped clean of prints but it had a chip that looked like it was done recently. It’s at the lab at the moment but I am sure it was used to strike Jacob Reed.’ Ross looked anxiously at the inspector. ‘I’m sorry, I truly am.’
The expected explosion of anger did not come.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Blizzard. He stood up and slipped into his jacket then looked at Colley. ‘Maybe the same person attacked both Jacob Reed and Jamie Holdsworth. What do you reckon, David?’
‘It’s got to be a good chance,’ agreed Colley. He struggled to his feet and winced in pain from his injured knee. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Back to the church. I want to see when “thou shalt lie your head off” was added to the Ten Commandments.’
As they reached the door, Colley limping badly, Blizzard glanced back at the disconsolate Ross, who was still sitting in the chair, staring at the floor.
‘Good work, Graham,’ he said.
‘But I missed it.’
‘You got there in the end – and it hadn’t even occurred to me or Hopalong Cassidy here.’
‘And it’s achieved more than the governor’s big end has,’ said Colley.
‘Big end?’ asked a bemused Ross.
‘Big end.’ Colley tapped the side of his nose. ‘It’s a technical term. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.’
The two detectives walked from the room, leaving a relieved Graham Ross pondering over what big ends had to do with things and wondering if his leg would ever stop trembling.


Chapter fifteen
Also trembling was Glenda Rutherford as she stared at herself in the mirror in the hostel washroom and tried to look more presentable. The assistant manager was finding it impossible to conceal the tears and she had hardly slept since the attack