THE ASTRAKHAN'S FEATHER

Part 4

Benny directed traffic, not that there was much. One elderly lady had been the only customer, plus the ambulance and a monstrous eight-wheel tow truck with the electric blue script Dodge Brothers on its flank. More like Dodgy Brothers, Benny thought as the truck rumbled on by, the driver bearded, tattooed – everyone seemed to be tattooed in Bone Mountain, even the babies - one brawny arm leaning on the window, eyes that looked right into you. Coop had raised a hand and the brakes hissed. He'd stepped up, given the Dodge brother a meaty handshake that flexed his tatt and made a busty blue-ink blonde wink. Meanwhile, Benny had waved the old lady down and told her to go slow, not that she'd needed any encouragement in that department, eyes out on stalks, neck all rubbery.

Benny turned now and looked at the cruiser where Coop was having a smoke, the acrid smell of cheap tobacco reaching him on the solid warm breeze. He looked up at the sky where the cloud was heavy and purple in places and the sun though barely visible still glared through his sunnies. Maybe there'd be another storm to clear the air, but he doubted that would happen before the evening. Until then everyone just had to suffer the steadily rising heat and soggy ninety-nine percent humidity.

Benny turned his head when he heard a car coming at speed. In the heat shimmering above the road the vehicle seemed to be floating towards him. He looked at his watch –7.20. He waved the vehicle down and it slowed but just as it came up to him it accelerated and shot past. He watched Coop look up in stunned surprise as the slipstream snatched his cigarette smoke away.

The car came to a sudden stop by the ambulance. Benny looked. Coop looked at him, then came out the cruiser and looked too. A girl got out of the car – a scrappy green Ford - and set off down into the ditch without a backward glance, without even closing the car door.

"Fuck," said Benny and started to run.

He got to the edge of the road the same time as Coop. The girl's head was bobbing as she scrambled down into the ravine.

"Why didn't you stop her?"

Benny looked at his partner.

"What you want me to do, shoot her?"

Coop looked at him with a skewey smile.

"You're gonna wish you had when the Pom inspector sees her."

"Who is she?"

Coop nodded down into the ravine, popped a Mentos in his mouth in case the Pom smelt cigs, put his hands in his pockets and sucked air past the mint.

"Holly Dreyfuss. Dad owns The Record, town's busy-body so-called newspaper. Girl's always poking her nose where it's not wanted."

Benny shrugged. "Guess that's her job."

Coop turned and looked at Benny and said quietly, "Dad's gone. One day, someone'll sort her out too, no doubt."

Benny stared at him as a shiver skittered up his spine quicker than a gecko.

Twenty-three

"Whoa there! Far enough, young Holly."

"You know her?" Karen asked Mullins who was holding a girl dressed all in black with a pretty pale elfin green-eyed face. It was hard to tell how old she was, Karen thought, she could have been 27, or 14.

Holly Dreyfuss smiled sweetly at Karen who wasn't fooled by that for a minute. She'd dealt with the press in London and she saw all the signs here. They were rolled-gold bastards, especially the girls. This here was a country girl playing at it.

"Let me guess, reporter?"

"Wow, you're good, you must be the detective!"

Karen gave her a lopsided look.

"The Record, Holly Dreyfuss." She hesitated, then said, "Editor."

Mullins raised his eyebrows.

"And you would be...?"

Karen shook her head.

"What is it round here? Everyone thinks they can just breeze in on an enquiry?"

She looked up at the road edge where Coop and Benny gazed down like cows. One of them was even chewing.

Karen took a deep breath and turned back to Holly.

"What the hell, ask away."

"So what's happened here?"

"Car crash."

Holly nibbled her lower lip as she scribbled in her notepad.

"Injuries?"

"Yes."

Holly looked at Karen from under hooded eyelids and whispered, "Dead?"

Karen leaned in close to her and said quietly, "unfortunately, yes."

"And what is colourful local identity Rae Lucas doing in a car with a girl young enough to be his daughter?"

Karen looked at Holly with her mouth open.

"How did you...?"

Holly smirked.

"I didn't, it could have been the wife, Victoria. After all, it's her car. But if it's Rae, which you've just confirmed, well he's never alone, and it's always a young 'un. Thanks. Now, was it really an accident, or are we looking at something altogether more sinister here?"

Karen ground her teeth.

"No comment," said Mullins robotically.

Holly looked at him, eyebrows raised, smile on her lips, green eyes twinkling.

Karen closed her eyes for a few seconds, then said, "when's your deadline?"

Holly watched the first of the two covered stretchers being hauled up the side of the muddy ditch. The winch on the ambulance's front bumper whined and she could smell hot electrics.

"We go to press tomorrow morning. Paper out as usual on Wednesday."

Karen nodded. "I don't want to see Rae Lucas's name in there if I can't get to see his wife first. She needs to know."

"Alright but you need to let me know when you've talked to Victoria. I suppose it will be soon...?"

Karen's eyes clouded. She shook her head over what was to come, what she knew she had to do. In the Met they often sent the youngsters out, the girls usually, to tell relatives they'd lost one of their own. It was a policing experience she had plenty of practise in, not that it made it any easier.

"I'll let you know."

"So, what happened?"

Karen looked at Holly calmly.

"You know what, I need some time to have a think. You want a coffee later?"

"I don't drink coffee."

"Well, whatever your poison is. That coffee shop just up from your newspaper office."

"Sassafras."

"Alright then. Give me your mobile, I'll call you."

As Holly scribbled it down, Mullins looked at the pair of them as if they were mad.

The winch wailed and then stopped and the stretcher creaked on its hawsers. Coop bent down and lifted a corner of the tarp.

"Jeez. I know this girl."

Benny knelt on one knee beside the stretcher.

Holly scrambled up over the lip of the ravine. Coop quickly let the tarp back down.

"Don't suppose you'd like to show –"

"Talk to you later," said Karen, who'd materialised beside Holly and put a friendly but restraining hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, of course. Thanks."

Karen watched her get in her car, waited until she'd driven away before slowly turning to Coop and Benny.

"Now, you two jokers. What are you doing letting that reporter down there?"

Coop looked at her coolly with no respect and said, "I know who the dead girl is. And I know who killed her."