Echoes of the Dead Read Free Page B

clear.
    â€˜You’re . . . you’re talking about Charlie Woodend,’ she gasped.
    â€˜Yes,’ the priest agreed. ‘That is the man’s name.’
    From time to time – and this was one of those times – DI Colin Beresford caught himself wondering if he was in love with DCI Monika Paniatowski. It was not a comfortable thought to have bouncing around in his head, because not only was Monika his boss, she was also several years older than him, and – if that was not enough – she was still in love with a dead man. And, besides, he usually concluded angrily at end of this train of thought, what did he – a thirty-two year old virgin – actually know about love anyway?
    â€˜Are you still with me, Colin?’ he heard Paniatowski’s voice say to him across the table in the public bar of the Drum and Monkey.
    â€˜Yes, boss. Sorry, boss,’ Beresford replied.
    But he was thinking that the problem was that when Monika looked as vulnerable as she did at that moment, it was hard not to love her.
    â€˜The whole idea that Charlie Woodend would ever even think of fitting anybody up is insane, isn’t it?’ Paniatowski asked passionately.
    â€˜It doesn’t seem likely,’ Beresford said.
    Paniatowski gave him a hard stare. ‘Well, that’s scarcely what I’d call a ringing endorsement,’ she said. ‘For God’s sake, Colin, you worked with the man. You knew him as well as anybody.’
    â€˜The Charlie Woodend I knew was a giant,’ Beresford admitted. ‘A legend! He was the kind of detective I aspired to be – even though I always accepted that I’d never quite make it.’
    â€˜Well, there you are, then!’ Paniatowski said.
    â€˜But that wasn’t the same Charlie Woodend who arrested Fred Howerd in 1951,’ Beresford cautioned.
    â€˜I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Paniatowski told him.
    â€˜ That Charlie Woodend had only just been made up to chief inspector. That Charlie Woodend still had to prove himself.’
    â€˜Are you saying that he could have doctored the evidence?’ Paniatowski demanded angrily.
    â€˜Not deliberately, no,’ Beresford replied. ‘But in his eagerness to get a result, he might have unconsciously decided to overlook any evidence which didn’t help his case.’
    â€˜He’d never have done that,’ Paniatowski said stubbornly. ‘And the investigation will prove that he didn’t.’
    â€˜The investigation?’ Beresford repeated, alarmed. ‘You never said anything about an investigation.’
    â€˜George Baxter says there has to be one,’ Paniatowski stated flatly. ‘He thinks that if we don’t have an investigation, Father O’Brien will take his story to the newspapers – and they’ll have a field day with it.’
    â€˜Criminal Complaints will never agree to reopen the case,’ Beresford said. ‘There’s simply not enough evidence to justify a fresh inquiry.’
    â€˜You’re right,’ Paniatowski agreed. ‘There’s not enough evidence for an official inquiry – that’s why it will have to be an unofficial one.’
    â€˜And who’ll be leading it?’
    â€˜Who do you think?’
    â€˜You?’ Beresford exploded. ‘He wants you to lead it?’
    â€˜As our dear chief constable was at pains to point out, I’ve got a lot of leave due to me, and it’s about time I took some of it.’
    â€˜Is he ordering you to lead it?’
    â€˜No, he’s merely offered it to me if I want it.’
    â€˜Turn it down, Monika,’ Beresford pleaded.
    â€˜Now why should I do that?’ Paniatowski asked, with deceptive mildness.
    â€˜Because you’re too close to it – too close to Charlie Woodend.’
    â€˜It’s because I’m close to Charlie that George Baxter wants me involved,’