‘And who started the fire,’ said Cooper. ‘That will be the first step.’
Young looked at him closely. ‘What would be the most likely scenario from your experience?’
‘It would be someone Shane knew, possibly a friend. An escapade that went wrong. Our suspect will already have the death of a friend on his conscience, I’m afraid. He may be injured too. Those two factors will make it easier for us to identify him.’
Young tapped a pen on her desk. ‘Sometimes,’ she said, ‘I think your job must be a lot worse than mine. Dealing with the living is so much more complicated than handling the dead, isn’t it?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ said Cooper. ‘No matter what our skills and experience are, the living still tend to behave in completely unpredictable ways.’
‘That’s so true.’
Cooper had his car keys in his hand, but turned back to look at Chloe Young.
‘When will I see you again?’ he said.
‘Well, Thursday night. We’ve got the tickets for Buxton Opera House, remember? Tosca.’
‘Oh, sure. But not before?’
Young smiled apologetically. ‘Sorry, it’s a bit busy at the moment. People keep bringing me bodies.’
Cooper felt irrationally disappointed.
‘Just one more of life’s unpredictabilities,’ he said.
At West Street, Ben Cooper looked around his team as they came back from their assignments. Dev Sharma was on the phone and Luke Irvine had his head down over his computer. Gavin Murfin was looking for something in his desk drawer. And he couldn’t ask Carol Villiers.
Cooper wandered over and hovered near Becky Hurst’s position. She looked up expectantly.
‘Sir?’
‘Do you listen to opera, Becky?’ asked Cooper.
‘Yes, a bit.’
‘So what is Tosca about?’
‘Oh, the usual,’ said Hurst. ‘Murder, torture, suicide.’
‘Great.’
‘But in a good production it can be done really well. Who are you going to see?’
‘English Touring Opera.’
‘You’ll be fine, then. I’m envious.’
He saw Villiers glance across and wondered what she’d caught of their conversation, and what she knew already.
‘There’s been another armed robbery reported,’ said Dev Sharma when he saw Cooper had returned. ‘This one was at a corner shop and off-licence.’
‘Here in Edendale?’
‘Yes, on Buxton Road. At Singh’s Stores.’
‘I know it,’ said Cooper. ‘Was anyone hurt?’
‘No, but Mrs Singh was a bit shaken up. Two men entered the shop at about ten forty-five this morning and threatened her with a baseball bat and a knife. She gave them all the cash from the till.’
‘Sensible. From what I’ve seen of her husband, Mr Singh might have acted differently. He would probably have tried to resist, or even fought them.’
‘That could have ended badly,’ said Sharma.
The Singhs’ shop was close to where Cooper had lived until a few months ago, just across the other side of Buxton Road from his old flat in Welbeck Street. He’d visited the shop many times and remembered both the Singhs, as well as their daughter, Jatinder, who’d attended Eden Valley High School a couple of years below him. Mr Singh had once beckoned Cooper into the back of the shop and showed him his kirpan, the ceremonial knife that he wore under his clothes. It was only a few inches long, but Cooper had been unsure at the time of its possible illegality as an offensive weapon. Mr Singh had assured him that a kirpan was kept sheathed except when it was withdrawn for an occasion such as a religious ceremonies.
‘It is not a weapon, Mr Cooper. Not even a symbolic weapon, any more than a Christian cross is a symbolic torture instrument. Do you understand?’
Mr Singh had shown him the kirpan because he knew Cooper was a police officer. It made Cooper smile even now when he thought of all those individuals whose arrests he’d been involved in, who’d gone to great trouble to conceal their blades from the police.
‘Gavin has been down to the shop to take Mrs Singh’s statement and make initial inquiries,’ said Sharma. ‘He brought back some CCTV footage.’
‘Excellent. Have we got the suspects on camera?’
‘Very much so. Take a look.’
The CCTV images from the shop were excellent. Good resolution and in colour — and pretty accurate colours by the look of the background. One of the robbers was wearing a blue top and a black baseball cap, with a blue scarf covering his face. The other was dressed in a grey top, blue tracksuit bottoms, and was wearing a motorcycle crash helmet. He had a scarf over his face too. Cooper looked a bit closer. The crash helmet was red and covered with a distinctive pattern of white stripes and black stars.
‘That gives you a reasonable chance of making an identification,’ said Cooper, ‘if you can find some possible suspects.’
‘I’m sending Gavin back out to canvass the neighbouring properties. Initial reports suggest the two men left on a motorbike, possibly a Kawasaki, heading away from town. I’ve asked for CCTV from the cameras at the junction of Buxton Road with High Street, in case they came from that direction.’
‘More likely they came in and went out the same way,’ said Cooper, ‘rather than risking the area where there are most cameras.’
‘I thought it was worth a try.’
‘Of course, Dev.’
Cooper looked at the map of Edendale on the wall of the CID room. What was further up the Buxton Road?
‘The convent,’ he said.
‘I’m sorry, sir?’
‘The convent. Sisters of Our Lady. The nuns are very security conscious. They have a comprehensive CCTV system covering the gates. They might have caught a motorcycle passing with the two suspects.’
Sharma looked doubtful. ‘Who should I send to a convent of nuns?’ he said.
Hurst and Irvine both looked up as if their names had been mentioned.
Cooper smiled. ‘You could go yourself, Dev. Consider it part of your acclimatisation to the local community.’
‘There have been a spate of robberies over the past few weeks,’ said Sharma. ‘Not just in Edendale, but all across North Division. Some have been raids on businesses like the Singhs’ shop, some have been street robberies. They’re all opportunistic offences. They see a chance, and they go for it. They seem to be travelling around the area after dark looking for a target. The only common factor is the use of a motorbike.’
‘A red crash helmet?’ asked Irvine.
‘Not always.’
‘There may be more than two suspects, then. More than one motorbike.’
‘It looks like it. The descriptions from witnesses differ in some details. The height and build of the suspects, the colour of their leathers and helmets. Oh, and there was some variation in the accents they spoke with. Some witnesses say they were local, others couldn’t identify the accent. One victim said in her statement that they had Manchester accents. She’s from the area herself, so she recognised it.’
‘Manchester isn’t the best known of accents, not like Liverpool or Birmingham.’
‘I can’t think what it sounds like at all,’ said Hurst.
‘Think of Oasis,’ said Irvine.
‘The Gallagher brothers?’
‘That’s it.’
‘Oh, did they call people scrotes and muppets?’
‘No,’ said Villiers, ‘but before they left one of them did tell the other it was “sound”.’
‘Which means “okay”.’
‘Right.’
‘I don’t like it,’ said Cooper. ‘If we have two or more pairs of suspects carrying out these attacks, it suggests some level of organisation.’
‘We’ll keep on it,’ said Sharma.