The Wood Beyond

'No. I was knocked right back when about an hour after you left, he called through to say that he'd just been on the phone to Ambler and told her she was fired and would I delete her authority to enter Wanwood.'

'But she has entered,' objected Wield. And was still entering. She had appeared on the screen showing what he thought was Batty's office and now she was unlocking a drawer in his desk.

'Turned up saying she wanted to clear her personal things out. Didn't want the embarrassment of coming back when everyone was in. So I gave her an escort and sent her through.'

He glanced round again, just missing the woman's exit from the office after removing an envelope from the drawer and putting it into her holdall.

'Do you think she reckoned that if Batty and his wife ever split up, the doctor would take up with her permanent?' asked Wield.

'Could be. Hey, you don't think she were the one bubbled Batty to his missus?' The idea seemed to delight Patten. 'If that's right then it must have been a real sickener when, far from getting the man, all she gets is the sack!'

Ambler was now in one of the rooms in which the experimental animals were kept. She left the door wide open, pushed open all the windows, then started unlocking the cages.

'So how did you find out about the split-up?' asked Wield who could see where his duty lay but recalled the warnings in a recent policy communiqué about the dangers of overofficiousness. Think before you act, had been the advice. So now he was thinking.

'Rang the captain, to tell him what was happening and he gave me the sp. He's a bit of a lad himself, and it did cross my mind that maybe he was giving Mrs Batty one and had let it out that the doc was playing away too.'

'Why would he do that? I mean, after all, your setup here depends on Dr Batty's goodwill, doesn't it?'

'Business arrangements all signed and sealed,' grinned Patten. 'And goodwill goes out of the window when a good fuck comes through the door, eh, sergeant?'

Jane Ambler had come through another door and was repeating her liberation tactics.

Reluctantly Wield resisted the temptation to debate Patten's interesting proposition. Thinking time was over and he had to speak before Patten noticed for himself.

He said, 'RSPCA would be glad to see how well you exercise your animals.'

'Eh?' Patten spun round. 'Jesus! Why the hell didn't you say something sooner?'

He hammered a button which set an alarm screaming.

'Thought it might be part of her duties,' said Wield not trying very hard to sound convincing.

'Bollocks! And where the hell's that idiot I sent to keep an eye on her? Come on. We'd best get down there and sort this out.'

'You want me? You think there's been a crime committed?'

But Patten wasn't playing any more games. He rushed past Wield and out of the office.

For a brief moment the sergeant stood and looked at the monitors which showed him a variety of small animals emerging nervously from their cages and sniffing the air of freedom with every sign of doubt.

'Know just how you feel,' said Wield. Then followed.

ii

'Thank you,' said Andy Dalziel into the phone. 'Thank you very much indeed.'

He banged the receiver down and turned his benevolent gaze upon DC Novello who, doubting the evidence of her own eyes, said uneasily, 'Good news, sir?'

'I think so,' he said. But before he could share it, if that were his intention, the door burst open and Pascoe came in.

'I think I've got something, sir,' he said.

'If it's catching, bugger off,' said the Fat Man.

'It's Mrs Howard,' said Pascoe riding the familiar joke with an ease which Novello noted and registered. 'She's dead certain there's something iffy about TecSec. Says that her Jimmy used to drink a lot with Rosso, that's ex-Private Rosthwaite, Sanderson's old batman..'

'Yes, yes, I know who he is. Was,' said Dalziel impatiently. 'Are we getting close to the good stuff or have I missed it already?'

Again Novello noted the lack of reaction to the provocations. Was this the secret of survival?

'She says she used to go on about him, Rosso, I mean, because she reckoned he was such a piss artist, he was leading even Jimmy astray. Then they stopped going out together. She gloated — not her word but that's what she meant — and Jimmy told her to put a sock in it, it wasn't anything she'd said, it was just that it wasn't good policy, not for a man starting out on a new career.'

'Meaning?'

'Perhaps that Rosso, pissed, was telling Jimmy things he didn't want to know. Mrs Howard says that it was clear Rosso really resented the way that Patten had come into the company and got level billing while he was still very much the faithful retainer.'

'Then he ran into a tree,' said Dalziel.

'And Jimmy went very quiet after that.'

'Old friend dies, it knocks you back.'

'He wasn't grieving, not according to his missus. Or if he was, it was Jimmy he grieved for.'

'That it?'

'More or less,' said Pascoe rather sulkily. (So he was vulnerable, thought Novello.) 'Anyway I can see that you've got something far more important and significant to tell me.'

'Don't pout, else you'll have Wieldy sending you valentines. And what you've said fits nicely with what I've just found out. It were Ivor here who put me onto it.'

Pascoe glanced at Novello who gave him the bewildered smile of a United supporter who has strayed into a City pub and been bought a pint.

'Well done,' he said.

'Aye, bloody well done,' said Dalziel. 'You've not been using her proper, Peter. Think on. I'll have no discrimination in my department. Ivor, go and fetch my car round to the front, eh? We'll be down in two shakes of a tart's tail.'

'So what's the startling revelation?' said Pascoe after the woman had gone.

Dalziel was busy dialling a number. He said, 'Shit,' as he got the engaged tone then pressed the repeat redial button.

'We were asking wrong question, lad,' he said. 'It shouldn't have been whether or not Cap meant to attack Patten, but why was Wendy Walker acting as peacekeeper? I mean, she was a real fire-eater that one, and we know her main aim was to get a reputation in the animal protest game as an extremist, ready to go all the way for the cause. Here was the perfect situation. Scratch a few eyes out, smash a few windows, create merry hell till she got arrested and had her day in court. But what does she do? Pours oil on troubled waters. Why?'

'You're going to tell me. Eventually,' said Pascoe.

'Because she clocks Des Patten. It's not a face to forget, is it? And she's seen it before.'

'Oh yes. Where?'

'Wieldy checked Patten out, 'cos he thought he might have been doing something dodgy between vanishing out of Mid-Yorkshire and reappearing as Sanderson's partner. He were disappointed to find that all he'd been doing was working for Task Force Five, the Manchester security company.'

'Yes, I know who they are. So? Oh shit.'

'Aye lad,' said Dalziel reproachfully. 'You did the liaising with Redcar when ALBA had their bit of bother last summer. It's all in your file. Fraser Greenleaf's security was looked after by Task Force Five.'

'But I didn't know that Patten … I mean, TecSec didn't come on the Wanwood scene till after my investigation, did they?'

'No matter, lad,' said Dalziel magnanimously. 'Even Homer has to take a leak. I've just been on the bell to Redcar. They've checked. And yes, Des Patten was on the security staff at Fraser Greenleaf. He had a disagreement about overtime payments and jacked it in about three weeks before the raid where Shufflebottom got killed.'

'And Ellie said that Wendy had been up there on a visit not long before. You think she met him?'

'Saw him in a pub, maybe. Her brother says hello, tells her he's a colleague and because of that scar, the face sticks. And then she sees him again.'