Abattoir Blues: The 22nd DCI Banks Mystery (Inspector Banks 22) Read online

  About the author

  Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and now divides his time

  between Richmond and Canada. Abattoir Blues is the twenty-second

  book in the bestselling DCI Banks series. He has also written two

  collections of short stories, and three standalone novels, the most

  recent of which is number one bestseller Before the Poison. The

  critically acclaimed crime novels have won numerous awards in

  Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in

  translation all over the world.

  Visit Peter’s website at www.inspectorbanks.com.

  Also by Peter Robinson

  Caedmon’s Song

  No Cure for Love

  Before the Poison

  INSPECTOR BANKS NOVELS

  Gallows View

  A Dedicated Man

  A Necessary End

  The Hanging Valley

  Past Reason Hated

  Wednesday’s Child

  Dry Bones that Dream

  Innocent Graves

  Dead Right

  In a Dry Season

  Cold is the Grave

  Aftermath

  The Summer that Never Was

  Playing with Fire

  Strange Affair

  Piece of My Heart

  Friend of the Devil

  All the Colours of Darkness

  Bad Boy

  Watching the Dark

  Children of the Revolution

  SHORT STORIES

  Not Safe After Dark

  The Price of Love

  Abattoir Blues

  Peter Robinson

  www.hodder.co.uk

  First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton

  An Hachette UK company

  Copyright © Eastvale Enterprises Inc. 2014

  The right of Peter Robinson to be identified as the Author of the

  Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,

  Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

  stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

  means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be

  otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that

  in which it is published and without a similar condition being

  imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any

  resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 848 94907 2

  Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

  338 Euston Road

  London NW1 3BH

  www.hodder.co.uk

  For Sheila

  ‘But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.’

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Copper Beeches’,

  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Terry Gilchrist came out of the woods opposite the large hangar, which loomed ahead of him like a storage area for crashed alien spaceships in New Mexico. Only he wasn’t in New Mexico; he was in North Yorkshire.

  It stood at the centre of a large area of cracked and weed-covered concrete, its perimeter surrounded by a seven-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. A large sign on the padlocked double gates read private – keep out. About a quarter of a mile beyond the hangar, a passenger train sped by on the East Coast line, heading for King’s Cross.

  As he usually did at this point on the walk, Gilchrist let Peaches off her leash. The space was open far enough that he could easily keep an eye on her, and she always came back when he whistled or called her name.

  Peaches sniffed around the edges of the fence, and before long she had found a way in, probably the same hole the kids used when they went there to play cricket or smoke joints and try to feel up the local girls. This time, instead of continuing to sniff around the concrete and weeds, Peaches headed for the dark opening of the hangar and disappeared inside.

  While he waited for her to finish her business, Gilchrist leaned his stick against a tree, stretched his arms out to prop himself up against the trunk and started doing a series of simple leg exercises the army medics had given him. They were already pleased with his progress: out walking, albeit with a stick, after only four months, when they had at first thought the leg was as good as gone. But Gilchrist wanted rid of the stick now, and the only way to do that was to build up the damaged muscle tissue little by little. His leg might never look the same, but he was determined that it would function as well as it ever had.

  When he had done, Peaches had still not reappeared, so he whistled and called her name. All he got in reply was a bark followed by a whine. He called again, adding a bit more authority to his tone, and the whining went on for longer, but Peaches didn’t reappear. She wasn’t coming back. What the hell was wrong with her?

  Irritated, Gilchrist grasped his stick again and made his way along the side of the fence, searching for the gap Peaches had found. When he saw it, his heart sank. He could get in, of that he was certain, but it would be a difficult and painful business. And messy. He called again. Peaches continued barking and whining, as if she were calling him.

  To get through the hole, Gilchrist had to lie flat on the wet ground and edge slowly forward, sticking his arms through first and pushing back against the fencing to propel himself along. There was an immediate familiarity in lying on his belly that flooded his mind with fear, more a cellular or muscular memory than anything else, and he almost froze. Then he heard Peaches barking through the haze and carried on. Standing up was another awkward manoeuvre, as he could hardly bend his leg without causing extreme pain, but he made it, hanging on the links of the fence and using them as climbing grips. Finally, he stood panting and leaned back against the fence, clothes damp and muddy, then he grabbed his stick and made his way towards the hangar.

  It was dim inside, but enough light came through the large opening to make it possible to see once his eyes had adjusted. Peaches was standing near the wall about thirty yards to his right; she was barking and her tail was wagging. Gilchrist made his way over, wondering what on earth was making her behave in such a wilful and excited manner. Irritation slowly gave way to curiosity.

  The floor of the hangar was concreted over like the surrounding area, and it was just as cracked in places, weeds growing through despite the lack of light. He could hear rain tapping on the steel roofing and the wind moaning around the high dark spaces. He felt himself give an involuntary shudder as he approached Peaches.

  Even in the dim light, it was easy to see that she was sniffing around a dark patch on the concrete, but it took the light from Gilchrist’s mobile p
hone to see that what interested her was a large bloodstain dotted with chips of bone and chunks of grey matter. Immediately, an image of blood on the sand flashed into his mind and he felt the panic rise like the bile in his throat.

  Get a grip, he told himself, then he took several deep breaths and bent to peer more closely in the light of the mobile. He didn’t have Peaches’ acute sense of smell, but close up he picked up that rank and coppery smell of blood. It was a smell he remembered well.

  The thought came into his mind unbidden: someone has died here.

  ‘A bloody stolen tractor,’ complained Annie Cabbot. ‘Would you merit it? I ask you, Doug. Is this why I put in all those years to make DI? Risked life and limb? Is this Homicide and Major Crimes? A stolen tractor? Is that why I was put on this earth?’

  ‘It’s rural crime,’ said DC Dougal Wilson, taking his eyes from the road for a moment to flash Annie a quick grin. ‘And rural crime is major crime. At least according to the new police commissioner.’

  ‘Christ, anyone would think it was election time again already.’

  ‘Well,’ said Wilson, ‘it’s not as if it’s the first piece of farm equipment gone missing over the past while, not to mention the occasional cow and sheep. And it is an expensive tractor.’

  ‘Even so . . . Is this farmer we’re going to see a personal friend of the commissioner’s?’

  ‘No, but I do believe his wife is a friend of Area Commander Gervaise. Book club, or something.’

  ‘Hmm. Didn’t know Madame Gervaise was a reader. Hidden depths. She and Alan must have a lot in common. And where is DCI Banks when you need him? I’ll tell you where. He’s off in Cumbria for a dirty weekend with his girlfriend, that’s where he is.’

  ‘I think you’ll find it’s Umbria, guv,’ muttered Wilson.

  ‘Umbria? That’s even worse. It’ll be sunny there.’ Annie paused as Wilson negotiated a narrow humped stone bridge. Annie had always been nervous about such bridges. There was no way you could see whether someone was coming from the other side. The best you could do was close your eyes and put your foot down. She closed her eyes. Wilson put his foot down. They made it. ‘What is it about these Italians?’ she went on. ‘First it was Joanna Passero, the one he went to Estonia with.’

  ‘She’s not Italian. She’s Scottish. Now she’s got divorced, she’s gone back to her maiden name. She’s just plain old Joanna MacDonald.’ Wilson blushed. ‘Well, not exactly plain, perhaps, but you know what I mean. Works at County HQ in Criminal Intelligence. Quite the rising star.’

  ‘I’ve always thought there was something criminal about the intelligence at County HQ,’ said Annie. She shot Wilson a suspicious glance. ‘Anyway, how do you know all this?’

  Wilson pushed his glasses up on his nose. ‘One of the perks of being a lowly DC. Privilege of low rank. You get to hear all the good gossip.’

  Annie smiled. ‘I remember. Vaguely. Still, a bloody stolen tractor. I ask you.’ She squinted at a road sign between the fast-beating windscreen wipers. ‘I think we’re here, Doug. The Beddoes’ farm. Here’s the track.’

  ‘I know. I can see it.’ Wilson turned so sharply that the car almost skidded into the ditch. The ground was sodden and the mud churned to the consistency of porridge. They hung on as the car bounced and squelched down the quarter mile of rough track that led to the farm itself, giving its shock absorbers a workout they probably didn’t need. At least it was a car from the police motor pool, Annie thought, not her new red Astra.

  Wilson pulled into the farmyard, where the mud wasn’t any more welcoming, and parked beside a silver BMW. Beyond that stood a new-looking Range Rover. The layout was that of a typical courtyard farmstead: a two-storey farmhouse, built of limestone with a flagstone roof, surrounded by farm buildings, including a barn, also of limestone with big wooden doors with flaking green paint, what looked like a garage built of corrugated steel, a pigsty, whose natives sounded happy to be rolling about in mud and worse, and a chicken coop so fortified that the local foxes had probably all slunk off with their tails between their legs.

  The usual farm smells assailed Annie’s nostrils when she got out of the car. No doubt the pigs contributed a great deal to it, she thought. And to the mud. You never knew what you were squelching through when you walked across a farmyard. The rolling fields of rapeseed, which would blossom a glorious bright yellow in May, now looked brooding and threatening under a louring gunmetal sky. Very Wuthering Heights, Annie thought, though she knew that was miles away. Dark clouds lumbered overhead, unleashing shower after shower of rain, some heavy, some more like drizzle, and the wind whistled in the emptiness.

  Annie had come prepared for a cold wet day in the country – it was only late March, after all – her jeans tucked into a pair of red wellies, flower-patterned plastic rain hat, woolly jumper under a waterproof jacket. Doug Wilson looked a little more professional in his Marks and Sparks suit, trilby and tan raincoat with epaulettes and belt. In fact, Annie thought, he looked a bit like a private detective from a fifties movie, except for the glasses. And when he took his hat off, he still looked like Daniel Radcliffe playing Harry Potter.

  There was an arched porch over the entrance, where they removed their outer clothing. When Annie took off the rain hat, her chestnut hair tumbled around her shoulders. The blonde was all gone now; she had let her hair grow out and return to its natural colour. She could certainly testify that she had not had more fun as a blonde.

  A tall, wiry man in his mid-fifties, with a fine head of grey hair and a light tan, answered the door. He was wearing jeans and a red V-neck sweater over a pale blue shirt. Despite the casual clothing, Annie thought he looked more like a business executive than a farmer. There was an aura of wealth and power about him that she had never associated with farmers before. ‘You must be the police,’ he said, before they could pull out their warrant cards. He held the door open and stood aside. ‘Are your coats wet? If so, please don’t hesitate to bring them indoors. We’ll soon dry them out.’

  ‘They’ll be fine,’ Annie said, rubbing her hands together, then reaching for her warrant card. ‘DI Cabbot and DC Wilson.’

  ‘I’m John Beddoes. Please, come in.’

  Most farms Annie had visited – admittedly not very many – smelled of mouth-watering baking, of pastry, marzipan, cinnamon and cloves, but Beddoes’ place smelled of nothing but lemon-scented air-freshener.

  ‘I know you probably think this is a huge waste of your time,’ said Beddoes. ‘Not to mention a waste of police resources, but it’s not the first such crime we’ve had around here this past year or so.’

  ‘We’re aware of that, sir,’ said Annie. ‘That’s why we’re here.’

  Beddoes led them through to a cosy sitting room. First he bade them sit down on a three-piece suite that definitely hadn’t come from DFS, then he called to his wife. ‘Pat? The police are here, love.’

  Patricia Beddoes walked in. Wearing figure-hugging designer jeans, trainers and an orange T-shirt, she was an attractive, elegant woman, with expensively coiffed dark hair, a good ten years or more younger than her husband. Even though she had been on holiday in the sun, her tan looked fake, from a can, like the kind that the young women all showed off on Coronation Street. She still looked a little chilly and severe to Annie, too many sharp angles, but her welcoming smile was genuine enough, her handshake firm, and she immediately offered them tea. Annie and Wilson said yes. Neither had eaten breakfast yet. Outside, the rain poured down and the wind blew it hard against the windowpanes and on the parked cars and tin garage. It sounded like someone chucking handfuls of gravel.

  ‘Miserable weather, isn’t it?’ said John Beddoes. ‘And they say there’s more to come.’

  Everyone was saying it had been the wettest March since records began, and Annie wasn’t about to argue with that. Apart from a few days earlier in the month, it hadn’t been all that warm, either. There was even snow forecast. And all this coming on the heels of a miserable winter, a particularl
y tough one for farmers, who had lost so many sheep in snowdrifts out on the moors. ‘I understand you were away on holiday?’ she said.

  ‘Yes. Mexico. You might think it an odd time for us to go away – if there ever is a good time for a farmer – but we don’t have any sheep or cattle, you see, so we have no need to worry about lambing or calving.’ He nodded towards the kitchen. ‘And Patricia needed a break.’

  ‘Very nice.’ Annie didn’t think most farmers could afford to go to Mexico, not given the way they always seemed to be complaining about low prices of dairy produce, prohibitive EU tariffs and whatnot, but then with all the cheap flights and bargain all-inclusive holidays, it probably wasn’t all that expensive these days. Not that Annie fancied the idea: a bunch of yobs in leopard-print swimming trunks, slathered in coconut sunblock and pissed on weak beer had about as much appeal for her as a wet Sunday in Wales, or Yorkshire, for that matter. ‘I understand you only just got back,’ she said.

  ‘Late last night. About half past eleven. We were supposed to arrive early in the morning, but the flight to New York was delayed and we missed our connection. Well . . . you know what it’s like. Stuck in the airport lounge all day.’

  Annie had no idea, never having been in an airport lounge. ‘So that was when you found out?’

  ‘Yes. I noticed that the garage had been broken into right away and telephoned the police. I must say you lot are quick off the mark. Much quicker than you used to be. That uniformed chappie who came around last night seemed very sympathetic, too.’

  ‘PC Valentine?’ said Annie. ‘Yes, sir, he’s a very sensitive young man.’

  ‘So what’s being done?’ Beddoes asked.

  ‘We’ve got a description of the tractor out, sir – a green Deutz-Fahr Agrotron, if I’m not mistaken – and we’ve got people looking for it, keeping an eye open at ports and so on. We’ve been in touch with Customs & Excise. They have the details, description, number plate, engine serial number. Of course, the criminals will most likely have altered those by now, but sometimes they’re lazy, or they slip up. It’s our experience that most stolen farm equipment is shipped out of the country pretty sharpish.’