Tainted Ground by Margaret Duffy Page A

bucket!’ I said, or rather, hooted.
    Patrick said, ‘No, a van or pickup must have been involved as well. Plus a couple more blokes, of course.’
    I was finding this all too fantastic. ‘But that must have made the whole exercise even more expensive. Just to get even with Brian Stonelake? It doesn’t make sense.’
    â€˜And where is poor old Barney?’ Carrick said.
    â€˜Perhaps something valuable had been hidden in with the corpse,’ I suggested.
    â€˜Your loot theory,’ Carrick said dubiously. ‘Well, it has to be borne in mind for, as you say, digging up the churchyard wasn’t cheap. Unless someone
really
hates Stonelake.’
    â€˜Have you had any unidentified human remains found in the area?’ I asked. ‘I mean, there’s always the thought that Barney was never buried at all.’
    â€˜Ingrid, that would mean that undertakers were in on the scam and Uncle Tom Cobley and all,’ the DCI retorted, his Scottish accent more pronounced than usual.
    To Patrick, I said, ‘I’ve been thinking and have a proposal to make. You and I have worked together for several years now and I think we make a good team. I think I’ve something to contribute now and if you’ll have me I intend to apply to join the scheme. They may not want me and of course I’ll have to go through the selection process but—’ I broke off because Patrick was smiling at me.
    â€˜Brinkley asked me if you’d be interested,’ he said. ‘Even if it was only on a consultancy basis. In other words if I ran out of ideas I’d get on the blower to the oracle.’
    I found myself under Carrick’s frosty blue gaze.
    â€˜Before we discuss this further I have to tell you that I had a complaint,’ he said. ‘From a Mr William Brandon, who lives at the mill. Remember him?’
    â€˜Of course,’ I replied.
    â€˜He told me that a woman who had been described to him as Patrick’s training adviser made offensive remarks to him during an interview at his home. Is that correct?’
    â€˜No, what I said to him wasn’t offensive and it wasn’t during the interview. I told him to fix his sick wife some lunch.’
    â€˜Is that all?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜You took a dislike to this man?’
    â€˜He’s like something you haul out of a long-blocked drain.’
    â€˜Ingrid, you can’t behave like that, however you feel. I had to apologize and I think you ought to go round there and do the same. If you’re going to be involved with law enforcement you must learn that there are rules of behaviour.’
    â€˜I understand,’ I said.
    Carrick turned his attention to Patrick. ‘And you’re still behaving as though you’re working for MI5. Ingrid isn’t your training adviser. You simply can’t lie and con your way through this job. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times – it’s more
accountable
than what you’re used to.’
    Quietly, Patrick said, ‘Ingrid
is
my training adviser and since we got back together again after being divorced for a while some years ago – she slung me out because I was turning, no, had turned, into a supercilious prig – she’s the only reason I’ve recovered and become a half-decent person after being blown up in the Falklands. One of her bad faults though is that she gets very shirty if she thinks anyone or anything is being neglected, in this case, Mrs Brandon. I wasn’t present when the remarks were made but I’ll try to keep her under control in future.’ Into the silence which followed this he said, ‘Does this mean you’re against what Ingrid is suggesting?’
    Predictably, Carrick now looked embarrassed. ‘No, not at all,’ he said. ‘OK. It’s actually a good idea and I’m happy to have her along on condition that you both bear in mind what I’ve