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black to blood red.

    With a burst of energy he sprang to his feet and ran into the kitchen. He rummaged frantically in the drawers where he knew Jenny kept a torch. At last he found it. Torch in hand he pulled on his trainers, grabbed his keys and ran outside to circle the green car, careful to avoid treading in the dark slime again. To begin with, all he could see was the reflection of the torch beam, and the shadow of his staring face behind it. He left it until last to go round to the front of the car and shone the torch through the windscreen. There was definitely someone in the driver’s seat, his head hanging forward so his face was hidden. Keith gazed at the stranger’s grey hair and shivered.

    ‘Hey! You in there!’
    His voice trembled and the torch shook in his hand. The sleeper didn’t stir. Keith tapped on the windscreen, then went around to the side of the car and rapped more forcefully on the window nearest the man’s head. He returned to the front of the car, trying to ignore the obvious. An inert figure, blood red liquid.
    ‘Wake up! Wake up! You in there!’
    Behind him a window was flung open and someone called out.
    ‘Oi! What’s all the racket? Put a sock in it, mate.’
    Keith switched off the torch and ran back home.

    On the point of calling the police Keith paused, phone in hand, wondering if he was overreacting. But there was no getting away from the suspicion that there was a dead body in a car outside his garage. Feeling lightheaded, he opened another beer. He had to call the police.
    ‘Police please. And – can you hurry up. This is serious.’
    In a trembling voice he gave his name and phone number.
    ‘There’s a body, at least I think there is, someone dead, in a car outside my garage. He’s been there all day. He isn’t moving and there’s blood on the ground. It’s dripping out of the car.’
    ‘Blood dripping out of the car.’
    His words repeated by the calm voice at the other end of the line made them sound far-fetched.
    ‘Yes. I trod in it. I thought it was oil –’
    He shook with relief when the operator took his address and told him a patrol car was on its way. As he waited for the police to arrive, he wondered if they would want to know why he hadn’t called them in the morning, when he had first become aware of the Mercedes parked outside his garage. He was asking himself that same question, wondering if the body in the car had still been alive then. If he had acted promptly, he might have saved a man from bleeding to death.

CHAPTER 8
    G eraldine was at her desk when Nick Williams arrived on Tuesday morning.
    ‘Right,’ he said briskly, ‘I don’t know about you but I’ve been thrown straight back in. Hopefully –’
    He broke off as her phone rang. After taking the call Geraldine replaced the receiver with a rueful grin.
    ‘Oh well, that was the duty sergeant. I’m off.’
    She stood up.
    ‘Catch you later,’ he said with a smile.

    The bulky figure of Detective Chief Inspector Reg Milton was standing in the Major Incident Room, waiting for silence. Stuck behind a desk most of the time his athletic frame was beginning to run to fat, but he held himself with the confidence of a physically powerful man. Despite the grey streaks in his hair, he looked like a man in his prime.
    ‘You all know me,’ he began.
    When Geraldine had first met him his clipped upper class accent had come as a surprise.
    ‘A man’s body has been found in a car somewhere just off the Caledonian Road.’
    He read the address aloud and paused briefly, glancing round the room to check that he had everyone’s attention.
    ‘The body was discovered in a vehicle parked outside a row of lock up garages at the back of the houses. It was found by one of the householders, Keith Apsley. We’ll need to question him, and talk to the neighbours, find out if anyone noticed anything unusual. The Assessment Team have confirmed that we’re looking at murder. Scene of crime officers are at work