Read Online Borrowed Light by Graham Hurley - Free Book Online
Authors: Graham Hurley
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briskness that surprised him, he summarised developments to date. As everyone pretty much knew, four bodies had been
recovered from a major fire. One male, three females. All four bodies had gunshot wounds and the post-mortem confirmed that
they’d all been dead before the fire started. Dental records would confirm all four IDs but in the meantime
Gosling
was working on the assumption that the bodies belonged to Johnny Holman, his partner Julie Crocker, and her two daughters,
Kim and Jess.
Timeline? He turned to Jimmy Suttle.
‘The fire was phoned in at 03.25 on Sunday morning. We’re talking quite a remote rural area and this couple lived in a bungalow
half a mile downwind. The old guy smelled smoke and got up to check. He could see flames coming from the farmhouse roof and
knew the place was thatched.’
Appliances, he said, arrived within half an hour, by which time the property was well alight. There were two vehicles in the
farmyard. On the assumption that there were people inside, the Watch Commander declared ‘Persons Reported’ and radioed for
back-up. An area car was on site by just gone four and the uniformed sergeant at Newport deployed two P/Cs to start hot enquiries
locally. QuickAddress
had confirmed four persons in residence and a Records Management System search in the name of Holman raised a report of a
recent domestic between him and the elder girl. This RMS report included phone numbers: a landline and two mobiles. None of
the numbers answered.
A hand went up. One of the older D/Cs wanted to know more about the domestic. A nod from Faraday told Suttle to explain.
‘I’m having a bit of trouble on this one,’ he said, ‘but it seems that our lot got there after the girl’s boyfriend. If anyone
knows what happened, my guess is that he does. He lives with his mum in Newport. Mum’s away at the moment and we can’t raise
anyone at the house.’
‘Name?’ It was Faraday.
‘Robbie Difford. According to the DVLA, he’s twenty-two.’
Faraday told Suttle to carry on. Local house-to-house, he said, had produced intelligence on Holman’s shotguns, plus some
gossip on the kind of people they seemed to be.
‘And?’ The question came from the Outside Enquiries D/S.
‘Party people, definitely. Lots of music, lots of young kids roaring up and down the lane. There was trouble over off-road
bikes too, though that seems to have gone away. Julie was well-liked. She seems to have made a bit of an effort.’
‘All this aggro. Anything serious?’ Still the Outside Enquiries D/S.
‘Nothing flagged. Nothing that would justify something like this. The way I read it, there are loads of incomers around, mostly
retired. It’s a bit of a lottery, really, who you get as a neighbour. Like I say, Holman was definitely a pain.’
Local CID, he said, had blitzed the enquiry next day. Seized CCTV at local garages and the ferry terminals, automatic number
plate recognition camera checks, plus an ever-widening trawl of local addresses. To date, no one had reported vehicle movements
in the small hours of Sunday morning. Neither was there much regret at what had happened. The latter produced a small ripple
of laughter around the room. One of the three female D/Cs asked about the girls. They’d have mates at school. What was their
take on life at Monkswell Farm?
Suttle said he didn’t think this line of enquiry had yet been actioned. So far the intel operation had concentrated on Johnny
Holman. This was a guy with interesting Pompey connections. He’d never been arrested or convicted for any serious offences,
but his name featured ina number of informant reports. He’d long been mates with some of the bigger figures in the Pompey underworld, and if you
were looking for motive then his address book would be a great place to start. At this point in the inquiry Suttle wasn’t
prepared to tie Holman to anyone in particular, but person or persons unknown would need
recovered from a major fire. One male, three females. All four bodies had gunshot wounds and the post-mortem confirmed that
they’d all been dead before the fire started. Dental records would confirm all four IDs but in the meantime
Gosling
was working on the assumption that the bodies belonged to Johnny Holman, his partner Julie Crocker, and her two daughters,
Kim and Jess.
Timeline? He turned to Jimmy Suttle.
‘The fire was phoned in at 03.25 on Sunday morning. We’re talking quite a remote rural area and this couple lived in a bungalow
half a mile downwind. The old guy smelled smoke and got up to check. He could see flames coming from the farmhouse roof and
knew the place was thatched.’
Appliances, he said, arrived within half an hour, by which time the property was well alight. There were two vehicles in the
farmyard. On the assumption that there were people inside, the Watch Commander declared ‘Persons Reported’ and radioed for
back-up. An area car was on site by just gone four and the uniformed sergeant at Newport deployed two P/Cs to start hot enquiries
locally. QuickAddress
had confirmed four persons in residence and a Records Management System search in the name of Holman raised a report of a
recent domestic between him and the elder girl. This RMS report included phone numbers: a landline and two mobiles. None of
the numbers answered.
A hand went up. One of the older D/Cs wanted to know more about the domestic. A nod from Faraday told Suttle to explain.
‘I’m having a bit of trouble on this one,’ he said, ‘but it seems that our lot got there after the girl’s boyfriend. If anyone
knows what happened, my guess is that he does. He lives with his mum in Newport. Mum’s away at the moment and we can’t raise
anyone at the house.’
‘Name?’ It was Faraday.
‘Robbie Difford. According to the DVLA, he’s twenty-two.’
Faraday told Suttle to carry on. Local house-to-house, he said, had produced intelligence on Holman’s shotguns, plus some
gossip on the kind of people they seemed to be.
‘And?’ The question came from the Outside Enquiries D/S.
‘Party people, definitely. Lots of music, lots of young kids roaring up and down the lane. There was trouble over off-road
bikes too, though that seems to have gone away. Julie was well-liked. She seems to have made a bit of an effort.’
‘All this aggro. Anything serious?’ Still the Outside Enquiries D/S.
‘Nothing flagged. Nothing that would justify something like this. The way I read it, there are loads of incomers around, mostly
retired. It’s a bit of a lottery, really, who you get as a neighbour. Like I say, Holman was definitely a pain.’
Local CID, he said, had blitzed the enquiry next day. Seized CCTV at local garages and the ferry terminals, automatic number
plate recognition camera checks, plus an ever-widening trawl of local addresses. To date, no one had reported vehicle movements
in the small hours of Sunday morning. Neither was there much regret at what had happened. The latter produced a small ripple
of laughter around the room. One of the three female D/Cs asked about the girls. They’d have mates at school. What was their
take on life at Monkswell Farm?
Suttle said he didn’t think this line of enquiry had yet been actioned. So far the intel operation had concentrated on Johnny
Holman. This was a guy with interesting Pompey connections. He’d never been arrested or convicted for any serious offences,
but his name featured ina number of informant reports. He’d long been mates with some of the bigger figures in the Pompey underworld, and if you
were looking for motive then his address book would be a great place to start. At this point in the inquiry Suttle wasn’t
prepared to tie Holman to anyone in particular, but person or persons unknown would need
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