Swansong (The DI Nick Dixon Crime Series Book 4) Read online

Ben smiled.

  ‘Tell me about Isobel,’ said Dixon.

  ‘She was beautiful. Funny. Perfect. I loved her.’

  ‘Did she feel the same about you?’

  ‘No. She wanted to be friends. And that was enough for me, you know. Just good friends.’ Ben shook his head. ‘It was better than nothing.’ Tears began rolling down his cheeks.

  ‘Who’d she hang around with?’

  ‘Emily and Susannah, mainly. And me.’

  ‘You’ll get through this,’ continued Dixon. ‘Just don’t do something you’ll regret for the rest of your life. All right?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘One day at a time and it will get easier.’

  Ben nodded.

  ‘And you know where I am if you need to talk.’

  ‘Yes, Sir.’

  ‘Now, hop it.’

  Ben left the chapel and closed the door behind him. Dixon waited until he had gone before picking up the foil and the bag of white powder and putting them in his pocket. Then he went back up to the gallery and collected another bag of powder and two full bottles of cheap vodka.

  Dixon unwrapped the foil to reveal about an eighth of an ounce of marijuana resin. Twenty quid’s worth. It would be interesting to know where they had bought it. Then he threw it into the bushes outside the chapel. Next he poured the vodka down the sink and flushed the powder down the toilet. It was another line crossed for Dixon, but it was worth it if it kept Ben Masterson out of trouble.

  By 10 p.m. Dixon was standing in the main entrance to the school. At the same time exactly two weeks before, Isobel Swan had last been seen alive by Emily Setter and Susannah Bower, and he wanted a clear understanding of just how busy the school would have been at that time of night on a Saturday.

  A few boys came and went from the computer room. Dixon opened the door and looked in. All but two of the seats were empty.

  ‘Where is everybody?’

  Two boys sitting in front of one computer both turned to look at Dixon.

  ‘Don’t know, Sir,’ said one.

  Dixon closed the door behind him. Most of the younger boys would be in bed and, thinking about it, where would he have been on a Saturday night? In town with Fran. Most of the pupils would have their own computers too, of course. Laptops and iPads. Dixon rolled his eyes. He suddenly felt old.

  A group of smaller boys ran along the corridor from Dixon’s left and up a flight of stairs. Late for bed, no doubt. Apart from that, it was much quieter than he had expected and certainly quieter than the night before. You could hear a pin drop, let alone a girl scream.

  Dixon followed Isobel’s route back to Gardenhurst again. He turned left at the end of the corridor, out through the double doors and around to the front of the Underwood Building. Most of the ground floor lights were off except for those in the corridor and there was no sound coming from the Bishop Sutton Hall opposite either. He followed the path around to the sixth form bar and peered in through the window. He could hear music and see students enjoying a drink, some sitting at a table with the headmaster. Dixon counted thirty-two in all. He checked the opening hours on the door. It closed at 10.30 p.m. on a Saturday, after which all of them would come piling out into the cold.

  Dixon walked back to the main entrance and sat on the window seat in the foyer. He had underestimated just how quiet the school would be and had forgotten how quiet St Dunstan’s was on a Saturday night too. There would have been plenty of opportunity for someone to intercept Isobel and, if done carefully, very little chance of being seen.

  Dixon stood at the bottom of one of the flights of stairs leading up to the accommodation and typed out a text message to Jane.

  Missing you too. Need a floor plan of the main school asap x

  Then he walked along the corridor back to his rooms. He listened to the sound of his heels clicking on the tiled floor. At the bottom of the stairs opposite the library, he turned and looked back down the full length of the corridor. It occurred to him that in the last twenty minutes while he had been sitting on the window seat, not a soul had walked past. Not one.

  Chapter Six

  Dixon was shaving when there was a loud bang on the door of the flat. It was just before 7 a.m. and breakfast wasn’t due to start for another hour.

  ‘Nick?’

  It was Phillips. Dixon opened the door, his face still covered in shaving foam.

  ‘Can I come in?’ Phillips didn’t wait for the answer and stepped forward. Dixon closed the door behind him. Phillips was sweating profusely and out of breath.

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘There’s another body.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Behind the sports hall.’

  ‘Who is it, do we know?’

  ‘One of the porters.’

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘The headmaster didn’t say.’

  ‘How . . . ?’

  ‘He didn’t say that either.’

  ‘Have the police been called?’

  ‘They’re on the way now. The head’s ringing around putting the houses on lockdown.’

  ‘Give me a second.’

  Dixon wiped the shaving foam off his face with his towel and then put on his shirt and tie.

  ‘Our job is to find any stragglers,’ continued Phillips. ‘Some may be in the pool and a few go running. I need you to sit in the dining room and send back any who turn up for breakfast. Sports hall first, though, and check the pool.’

  ‘What about breakfast?’

  ‘It’ll be sent over to the houses.’

  Dixon picked up his jacket and followed Phillips down to the sports hall. Once outside, they cut across the grass, which appeared white in the lights from the Underwood Building. The crunching sound beneath his feet told Dixon it was frost rather than a trick of the light. He could just about make out the first light of dawn on the horizon and a small group of people standing on the corner of the hall, looking along the back.

  ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘The head porter and the catering manager, Mrs Weston,’ replied Phillips.

  Dixon looked across to the car park in front of Gardenhurst. Only two patrol cars were there so far but he could hear sirens in the distance. No doubt some disgruntled CID officers, including Jane, were getting the call right now.

  The sports hall was empty apart from two boys playing squash who were sent back to their house by Phillips. The swimming pool was still locked and the changing rooms empty. Phillips’ mobile phone rang as they walked back out into the cold morning air.

  ‘Phillips . . . yes . . . yes, Sir. Leave it with me.’

  Phillips rang off and turned to Dixon.

  ‘We’ve got two missing from Markham. Their housemaster thinks they’ve probably gone for a run. And two scrotums from Reynell who’ll be up to no good, I expect.’

  ‘Who . . . ?’

  ‘Gittens and Lloyd. Probably lying drunk somewhere, if they haven’t frozen to death.’

  ‘What about the old chapel?’ asked Dixon.

  ‘Good thinking. I’ll try there. You head back to the dining room. Anyone turns up for breakfast, just send them back where they came from.’

  ‘OK.’

  Dixon waited until Phillips had gone through the gate in the wall to the old convent and then walked along the side of the sports hall to the back corner. He arrived just as the head porter and Mrs Weston were being moved away by a uniformed police constable. Dixon thought it best not to pull rank and risk his cover. Besides, he had left his warrant card at home. He managed to get a glimpse along the back wall of the hall before he too was moved along, but it was enough to confirm what he had suspected.

  Derek Phelps was sitting up against the back wall of the sports hall, although slumped forwards. It was impossible to know whether he had been left in that position or whether
he had managed to crawl there under his own steam. Dixon would need to wait for Roger’s report before he would know the answer to that question. The glimpse had been enough to answer Dixon’s main question, though. Both Phelps, and the congealed blood on the back of his head, were covered in frost.

  By 8.30 a.m. Dixon had sent five pupils back to their houses. Three swore blind that nobody had told them and the other two said that they had been in the shower. Dixon felt a little bit guilty sending them away with empty stomachs while sitting there tucking into a bowl of Weetabix, but he reminded himself that he was diabetic and had to eat on medical grounds. He just wished he could get ‘Norwegian Wood’ out of his head. A pleasant tune under different circumstances, perhaps, but today it felt unusually sombre.

  He put his empty bowl on the side in the far corner of the dining room and looked up to see Gittens and Lloyd standing in the doorway. They turned to run away.

  ‘Oi.’

  They stopped and turned to Dixon when they realised he had seen them.

  ‘Where the hell have you been?’

  Neither of them looked as if they had been to bed. Their eyes were bloodshot and their pupils dilated.

  ‘Never mind,’ said Dixon. ‘The whole school’s gated so get back to your house straight away.’

  ‘Gated?’

  ‘Yes. Everyone’s out looking for you so get back there now.’

  ‘Are we . . . ?’

  ‘It’s not about you, no. But it will be if you don’t get back.’

  Dixon handed them his apple and banana.

  ‘Well, don’t just stand there, get going.’

  ‘Yes, Sir.’

  ‘Thank you, Sir.’

  It was past 9.15 a.m. and Dixon thought it unlikely that any more pupils would turn up now. Noises from the kitchen and the smell of toast told him that breakfast was being prepared to be taken out to the various houses, and he watched two porters push trolleys past the door of the dining room. They were accompanied by a police constable. A second officer saw Dixon sitting in the dining room and walked over to him.

  ‘May I ask who you are, please, Sir?’

  ‘I’m a trainee teacher here on two weeks’ work experience, officer. I’ve been asked to sit here and send anyone who turns up for breakfast back to their house.’

  ‘Mr Dickson, is it?’

  ‘Yes. I’ve got a letter . . .’ replied Dixon, fumbling in his inside jacket pocket.

  ‘There’s no need for that, Sir.’

  The officer winked at Dixon and then handed him a note.

  ‘I’ll leave you to it, Sir.’

  Dixon looked at the note.

  ‘Your phone’s off. Can you get over to the sports hall? J’

  He checked his phone, which was still on silent mode, and switched alerts back on. He had missed five calls and three text messages. All of them from Jane and all asking if he could get over to the sports hall. He tapped out a reply to the last message.

  On way. What’s up?

  The reply came in seconds.

  Chard’s made an arrest Jx

  Dixon resisted the temptation to race straight over to the sports hall. First he checked the chapel, which was empty, the message having clearly got through to the chaplain that Holy Communion was cancelled for the day. Next he checked the library and then the masters’ common room. Both were deserted. Then he walked back down to the dining room, out of the side door and along the path that formed the boundary of the cricket pitch. This would take him straight around the end of the Underwood Building and across to the sports hall whilst at the same time reducing the chances that he would bump into anyone on the way.

  He stopped at the end of the Underwood Building, stood on the steps leading up to the biology labs and looked across to the end of the sports hall. He could see DI Baldwin and Jane standing outside a Scientific Services tent talking to Roger Poland. Camera flashes were going off inside the tent despite the spot lamps.

  Dixon looked up. Students were peering out of every window along that side of the Underwood Building overlooking the scene. Bored, no doubt. Or maybe they would grow up to slow down and gawp at car accidents.

  Dixon sent Jane a text message.

  Behind you x

  He watched her take her phone out of her pocket, look at it and then look over her shoulder. She spoke to DI Baldwin and then walked over to him.

  ‘You look cold,’ said Dixon.

  ‘Freezing,’ replied Jane, her teeth chattering.

  ‘C’mon, let’s go and get a cup of tea.’

  They walked back along the path to the dining room, in the side entrance and then turned left along the corridor to the masters’ common room.

  ‘What’re you doing out and about, then? I thought the school was on lockdown?’

  ‘I’m a teacher, don’t forget,’ replied Dixon.

  Jane smiled.

  ‘The dead man was at St Dunstan’s . . .’ she said.

  ‘I know. Derek Phelps, the KP. Did you find out what happened to Clive?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Who’s Chard arrested?’

  ‘Keith Foster, maths teacher. D’you know him?’

  ‘I’ve met him.’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Not a chance,’ replied Dixon. He put the kettle on and rinsed two mugs under the tap. ‘He wasn’t at St Dunstan’s, was he?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why the arrest, then?’

  ‘Written in the mud next to the body are the letters “K” and “F”. Chard thinks Phelps was blackmailing Foster and he killed him.’

  ‘Investigation by numbers . . .’ Dixon’s voice tailed off. He handed Jane a mug of tea. ‘What does Roger say?’

  ‘Hit over the head, several times, and left for dead. He’s not sure yet if the head injury got him or the cold, but he’ll let us know.’

  ‘Where was he killed?’

  ‘At the scene.’

  ‘That means he knew his killer, surely? To follow him to the back of the sports hall.’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘Must’ve been late last night. Phelps was covered in ice when I saw him this morning.’

  ‘What time was that?’ asked Jane. She was sitting in an armchair holding her mug of tea in both hands.

  ‘Sevenish.’

  ‘I’ll let Roger know.’

  ‘Well, it narrows it down a bit, doesn’t it? Haskill, Rowena Weatherly and the headmaster are the only ones left who were at St Dunstan’s.’

  ‘I’ve still got to check Isobel’s father and the supply teacher, Griffiths.’

  ‘Check their alibis for last night too.’

  ‘Will do,’ replied Jane.

  Dixon turned to look out of the window and sighed. ‘Keith Foster. It just doesn’t work.’

  Jane nodded.

  ‘Where is he now?’ asked Dixon.

  ‘At the station. Chard’s interviewing him this morning.’

  Dixon was stirring his tea. He was looking at the mug but his mind was elsewhere. And Jane knew better than to interrupt his train of thought. Unless she had to, of course.

  ‘You’re gonna spill your . . .’ Jane rolled her eyes.

  Dixon spilt his tea on his leg but didn’t flinch. He put down his mug and took out his iPhone, holding it horizontally. Jane guessed he was searching for something online.

  ‘There’s a restaurant in town that stays open until 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Always used to and still does, according to this. Go in and look at their CCTV footage and get me stills of every customer in there between, say, 11 p.m. and closing time. Get it for the night of Isobel’s murder too.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Let’s just say I’m clutching at straws.’

  Jane frowned at him. ‘Can I tell Chard?’

 
‘If you have to.’

  ‘What’re you looking for?’

  ‘Some things never change, do they?’

  ‘What things?’

  ‘Every generation thinks they’re the first to do it when the reality is it’s been going on for years.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Every Saturday night at midnight we’d tie a rope to the radiator and abseil out the window. Then someone’d let us in through the fire escape when we got back.’ Dixon smiled. ‘I remember one time my housemaster walked right under me. I only just pulled the rope up in time.’

  ‘Why not just go out through the fire escape?’ asked Jane.

  ‘Not nearly as much fun.’

  ‘You needed to get out more.’

  ‘Less, actually, if you think about it,’ replied Dixon.

  ‘Where were you going?’

  ‘Get a takeaway.’

  ‘Chinese?’

  ‘Kentucky Fried.’

  ‘Ah, there you are,’ said Phillips, climbing the steps opposite the masters’ common room, just as Dixon came out of the library. ‘Everyone’s been accounted for, thank God.’

  ‘What about those on weekend exeat?’ asked Dixon.

  ‘The parents are being contacted now and told to keep their little darlings at home until further notice. All Sunday leave is cancelled. Housemaster’s job, that one.’

  ‘So, what happens now?’

  ‘We wait for the police. Last time they were here a couple of days. The head’s called a staff meeting for first thing tomorrow morning. I expect we’ll end up circulating coursework on the intranet like we did last time. Keeps everybody busy.’

  ‘And what do we do?’

  ‘We’ve done our bit for the day. I suppose we might get a call if someone slinks off but that’s about it. Police may want to speak to us too. Fancy a cup of tea?’

  ‘No, thanks,’ replied Dixon. ‘The headmaster’s asked to see me.’ It was a lie but it was the best he could think of on the spot.

  ‘Not in the best of moods today, the old man. Be careful.’

  ‘I will, thanks.’

  Dixon waited until Phillips had gone into the masters’ common room and then went up to his rooms. Once inside he rang Roger Poland.