A Cast of Falcons Read Online Free Page B

disappearing along the corridor, it crossed his mind that if Jejeune’s niggling doubts turned out to have any substance, one prince might be all he would need.

5
    D etective Constable Tony Holland peered out of the window of the incident room at two young community service workers stealing a smoke break.
    â€œMug’s game,” he announced, shaking his head sadly. “You’ve only got one set of lungs. You need to look after them.”
    Maik, who was bent over the desk at the front of the room, setting up for the morning briefing, looked up, puzzled.
    â€œYou’ll have to excuse him, Sarge,” said Lauren Salter, “He’s just quit. Apparently, his new girlfriend disapproves.” There was more than a touch of amusement in the detective constable’s confiding tone.
    Maik did not look best pleased. The last thing he needed today was one of his detectives going through the anguish of nicotine withdrawal. At his best, Tony Holland could be a good investigator. Maik would have liked him to be able to contribute a bit more than observations on the number of respiratory systems human beings had.
    The stragglers took their seats and everyone turned their attention to the front of the room. Truth be told, it was more attention than Maik was comfortable with, especially with the progress report he was about to deliver. “Nil” would about cover it. Maik drew himself up to his full height and looked at them squarely. “Right,” he announced, “let’s get started.”
    â€œI see the organ grinder’s still away then,” said Holland, to the general amusement of the room.
    Maik glowered at him from beneath a furrowed brow, as if to suggest that this particular monkey would be more than happy to grind any organ Constable Holland might be willing to proffer. He moved quickly onto his topic. “Okay, new development. The ME has found minute traces of leather in the neck wound,” he said. “I suspect we all know where this leather came from?”
    Holland raised an eyebrow. “A cow?”
    Maik gave him a look. As entertaining as Holland’s newfound joie de vivre was, in Maik’s present mood, it wasn’t doing anything for his long-term career prospects.
    â€œCorrect, Constable. From the shoulder strap of Philip Wayland’s satchel. It matches the scuff marks we found, suggesting the weapon glanced off the strap on its way into the wound site.”
    There was a general stirring of unease in the room. This was it? The sum total of their new developments? Most in the room had put this much together from the evidence at the site. Danny Maik might have felt it necessary in his role as acting lead to pretend this was a significant step forward in the case, but they all knew he was fooling no one, least of all himself. His next statement, however, went some way to explaining why such an insignificant detail would be given so much attention.
    â€œI want us to have another look at this group of protesters,” he said. He held up a hand. “I know we’ve been over it once, but let’s dig a bit deeper this time, have a look at their backgrounds. Let’s see if any of them make a habit of showing up at other protests, or have any affiliations with groups that do. And while we’re about it, let’s have another run through the victim’s background. I want to see if anything pops out at us, something we might have missed first time around.”
    A few eyes dropped in the front rows, and others found different things on which to rest their gaze. This was Danny Maik telling them they had nowhere else to go, that he had run out of options. Inspector Jejeune’s leads might not always follow the straightest pathways of police procedure, or seem even vaguely related to the case at times, but at least they were leads. Maik’s entire approach seemed to consist of looking at a few disgruntled locals who gathered daily