Evil Valley Read Online Free Page A

his eyes.
    ‘We won’t produce much of a story if we’re dead,’ he muttered.
    ‘Perfectly safe,’ Nigel barked. ‘You should always straighten out bends. I’d have seen headlights if anything was coming.’
    He changed down a gear, accelerated to beat a turning traffic light, indicated, pulled off the main road.
    Two police cars and a van blocked the entrance to a cul de sac, a double line of flickering blue-and-white tape stretched across the road. A couple of constables patrolled their sentry duty along it. A gaggle of onlookers stared, pointed and gossiped excitedly. A couple were still in dressing gowns despite the chill, a sure sign of the most mawkish, the ones who didn’t want to risk missing anything.
    Nigel parked the Renault, half up the kerb, by one of the police vans and they clambered out. Dan scanned around, noticed the street was called Haven Close, nudged his friend, pointed to the sign. Irony always made good pictures.
    Nigel set up the tripod, slotted the camera on top, Dan helping. Seconds counted. The quicker you got to a scene and started filming the more action you captured.
    Even better, night-time shots always looked dramatic. Nigel panned the camera, picking up the images. Wider views of the whole street, the officers on duty, the onlookers, close-ups of the police tape, officers and cars. Good stuff. And they were the first hacks on the scene. Even better.
    Just one problem nudged Dan. The house where the shooting happened was hidden around the bend in the road. They’d have to get pictures of it somehow, but he could think about that later. Some reliable information first. Two police shootings in five months, this was going to be a big story.
    He checked his watch. It said just before 11, so probably about ten past. Not for the first time he cursed the back-street Brighton jeweller who’d sold him the cheap Rolex. It hadn’t taken long to work out why it was such a bargain, but it looked flash and so couldn’t be discarded.
    All the Wessex Tonight news bulletins were done for the day, but the 24-hour news channel would want copy filed as soon as he could work out what was going on, the News Online site too. The days of continuous bulletins meant modern deadlines were unrelenting. When Dan had become a TV reporter it was one programme a day, at six o’clock. Now a report could often be demanded as soon as you got to a location. They’d have to work fast.
    Start with your best bet, your most indiscreet and trusted source. A senior detective who’d be happy to answer any questions after the time they’d spent together investigating the murder of the notorious businessman Edward Bray, the hunt for the serial rapist stalking Plymouth and their efforts to crack the riddle of the Death Pictures. They’d become good friends, not that anyone else knew that. It wouldn’t help either of their careers. Dan fished his mobile out of his pocket.
    ‘Evening, Dan.’ Detective Chief Inspector Adam Breen sounded unruffled by the late-night call. ‘I was expecting to hear from you. Before you ask, yes I am the duty detective, and yes, I am working on the shooting. But there’s not much I can tell you.’
    ‘Hang on,’ Dan replied, wedging the mobile under his chin and trying to write some notes with his other hand. He stood back from where a pack of journalists was starting to gather, wanted to keep any juicy details to himself. ‘Go ahead.’
    ‘This didn’t come from me, of course.’
    ‘Naturally.’
    ‘We got a 999 call here earlier this evening, about nine o’clock. It sounded like a nasty assault, possibly involving a weapon, so we scrambled an armed response vehicle. The marksmen had to kick down the door to get in. Following that a man was shot dead. I can’t give you any more details because I’m just here holding the fort. As it’s a fatal shooting by the police the Independent Police Complaints Authority are coming in to investigate.’
    ‘Great, that’s really helpful