A Room Full of Bones: A Ruth Galloway Investigation

notices that, when he gathers his papers together, his hands are not altogether steady. Rocky doesn’t seem to have understood a word.
    Clough is in such a state of shock that he doesn’t seem to take in Whitcliffe’s breezy statement that Judy ‘is going to take over for the time being’. It is only when she gets up and walks to the whiteboard that his head jerks up and he stares at her with something approaching hatred. Judy herself is shaking slightly as she writes the date on the board. Her writing seems schoolgirlish and unformed after Nelson’s passionate scrawl. She sees Tanya watching her, her body language sliding almost comically between concern (head on one side) and resentment (narrowed eyes, tapping foot).
    ‘Operation Octopus,’ Judy writes on the board. That is the name they are giving to the drugs case, chosen by Clough to reflect the fact that the drugs are thoughtto be coming by sea and that the smugglers seem to have tentacles everywhere. ‘It’s like the mafia,’ says Clough, who loves the
Godfather
films and frequently intones ‘I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse’ when alone with a mirror. ‘Possible sources,’ writes Judy. ‘The docks, the airport, freight.’ Forensics has identified traces of straw on some of the drugs seized in the city. This may indicate that they were transported in freight packing cases. Judy says this now, making neat lines on her chart.
    ‘But we know all this,’ drawls Tanya. ‘Are there any new leads?’
    ‘Just recapping,’ says Judy briskly. ‘I’m going to talk to Jimmy Olson.’
    ‘But he’s the boss’s source,’ protests Clough. ‘Only the boss talks to Jimmy. You’ll blow his cover.’
    ‘I want to talk to all the local haulage companies,’ says Judy, ignoring him.
    ‘We’ve done that,’ says Clough.
    ‘Well, we’ll do it again,’ says Judy. ‘I’m sure we’re missing something.’
    Clough opens his mouth to speak, but before Judy’s leadership skills can be tested the door opens and the duty sergeant comes in. He looks embarrassed. ‘I’ve got a message. Someone asking for the boss.’ He looks doubtfully at Judy, who bites back a temptation to say that she is the boss now.
    The message is from Randolph, now Lord, Smith. He wants to talk to someone about his father’s death. He has some new evidence, he says.
    ‘I’ll go and see him,’ says Judy. She looks at the uncooperative faces of her fellow police officers. ‘You can come with me, Dave.’

CHAPTER 22
     
    Judy and Clough drive to the stables in Judy’s car, a showy jeep. Usually Clough has a few jokes to make at the car’s expense but today he is silent, slouched in the passenger seat, biting the skin around his fingernails. Maybe, thinks Judy, when Clough has no food to eat, he starts on his own extremities. With any luck, he’ll have consumed half his arm by the time they get to Slaughter Hill.
    ‘Still can’t believe it about the boss,’ says Clough, as they trundle through the country lanes. ‘What did Whitcliffe say? A viral infection?’
    ‘I don’t think they know what it is,’ says Judy.
    ‘Shall I ring Michelle?’ says Clough, getting out his phone. Is he trying to show her that he’s on speed-dialling terms with the Nelsons? Judy doesn’t have Michelle’s number; she’s only spoken to her once or twice.
    ‘I wouldn’t,’ she says. ‘She might be at the hospital or trying to get some sleep.’
    ‘I’ll text then,’ says Clough. ‘Bloody hell. The boss hasn’t had a day off sick in his life.’
    ‘I believe you,’ says Judy. Nelson famously even hates going on holiday.
    ‘I saved his life once,’ says Clough.
    ‘I know you did,’ says Judy. She feels unaccountably sorry for him.
    ‘Bloody hell,’ says Clough again. ‘I can’t believe it.’ And they drive on in silence through the skeletal trees.
    Sunday doesn’t seem to be a day of rest at the racing stables. They pass a line of horses in the lane, and when Judy parks her car by Caroline’s cottage they see stable lads leading more horses into a large round building with wooden doors.
    ‘What the hell’s that?’ asks Clough.
    ‘It’s a horse walker,’ says Judy knowledgeably, having learnt this on her previous visit. ‘They put the horses in there for exercise or to calm them down.’
    They watch as the horses are led into separate compartments and move forward as the machine starts working. It’s rather like being stuck in a never-ending