‘He was kind to me, and kind to Donna, and he was good friends with Stephen,’ says Bogdan. ‘I asked Stephen to tell me about him. Stephen says he was kind and loyal. That he would be called names in the street and keep on walking. Stephen says he was a piece of work, but in a good way. Always laughing, always helping. So I want to say this, in front of God …’
Bogdan looks at the tiny congregation before him.
‘Kuldesh, you were a friend of Stephen, and that means you are a friend of ours. And I promise we will find the person who shot you. We will hunt them down and kill them –’
‘Or arrest them, babe?’ suggests Donna.
Bogdan shrugs. ‘Kill them or arrest them. Thank you, Kuldesh. Please rest now.’ Bogdan crosses himself.
As he returns to his seat, Big Dave gives a whoop, and that leads everyone into a round of applause.
The ceremony continues with a little more reverence, even tears from Joyce, Bogdan and Ron.
As it ends, the vicar has a few final words. ‘I feel I’ve been a little surplus to requirements today. But I wish you all luck, and I do wish I had met him. Farewell, Kuldesh.’
The mourners start to file out.
‘What did this Louise tell you?’ Chris asks Elizabeth.
‘Forgive me,’ says Elizabeth. ‘I thought we weren’t sharing information? Here are the facts of the matter. We have an eyewitness description of a man who visited Kuldesh Sharma on the day he died. Do you?’
Chris and Donna look at each other, then shake their heads.
‘Furthermore, we have been given a name fitting that precise description, and that name was given to Ibrahim by one of the leading drug importers on the South Coast –’
‘Whom I am unable to identify,’ says Ibrahim.
‘Do you have a named suspect?’ asks Elizabeth.
Chris and Donna look at each other once more, and shake their heads again.
‘And, lastly, I am told that the National Crime Agency have taken over your investigation, so this bravado of yours is only for show. Which is perfectly understandable, but does slow things up.’
‘How do you –’ starts Chris, but Elizabeth waves this away.
‘Whatever case you are currently working on,’ she says, ‘it is not the murder of Kuldesh Sharma.’
‘Someone stole a horse in Benenden,’ says Donna.
‘Ooh,’ says Joyce.
‘So we have a great deal of information,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Do you have anything for us in return?’
Donna pulls a phone out of her bag. ‘We have his phone, Elizabeth. We shouldn’t, but we do.’
‘Sweet,’ says Ron.
Elizabeth claps her hands. ‘Wonderful, Donna, wonderful. Bogdan is very lucky to have you. I’m sorry if I was overbearing. I will work on that. Our assumption is that a shipment of heroin was delivered to Kuldesh’s shop by a Dominic Holt, and that Kuldesh, for reasons best known to himself, decided to steal it, and that, furthermore, someone then murdered him. Does that bring you up to speed, Chris?’
‘It confirms a lot of things I’d suspected –’
‘Nonsense,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Now, in return, what do we learn from the phone?’
‘He made two calls,’ says Chris. ‘At around four p.m. on the day he died.’
‘One to a woman named Nina Mishra,’ says Donna. ‘She’s a professor of historical archaeology, in Canterbury.’
‘A professor, goodness me,’ says Joyce.
‘Professors,’ says Ron, with a gentle eyeroll.
‘Have you been to see her?’ asks Ibrahim.
‘We only just got the records back this morning,’ says Donna. ‘So no.’
‘Feels like a job for us, perhaps?’ says Elizabeth.
‘Yes, ma’am,’ says Chris.
‘Splendid,’ says Joyce. ‘I was hoping we were going to go to Canterbury.’
‘And the second phone call?’ Ibrahim asks.
‘About ten minutes after the call to Nina Mishra,’ says Donna. ‘But untraceable, so far.’
‘Untraceable,’ says Elizabeth. ‘No such thing.’
‘It comes back as “Code 777”,’ says Donna. ‘We see it from time to time.’
‘Ah,’ says Elizabeth.
‘Code 777,’ says Joyce. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Happens with high-end criminals,’ says Chris. ‘It’s blocking software, highly illegal, very expensive, but means you don’t have to keep buying burner phones.’
‘Probably from the dark web,’ says Ibrahim, nodding sagely.
‘So Kuldesh rings a professor,’ says Joyce. ‘And straight afterwards rings a high-end criminal?’
‘There will be other explanations,’ says Elizabeth.
‘I look forward to hearing them,’ says Chris.
‘There are two key questions,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Was Kuldesh trying to sell this heroin? And, if so, to whom?’
‘I don’t buy any of this,’ says Ron. ‘Sorry. Kuldesh gets a stash of heroin and decides to sell it? Nah. He’d be terrified. Someone else has come in and nicked it. I guarantee you. No way has Kuldesh stolen it.’
‘I’m sorry,’ says a voice. ‘Couldn’t help overhearing.’
They turn to see Big Dave, the stranger from the funeral.
‘Only I think I was the last person to see him alive,’ says Big Dave.
‘When was this?’ asks Elizabeth.
‘Evening of the 27th,’ says Big Dave. ‘About five. I was closing up, not much business that day.’
‘Did he say anything?’ asks Chris. ‘Tell you where he was going?’
‘Nah, he just wished me Merry Christmas,’ says Big Dave, buttoning up his coat. ‘And then he bought a spade.’
