I Know Who Did It (A Jack Nightingale Short Story) by Stephen Leather Page A

Jack? The body was mummified, pretty much. Dental records proved who it
was but even so… forty years. How does that happen, Jack? His driving licence
was issued four years ago. And his cleaner said he was alive and well two days
ago when she was last in the house.’
    ‘It’s a mystery,
no question.’
    ‘So why do I get
the feeling that you’re not telling me everything?’
    ‘I’m off the
case,’ said Nightingale. ‘I couldn’t find Charles Nelson so I just assumed he’d
died or left the country. I’m trying to find other people who worked at the school
but I’m not having any joy. Forty years is a long time, like you said. So is it
a murder enquiry?’
    ‘According to the
doctor, Hall died of natural causes. Forty years ago. I can’t see my bosses
being happy if I start a murder investigation on the basis of that. So no, it
goes down as death by natural causes. There don’t seem to be any relatives to
cause a fuss so I guess Mr Hall’s secret will be buried with him.’
    Hoyle ended the
call, clearly less than satisfied with the answers that Nightingale had given
him. Nightingale waited until he’d got back home and drunk two bottles of
Corona and smoked three cigarettes before phoning Mary Campbell. He took a deep
breath and began talking. ‘I know who did it,’ he said. ‘And I’m happy enough
to tell you who did it. But I warn you now, you’re not going to believe it.’
    ‘I just want to
know what happened, Mr Nightingale.’
    ‘Then I think
you’d better sit down,’ he said, reaching for his cigarettes.

 
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    Jack Nightingale
appears in the full-length novels Nightfall, Midnight, Nightmare, Nightshade,
Lastnight and San Francisco Night and in the short stories Still Bleeding,
Tracks, My Name Is Lydia and Cursed.