A searing July heatwave. Four bodies.
When corpses begin turning up in abandoned County Durham coal mines, police detective Tony Milburn is pulled into a chilling mystery. All four dead within four days but can Saint Cuthbert’s ancient curse really be the cause?
Durham’s iconic Miners’ Gala suffers a bizarre disruption and, amid the chaos, several high value artefacts are stolen.
As the caseload heats up, the Major Crimes Team is understaffed and under pressure. Aided by the enigmatic surfer, Penfold, but suffering the obsessive attentions of DC Diane Meredith, Milburn comes up against his toughest investigation yet.
The fourth Penfold mystery novel digs deep into the north-east’s heritage, as long-buried church secrets and the legacy of coal intertwine in Saint Cuthbert’s Curse.
.png)
St Cuthbert's Curse by M M Hudson was published on 27 November and is the fourth in the Penfold detective series of books. I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you today as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour
Extract from St Cuthbert's Curse by M M Hudson
Hardwick pre-empted the most obvious of the journalists’ question by announcing that the identities would not be made public yet, as two were unconfirmed and the families of the other two were still being “supported by specially trained officers”. This was a euphemism that could be interpreted as “give the families some time and space and privacy please” but could later be explained as having meant “we’re still investigating these deaths”.
After the initial slip about his rank, Tony was impressed by H’s presentation. It all went downhill from there though. The second part of the media briefing was a further presentation by Hardwick about the perils of entering old mine workings.
He came across as patronising, almost hectoring, while at the same time building up the intrigue surrounding the whole business. By the end, Tony himself was so fascinated about what was going on in Durham’s old pits that he too wanted to go and explore.
He stood beside the boss, with Meredith on his other side. They looked at each other and Tony could tell she was thinking the same thing about the prospects of people not heading out to find old pits to climb into. She whispered, ‘Let me salvage this.’
He didn’t know what she had in mind but was keen for H to stop speaking. When H paused to take a breath, Tony jumped in and introduced ‘DC Diane Meredith with more information’.
She was the exact contrast to Hardwick that was needed. Meredith’s narrative described going out to find one of the bodies. She was light on exact details and heavy on the harrowing nature of finding somebody unnecessarily dead down a rocky shaft in a lonely field. She bravely held back crocodile tears and described the anguish and shock of the deceased’s poor wife. The story was exaggerated or elements glossed over to most effectively emphasise the senseless, unnecessary loss of life and why nobody should put themselves and their families at risk of the same sort of fate.
Tony was pleased that the running order meant people would only remember the parts about avoiding mineshafts. Or, more likely, the TV editors would cut out the growly old man and only air clips of the pretty young detective, so bravely helping people with no thought for the impact the job must be having on her own wellbeing.
That running order was scheduled to conclude with Milburn, as SIO, answering questions from the journalists. This was the trickier part as he was going to need to be elusive about some areas, such as IDs and the gory details. He had learnt many press conferences ago that the most effective and convincing way to approach this was to front up to it.
He answered the first question. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Gullon, but as this is an ongoing, live investigation, I can’t give out those details. Some parts of what I would say have not yet been confirmed by the forensics and pathology teams, and some parts might identify the victims’ families, which we are not prepared to do. I’m sorry to ask you to wait, but you understand that there are timely processes we must follow.’
The questioner would not be put off so easily. ‘Are you saying that these deaths could be criminal?’
‘I’m not commenting on the nature of the investigations, sorry. There are many ways people come to die, and we have to investigate all of them with impartiality, and sometimes maintaining impartiality requires us to withhold information initially. As you well know in your line of business.’ Tony smiled as he said this last sentence.
A man standing at the back had a newsprint lanyard but was also video recording the press conference. He called out, ‘Can you tell us about the theft of the Silver Swan from Bowes Museum?’
A buzz raised among the dozen assembled reporters. This was news to them, and it was a big scoop if true.
‘I can’t. I know there was a fire at the school next door yesterday but as far as we are aware there were no casualties from that. That is, of course, a matter for Barnard Castle police to investigate anyway.’
Tony’s distraction subterfuge did not suffice for the questioner. He persisted, ‘I know there were no injuries, but I’m talking about the Silver Swan. A priceless sculpture, made from thirty kilograms of silver, gone missing, while police and fire crews were in attendance. I believe DC Meredith was on site. What can you tell our readers about that?’
Meredith stepped forward. She wiped her eye in a manner Tony thought might be just a bit too melodramatic to survive the sceptics in the room. ‘You’re right, I was in the area yesterday morning and when I heard the call on the radio, I just had to stop and help out with the fire. They weren’t sure if there were any children in the boarding house at the time, so we all imagined the worst. Luckily, as it turned out, there were no injuries, as DI Milburn has already said.
‘However, as I understand it, the smoke was significant and even penetrated the Bowes Museum. Have they moved the Swan down to the conservation rooms in the basement in order to check that none of its workings were damaged? I really don’t know any details, I’m afraid. I’m just glad everyone was safe.’
She put a hand to her heart to emphasise her relief, and Tony again worried it was too excessively dramatic to fly. He seemed to be the only one, though, who was not snowed by her theatrics. There was an audible sigh of relief from those present as they were carried along by her tale. Except the man at the back who had asked the question. He gave a little frown and said nothing.
.png)
He’s a physics teacher, surfer, author, hockey player, inventor, backpacker and idler.
Miles was born in Minneapolis but has lived in Durham in northern England for more than 35 years.
Facebook MilesMHudson
www.mileshudson.com
www.mileshudson.com
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment