Book Extract: Lone Wolves, Steve Blandford – Part 2

This is the second of three extracts from Steve Blandford’s new novel Lone Wolves, which will be published on Nation.Cymru over the coming weeks. The first is available here. 

Author’s Note

This is a story set in Wales in the period after the shock of the Brexit result in 2016, but before the mutation of UKIP, first into the Brexit Party and then into Reform UK.

The novel happily leaves it to others to concentrate on the machinations of those closely involved in right wing political parties. However, UKIP’s electoral success in Wales in 2016 and Reform UK’s subsequent rise in the opinion polls in Wales do form an important backdrop to the fictional events of the story.

Chapter 2.

It was probably two hours since he had found the body and now David was on his way to Cardiff Central Police Station to give a voluntary statement. The November drizzle was combining with the tail end of the school run, and the police car was making slow progress through the north Cardiff suburbs.

He didn’t feel under arrest, not even under suspicion; at least he hoped not. On the other hand, riding along like this in the back of a luridly striped Vauxhall Astra was not the start to the day he had hoped for. He had already called into the department and suffered the tone of voice of Sister Wheeler. She had agreed to pass on his message and arrange what cover she could, but it would inevitably mean some patients having their appointments cancelled. Oh, in that case, he would open the back door of the Astra and do a runner.

She had gone a little quieter when he had mentioned the decapitated corpse, though when Anna Dodds had overheard, she gave him a filthy look. They had said that he shouldn’t discuss any details of the case with anyone.

David had more time in the back of the car to think, something he didn’t always welcome these days. The long, slow process of his divorce was taking it out of him. There was nothing remarkable about it, just a standard-issue-growing-apart-and-then-your-wife-brings-it-to-a-head version of modern marriage. The thought of it all suddenly sat on his chest like a great wet dog just as you were trying to doze. He must have let out an audible groan.

‘Are you ok, sir?’ enquired Anna.

‘Oh…yes…sure, sorry.’

‘Remembered something about work?’

‘Yeah, that was it.’

‘Never mind. It’ll all be there tomorrow.’

‘Yes, it will.’

They inched on through the traffic, and David tried to make sure not to allow his feelings to turn into anything audible. A bit like trying not to fart out loud.

Lucy, his wife, was a genuinely good person. Full of fun, great at keeping things in order. They had worked hard at dividing up the work. Both their jobs were demanding in their own way. Because he was a doctor, he was sometimes inclined to take the moral high ground in any dispute over domestic labour, but mostly it had worked ok. His shifts were flexible, and she could work at home a reasonable amount.

They had met when she was just in the middle of the demoralising process of applying for jobs in university English departments. Usually there were at least fifty suitably qualified candidates for every post. And she had managed to get one. He had been so proud of her. That had been a fantastic evening full of cheap champagne, bruschetta and vitello con funghi in Elgano and what seemed at the time the best sex that they ever had. Or at least the best sex that David had had. 

He had always felt that she was smarter than him. Lucy had been at pains to be self-deprecating about her work and telling him that he had a job that really mattered, but he never quite believed that she meant it. She had an acute critical intelligence that could cut through the crap in any conversation, whilst he often felt that he was following the tram lines. For such a long time though it hadn’t mattered a bit. He was happy to sit back and admire, chipping in when he felt as though he had something to say. Sitting here in the back of the Astra, he felt himself gripped by the ferocity of the memory of how he had felt about Lucy for years after they had first met.

‘Nearly there, sir.’

‘Oh good.’

‘Everything sorted out with your work?’

‘Oh yes, fine. This is important, of course.’

‘Yes, it is, sir.’

As they pulled in at the side of the forbidding-looking Cardiff Central Station, David thought how like the hospital it looked. Far smaller, of course, but the same monolithic style. Both places were trying to fix things and perhaps doing their best, but doing it out of inadequate and unpleasant buildings didn’t get things off to a good start. He was startled when he heard Mike Leeworthy remark that ‘at least there are no cameras here yet’.

‘Did you say cameras?’ David said.

‘It’s ok, sir. Nothing to be alarmed about.’

‘But why would there be cameras? Would that be normal when a body is found?’

‘Not really, sir, but we can talk when we are inside.’

In his imagination David saw a blanket being thrown over his head and him being hustled into the station by a side door. What actually happened was that Anna Dodds just opened the door for him, and he walked alongside her up the steep steps into the station with Mike Leeworthy following behind. As they reached the entrance, Anna played it completely cool, but Mike could not resist a furtive look around.

Inside, the station was even less welcoming. David had naively imagined a reception desk, whereas there was a lot of toughened glass between him and the uniformed officer on the other side. Two burnt orange plastic-covered chairs to one side did create the sense that someone once had conceived the space as a welcoming area. Both chairs had small tears in them that caused spikes of plastic to stick upwards. The chairs were very low for some reason and David could not imagine that anyone would willingly sit on them. As if to reinforce the point, two or three people were positioned around the walls, leaning disconsolately. They looked as though they might have been there for some time.

‘Morning, Dougie,’ said Mike. ‘We’ll just go straight through if that’s ok?’

‘Yeah, I got the message,’ said Dougie, not looking entirely pleased about it.

There was a loud click and Mike opened the door that Dougie had released. David and Anna followed him through it and down a long corridor. They found a small interview room, very like those in a thousand police shows, thought David, and Anna beckoned for him to sit.

‘Would you like a hot drink?’ asked Anna.

‘Yes, please. I would. Coffee if you have it.’

‘We do and it’s terrible, but you are welcome.’ She left the room, and David sat in awkward silence with Mike for a moment. David wasn’t good at silence generally and attempted some amiable chat, something that Mike wasn’t that good at.

‘Have you been doing this a long time?’ asked David.

‘Do you mean this particular job or the police in general, sir?’

‘Either, I suppose,’ said David, realising that he hadn’t really been all that interested or even conscious that Mike was involved in a particular ‘job’.

‘I’ve been in the police just over five years.’

‘And is this the job that you want to do?’

There was a pause as Mike decided how much he should say.

‘I would like to move into investigation eventually.’

‘Do you mean be a detective?’

‘Pretty much, sir.’

‘Is that a difficult move to make, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘It can be.’

‘Have you been applying?’

‘Just the once. I was turned down.’

‘Oh. Sorry to hear that.’

‘It’s not the end of the world, sir. I can apply again next year.’

In a couple of minutes David saw what he had dismissed as a cocky young man crumple just a little. Mike clearly felt exposed and David was glad to look up and see Anna return with a tray of coffee in Styrofoam cups. He could taste the cup already.

‘Thank you.’

‘All part of the service, sir.’ He noticed how much brighter and alive she was than Mike.

‘Do you mind me asking what you meant when you referred to cameras being outside?’

The two officers exchanged a glance.

‘All I can really say, sir, is that this has the potential to turn into a high-profile investigation,’ said Anna, instantly becoming as calm and professional as some course or other had urged her to be.

‘I understand that any murder is high-profile, but you seem to suggest something more than that.’

‘I’m sorry, sir, but I think we should get on with taking your statement before we go any further.’

‘Fine, sure. I’m bound to be curious though, given the circumstances.’

‘So could you just run over what happened in the park leading up to when you made the call to the emergency services?’ 

Anna, getting everyone back on an even keel.

‘I’m not sure that I have that much to add. I was out running. Fairly early for me. I saw some feet sticking out of the bushes. I hoped it was somebody that had just fallen over drunk. I took hold of one foot and let it go, and there was no response. I then shone the light on my phone further into the brambles and, well, discovered that there appeared to be no head attached to the body.’

‘Did you investigate any further before calling?’ Mike, attempting to be a bit probing.

‘No, I didn’t. I thought that I might contaminate the evidence.’

‘Very sensible, sir. It would be good if everyone did the same.’ Anna, making him feel good and succeeding just a little.

‘Do you know the deceased, sir?’ Mike asked, unsettling him slightly.

‘No, I don’t think so. It’s difficult to tell in the circumstances, of course.’

The mud-stained, light blue scrubs came back to him. Strangely, he also remembered them as well-pressed and clean. Until this poor man had been dragged into the bushes and met his horrific end, he had been someone who took pride in how he looked, even in the flimsy cotton uniform. Or perhaps someone else took pride in him. Jesus, David thought for the first time, this man might well have someone who will be waiting for him to come home later.

‘I realise that it’s likely that the person worked at the hospital, so there is a chance I might know him. There are over eight thousand people who work there, though, so it’s perfectly possible that I would never have even seen him, let alone known him.’ 

David realised that he was babbling slightly. Eight thousand included everybody, even the much-reviled parking attendants. When you narrowed it down to doctors and nurses, the odds changed dramatically.

‘I just need to ask one more time, sir. Did you know the man whose body you found in the woods bordering the hospital? Please think carefully before you answer.’ Anna was just a tiny bit threatening now. Not too much, but enough to add a different layer to the conversation.

‘As I said, I have no reason to think that I do know the man, but it’s not impossible.’ 

Anna glanced across at Mike. 

‘We have reason to believe that the deceased was a nurse, sir. ‘Mainly working in theatre, I believe.’

David felt himself go clammy. He became conscious once again that he was still in running clothes and his shirt had started to stick to his back. He had become friendly with several of the theatre nurses whose shifts coincided with his. This still left huge numbers that he wouldn’t know, but his instincts were driving him in only one direction.

‘Do you have a name?’

‘Do you think that you might know the person, sir?’

‘I know several people who work in theatre. It’s inevitable.’

At this point another officer came into the room and handed Anna a slip of paper. She showed it to Mike and looked intently at David.

‘Dr Kelston, do you know someone by the name of Atif Nasir?’ 

Atif? David knew straightaway, but he allowed his mind to keep up the pretence of doubt. It was too much to take in and Anna Dodds knew what he was thinking.

‘Take a sip of your drink, sir.’

The coffee was lukewarm and acrid. Perhaps the best thing to drink at a moment like this. You are not, after all, going to be in any position to consider the finer points of the roast or how long it had probably been brewed. Better to take a glug of what was, at best, Nescafé granules, but could have been something like the even rarer Bird’s powder from the Premier Stores just up the main road.

‘Yes, I am fairly sure that I did know Atif.’

David took a longer sip to take his mind off the way his mind was wandering.

‘Can you tell me what you know about him, sir?’ Mike is now thoughtful and probing.

‘If I have the right person, I know very little, I am almost ashamed to say.’

‘What do you mean, ‘ashamed’, Dr Kelston?’ Anna latched on to what David had to admit was not a very wise choice of adjective.

‘Just because I spoke to him many times and never really took the trouble to get to know him. He was a gentle, very positive person. Nearly always smiling. God, can this really be him?’

‘We think so, Dr Kelston, but we can’t be one hundred per cent sure until the body is formally identified.’

David’s mind was racing now. Who on earth would kill someone like Atif? And in such a bizarre and barbaric way. Of course, he knew little about him, but enough to see that he was the kind of person that defined the idea of ‘well-liked’, certainly around the hospital.

‘Dr Kelston, were you with Mr Nasir during the time before he died?’ 

Anna with the sucker punch.

‘What?’

‘It’s a simple question, sir. We are trying to establish who was the last person to see Atif Nasir alive.’

The racing mind now went into overdrive. Even if they thought it was a remote possibility, these two young police officers were seriously treating him as if he might have something to do with a brutal murder. A beheading.

‘No. Categorically, I can tell you that the first time I saw Atif Nasir this morning was when I stumbled upon his feet sticking out of a dense patch of undergrowth in the woods beside the hospital.’

David took a deep breath and marvelled for a second at how assertive he had become. He just had to stop them talking to him in this way and then perhaps he could try and help them. But the pleasure was fleeting, and he suddenly felt very tired and overwhelmed. He supposed it was normal to feel like this after finding a body.

What was quite surprising was that he found himself wishing that Lucy was with him. Not for any practical reason, but more that she had so often in the past made him feel safe just because of her presence. She was a practical person, but it was more than that. Not for the first time in the few months since they had decided to live apart, he understood that he still loved her. However, this was the first time that it had happened in a moment of crisis, a time when he had felt profoundly unsafe. What if this was always going to be the case? He needed to work out how to live without her, to not think of her as the person to turn to. Good luck with that, he thought to himself.

‘Dr Kelston?’

David realised that he had not been concentrating and that Anna Dodds had asked him at least one more question.

‘I’m sorry. It has just all been a little overwhelming.’

‘I asked you if you knew anyone that might have any reason to attack Mr Nasir?’

‘No, I don’t. I told you that I barely knew the poor man. Except as a genial presence around the hospital. Even then I couldn’t really say for sure that he was always like that.’

‘Could you tell me what time you set off on your run this morning, sir?’

‘I think it was about eight o’clock.’

‘And how long was it before you discovered Mr Nadir’s body?’

‘Only about fifteen minutes, I think.’

‘Where were you immediately prior to setting off running?’

David hesitated at this point. He knew where he had been, of course. In the two-bedroom flat he had rented when he and Lucy had agreed to part. It was a reasonable flat, but the idea of it being the place he had set off from made him profoundly miserable.

‘My flat. In Repton Drive.’

‘And were you alone in your flat, sir?’

‘Yes. My daughters sometimes come and stay at night, but not last night.’

‘Is there anyone to witness that you were there this morning, sir?’

‘I’m not sure. I don’t think so. Why? Could it be important?’

‘It’s difficult to say at this stage, sir. It’s obviously a serious case, and any detail might be important.’

All the questions were coming from Mike now and he felt himself scrutinised by Anna Dodds. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

An officer came into the room and handed Anna another piece of paper. For the first time her composure seemed to go, just for a minute. She beckoned to Mike, and they both left the room.

‘Excuse us for a moment, sir.’

David felt his brain race again. A weapon had been found and it somehow had his fingerprints all over it. This, despite no-one taking his fingerprints and him not even having set foot inside a police station before, except to present his driving licence after he had been caught speeding. On the A49 just outside Ludlow.

Luckily, they weren’t long.

‘You can go home now, sir. Get in the shower.’ 

David wondered if Anna was inferring that he smelt a bit. He had, after all, been running for fifteen minutes or so before all this happened. He nearly smelt his own armpits and then thought better of it.

‘Is that it?’

‘It is for now sir. We might well need to be in touch at some point over the next few days.’

Mike and Anna exchanged glances. Then Anna looked as though she had made a decision.

‘I think, sir, that it would be better if you could avoid discussing the case with anyone for now.’

‘Of course, but is there any special reason why?’

‘Well, as you picked up, there may be media attention.’

‘What kind of attention?’

Another non-verbal exchange between Anna and Mike.

‘You will probably be aware of the spate of attacks in European cities during the last month.’

Lone Wolves – Steve Blandford May 2026, Cambria Publishing. Available at: www.cambriabooks.co.uk