05 The Winter Killings by Wes Markin

Author:Wes Markin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery & Suspense, Crime, Hard-Boiled, Fiction & Literature
ISBN: 9781804837870
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2024-06-17T23:00:00+00:00

36

After putting her children to bed, and a quick chat with Monika, Gardner eyed up her wine rack.

She then set herself up at her computer with a cup of herbal tea.

Boring, but sensible.

She intended to drag the internet for everything there was on KYLO, Helping Hands, Bright Day, James Sykes… the whole bloody lot of them! Her team was so light, and she’d already demanded that they went home and rested.

So, these hours before exhaustion finally took her were valuable.

It was also bloody exhausting trying to keep her mind from the other issue. It was constantly leeching away at the back of her mind.

Riddick.

And still no bloody word from Cecile.

So, within ten minutes of failed internet searches, while simultaneously living through several worse-case scenarios with her friends – which involved funerals – she stupidly looked for sanity in a bottle of Merlot.

She’d had an idea earlier, but had, for fear of setting a hare running, forced it to the back of the mind.

Now, she was suddenly changing her mind and feeling somewhat courageous.

Half a bottle of wine would do that to you.

She placed a call to the Digital Forensics Unit down in Wiltshire. Sandra Mills was a friend of hers from home. Their relationship was close and trusting. Still, Gardner was taking quite a liberty here. There was no guarantee Sandra would help; in fact, she probably wouldn’t. Still, she wouldn’t shop her for the unorthodox request, so there might be no harm in asking.

Gardner must have had more credit in the bank than she’d realised, because Sandra agreed to triangulate the calls made to and from Cecile Metcalf’s mobile phone to locate the area she might be. Sandra asked for at least a day. She, too, would have to call in favours to keep it below the radar. Gardner hoped to God it didn’t backfire on poor Sandra. She was one of the best, and Gardner cursed the half bottle of wine for giving her the courage to put a good friend in the firing line before drinking the other half.

Drunk and struggling to stay awake now, never mind drag the internet for every remaining morsel, she closed her eyes⁠—

Her phone snapped her out of it.

Immediately thinking of Cecile, she launched for it.

Barnett.

She took a deep breath and tried her best to sound sober. ‘Ray?’

‘Boss, I…’ Barnett’s tone was off. ‘I spoke to my father.’

He was clearly distraught and, when Gardner heard the details of why, she wasn’t surprised.

‘Oh, Ray. I’m sorry. It must have been a shock.’

‘I’d an older brother or sister… at least, I would’ve had… surely, it still counts even if they didn’t make it into this world…’

‘It counts. It really counts.’

‘The pain Mum went through. I wish she’d told me everything.’

Do you? Really? Gardner thought. I mean, it’s important you know now, but did you need the burden of all that in your life while you were growing up?

‘She protected you.’

‘I can’t believe she shut it all away.’

Maybe she didn’t? Gardner ran her finger around the rim of the empty glass.

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