A Cold Dark Heart: An exciting British crime novel (Inspector Drake Book 8) by Stephen Puleston

Author:Stephen Puleston [Puleston, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Sara parked outside the large detached property set in landscaped gardens in one of the villages overlooking the Menai Strait. A brief Google search told her that similar properties sold for over £1 million and with the average price on Anglesey well under £200,000 it made John Kerr’s home one of the more select houses on the island.

A three-year-old Land Rover Discovery and a Mercedes C class were parked nearby. Before leaving her car, she checked the names of John Kerr’s two children – Sadie Appleyard and Neil Kerr. Normally she would have accompanied Inspector Drake, but the urgency demanded by Superintendent Hobbs meant the team had split up.

An overweight woman in her early fifties wearing heavy make-up opened the front door.

‘I’m Detective Sergeant Morgan,’ Sara gave the woman enough time to study her warrant card. ‘Mrs Sadie Appleyard?’ The jowls under her flabby chin shook as she nodded.

‘Come in.’

The hallway was wide and the sound of domestic activity – dishes being washed, a meal being prepared – drifted from the kitchen. Appleyard led her into a sitting room overlooking a lawn leading down to the Strait. A RIB carrying passengers strapped into seats crashed and bounced its way over the water’s surface.

Neil Kerr paid as much attention to his diet as his sister. The buttons of his shirt strained and the skin on his face carried a blotchy complexion.

‘This is Detective Sergeant Morgan,’ Appleyard said to her brother. The accent was Scouse, but only just.

Kerr gave Sara a flaccid handshake.

They sat down on matching cream-coloured sofas.

‘As you know, concerns were raised by the North Wales pathologist about your father’s post-mortem.’

Appleyard and Kerr said nothing, but their eye contact was fixed and focused.

Sara continued. ‘We’ve had the results of the latest post-mortem. I’m afraid I have to inform you we now believe your father was murdered.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ Kerr exclaimed.

Appleyard gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

‘What the bloody hell happened?’ Kerr said.

‘Somebody injected air into your father’s veins. It meant he suffered a heart attack caused by an air embolism.’

‘And why the hell wasn’t this picked up on the original post-mortem?’

‘It is very difficult to spot an air embolism if you aren’t looking for it specifically.’

Sara reminded herself of the articles she had read on the Internet the evening before about serial killers in Europe injecting their victims with air bubbles. None had been caught immediately.

‘Who would do such a thing?’ Appleyard said.

‘We need to establish the exact details of who visited your father the day before he died.’

‘Of course,’ Kerr said. ‘Anything we can do to help.’

‘Did either of you visit your father that day.’

Appleyard was the first to respond. Her voice incredulous. ‘I hope you don’t think we had anything to do with it?’

Sara shook her head. ‘It’s routine, I assure you.’ She couldn’t very well tell them there were four other similar deaths.

It took a few minutes for them to establish that Appleyard had visited her father late on the afternoon of the day in question on her way back to Warrington.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.