A Missing Signature by Virginia King

Author:Virginia King [Virginia King]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Celestial Hedgehog
Published: 2023-07-24T00:00:00+00:00

From his capacious tote bag, Rupert removes several foil trays. “To make sure I reheat them properly. No microwave. But while they get hot, we can start on these.” Out come two Christmas crackers and a bottle of red.

I get the wine glasses while Raider gets a doggy treat. Then Rupert sits on the sofa and I take the armchair. We pull open the crackers, don our silly paper hats and share the corny jokes.

“I’ve just finished texting Nessa,” I say. “She wanted to know if Baxter was OK.”

I describe our exchange about Reggie’s silver casting.

“She immediately thought you were talking about the spoon?” Rupert says. “And Reggie was checking his van right after you spoke to her this morning. It sounds like they know each other, but why the charade about stealing it? Money?”

“It doesn’t seem to be. Even though Nessa needs lots of it.”

“Sex?”

I almost spill my drink. “Reggie’s old enough to be Baxter’s grandfather.” I mention the bicycle accident.

“Just running through the usual motives. Revenge?”

“You know a lot about human nature.”

“Watch a divorcing couple argue over selling their house and you learn more about human nature than you ever wanted to know.”

“Well, if we’re talking revenge,” I say, “Nessa’s got reasons to pay Felix back. But what’s that got to do with Reggie? And she’s given the spoon to Verity.”

We’ve had enough of Nessa’s smoke and mirrors. We return to this morning’s rescue and Ben’s interest in the remains in the wood.

“He wanted gossip about who might be in the grave?” Rupert asks. “I’ve been wondering how it could be Verity’s handyman. A young guy travelling on his own might have hitched a ride into town and mixed with bad company at the local pub. But if Kirk got into a fight that ended badly after a night on the lash, how did the killer know they could bury him in Verity’s wood and remove his camping gear?”

“If he got a lift to the pub,” I think aloud, “the driver would know vaguely where Kirk was camping. Or Kirk was throwing a party in the wood. Things turned ugly and they buried him, then packed up their empties and his stuff.”

“If the police are going back five years, there might be an online missing-person catalogue. We could search a location and a time-frame.”

After checking the roast, we sit side-by-side with my laptop. But the online Missing Persons Bureau doesn’t allow the kind of search we want. You can search for a specific missing person by age, date, location and so on. Or you can view grisly images of an anonymous dead person’s clothing or distinguishing marks such as a tattoo. You can’t search for a list of missing people over a five-year period in a specific location e.g. Somerset.

“Perhaps the police have that search function,” Rupert says.

“I wonder if the fragment of cloth stuck in Raider’s coat will get uploaded. It had letters printed on it.”

“It’s evidence. And there didn’t seem to be any other clothing in the grave.

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