A Sleeping Life by Ruth Rendell

Author:Ruth Rendell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Police Procedural, Detective and mystery stories, Police, Mystery & Detective, Sussex, Sussex (England), Fiction, Inspector (Fictitious character), Wexford, England, General, Police - England - Sussex
ISBN: 9780375704932
Publisher: Vintage Books
Published: 2000-07-11T04:33:56.932547+00:00

12

The courtesy of Superintendent Rittifer did not extend to his putting in an appearance at Princevale Road. No blame to him for that, Wexford thought. He wouldn't have done so either in the Superintendent's position and on a fine Sunday afternoon. For it was two by the time they got there, he and Burden with Baker and Sergeant Clements.

Because it was a Sunday they had come up in Burden's car and the traffic hadn't been too bad. Now that the time had come he was beginning to have qualms, the seeds of which had been well sown by Burden and the Chief Constable. The very thing which had first put him on to Rose Farriner now troubled him. Why should she go to a doctor and give only to him the name of Rhoda Comfrey while everyone else knew her as Rose Farriner? And a local doctor too, one who lived no more than a quarter of a mile away, who might easily and innocently mention that other name to those not supposed to know it. Then there were the clothes in which Rhoda Comfrey's body had been dressed. He remembered thinking that his own wife wouldn't have worn them even in the days when they were poor. They had been of the same sort of colours as those sold in the Montfort Circus boutique, but had they been of anything like the same standard? Would Mrs. Cohen have wanted to get them at cost and have described them as “exquisite“? How shaky too had been that single identification, made by a very young woman who looked anaemic and neurotic, who might even be suffering from some kind of post-natal hysteria.

Could Burden have been right about the wallet? He got out of the car and looked up at the house. Even from their linings he could see that the curtains were of the kind that cost a hundred pounds for a set. The windows were double-glazed, the orange and white paintwork fresh. A bay tree stood in a tub by the front door. He had seen a bay tree like that in a garden centre priced at twenty-five pounds. Would a woman who could afford all that steal a wallet? Perhaps, if she were leading a double life, she had two disparate personalities inside that strong gaunt body. Besides, the wallet had been stolen, and from a bus that passed through Kenbourne Vale …

Before Baker could insert the key Mrs. Farriner had given Dinehart, Wexford tested out the two which had been on Rhoda Comfrey's ring. Neither fitted.

“That's a bit of a turn-up for the books,”s said Burden.

“Not necessarily. I should have brought all the keys that were in that drawer.” Wexford could see Baker didn't like it, but he unlocked the door just the same and they went in.

Insufferably hot and stuffy inside. The temperature in the hall must have been over eighty and the air smelt strongly. Not of mothballs and dust and sweat, though, but of pine-scented

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.