An Educated Death by Diana J. Febry

Author:Diana J. Febry [Febry, Diana J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Fiona delayed the start of the morning briefing by taking a last-minute call. After a slow start, they were making some progress at last. It almost made up for the frustration of the last two days where hours of laborious checking had turned up nothing of worth.

“Sorry for the delay, but interesting new information has come through overnight,” Fiona said. “First things, first. Peter has returned to Birstall, so I’m heading the investigation in his absence.”

“Have you found out what’s going on in Birstall, yet?” Eddie asked.

“No, and we’ve enough going on down here to occupy us without speculating about what they’re up to,” Fiona said. “We have three major lines of enquiry to follow up on. Yesterday, I was led to believe the school’s head, Philippa Pinkerton, was a widow with a disabled son due to a hit-and-run accident. That was a lie. She is divorced. Her husband, who has since remarried, is a lecturer at Birstall University and so presumably lives nearby. He has a history of receiving complaints concerning relationships with female students. Humphries, when we get hold of him, I would like you to sit in on the interview with me.”

Humphries nodded his agreement. “Do we have his name?”

“We do. It’s Jeff Barber. I want to see him today.”

“I’ll find an address for him. Do we know if he remained in contact with Philippa?” Humphries asked.

“Unclear, but there must be some arrangement covering the care of their son.” Addressing the room, Fiona said. “I’ve just taken a call from Tracy. Her team found some surprising fingerprints on the stairs and the door to the roof. They belong to a Mrs Susan Quinn, who absconded from Sefton Open Prison twenty years ago and completely disappeared.”

“What was she in for?” Abbie asked.

“Financial fraud. She targeted couples approaching retirement age. Some of them lost everything, and one of her victims killed himself as a result. When she was caught, she claimed it was all her abusive husband’s idea and she was acting under duress. It became obvious that the fraud was her brainchild, and all the accounts were in her name. She was tried and convicted. The case against her husband was dismissed.”

“How did she escape?” Abbie asked.

“She quietly walked away when out on a day release scheme,” Fiona said, pulling a why-do-we-bother face. “Eddie and Andrew, could you start with checking the obvious? That there’s no one employed with that name at the school. Ask for copies of all the job application forms from the last twenty years while you’re there. If there’s no one at the school with that name widen your search to the local area. In case I forget to mention it later, please don’t let Philippa Pinkerton know we’ve found out about her ex-husband. I would like to surprise her with that after I’ve spoken to him.”

“Should we mention the fingerprints to her when we ask for the employment records?” Andrew asked.

“No. We’ll keep that information to ourselves for now. If she asks, keep your reasoning vague.

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