Aspire to Die: An Oxford Murder Mystery (Bridget Hart Book 1) by M S Morris

Author:M S Morris [Morris, M S]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Landmark Media
Published: 2019-11-26T16:00:00+00:00

*

Chief Superintendent Grayson’s vast desk was littered with a selection of Sunday papers, mostly tabloids. Photographs of a smiling Zara Hamilton, her blonde hair like a halo, stared back at Bridget from their front pages. Lurid headlines seemed to accuse her. Oxford student in savage murder. Brutal killing of wealthy heiress. Golden girl murder.

‘We let him go, sir,’ she said. ‘Zachary Hamilton. There wasn’t enough evidence to detain him.’

The lines etched into Grayson’s forehead seemed deeper this morning. He ran a hand through his greying hair. ‘I’ve already spoken to his lawyers. They’re considering a civil action against the police.’

‘We had reasonable grounds to arrest him, sir.’

‘I know. And you sought my permission before making the arrest. There’s no need for you to worry about your own career, Bridget.’

She nodded. She couldn’t remember him using her first name before.

He swept the desk clean with his arm, depositing the newspapers into his waste paper bin. ‘So where do we go from here? Do you have any leads?’

‘Zac’s in the clear, unless new evidence emerges. It’s still possible that the murder was a burglary that went wrong – her wallet is missing, and also her mobile phone.’

‘What about the murder weapon?’

‘We still haven’t found it. But it was almost certainly Zara’s paperweight.’

‘That suggests the killing may not have been premeditated, perhaps not even deliberate. It adds weight to the burglary scenario.’

‘Yes, sir. The murderer may simply have grabbed the nearest heavy object.’

‘But you don’t believe that the killer was unknown to the victim.’ It was a statement, not a question.

‘No. The ex-boyfriend, Adam, now claims that Zara split up with him because she was seeing someone else.’

‘Who?’

‘We don’t know. No one we’ve interviewed so far has mentioned another boyfriend. But if there was someone, then we need to find out who he was and talk to him.’

‘Do you think Adam’s telling the truth?’

‘I think so, sir. Zac confirmed that’s what their argument was about. Adam went to him demanding to know who the other person was. The only question is whether Zara was telling Adam the truth when she said there was someone else. Zac maintains that he had no idea she was seeing someone.’

‘Well, this gives us a new line of enquiry to follow. What about call records from Zara’s phone?’

‘That’s got to be our top priority, but the phone company’s dragging its feet because it’s a weekend. We should get her call records tomorrow, and we’ll be interviewing all of Zara’s friends again to ask about this other boyfriend.’

‘Good. Take the rest of the day off.’

‘Sir?’

‘It’s Sunday afternoon. Your team deserves a few hours of rest. Next week isn’t going to be easy, for any of us.’

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.