Barking Mad by Ted Tayler

Author:Ted Tayler [Tayler, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-21T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Friday, 8th June 2018 - Devizes

Gus was awake at seven o’clock. He was too old for late-night takeaways and several glasses of Scotch. The brief walk to the shower was painful, and he stayed there far longer than usual to clear his head.

That was the actual problem, not the spicy food, and hard liquor. It was thinking of Bert Penman’s family and trying to make sense of Mark Malone’s mystery activity. Even after he’d finished his second cup of black coffee before risking the drive to work, he still hadn’t come up with any answers.

Gus parked the Focus in its usual spot and rode up in the lift to the CRT office. He was first to arrive. The clock on the wall said it was twenty minutes to nine. The cast of characters for the night Mark Malone died should be his priority.

Gus cleared a whiteboard and added the names he could confirm had contacted Mark, either by text or phone.

Jenny Malone, Julian Drummond, Patrick Boddington.

Mark had contact with Damian Hartley-Cole besides the other three.

Gus wasn’t able to put names to the four men who attended the sex party. Did it matter? He didn’t believe they had anything to do with Mark’s death.

So, who else might they need to identify? The driver of the black SUV. Was he alone, or did that car carry several passengers?

What about the other BMW? A similar problem.

The case was a nightmare. It was worse than tackling a jigsaw with a missing piece. Gus didn’t even know how many they needed.

Luke Sherman was first out of the lift at five minutes to nine. He stopped at the board before going to his desk.

“It’s sparse, isn’t it, guv?” he said, “what about the weapon?”

“We know the make and model,” said Gus, “but although I don’t have names for several people on that board, I don’t see anyone that might have owned it.”

“I was thinking of what Lydia suggested,” said Luke, “spreading the net wider. She traced the names of gang members who might have attacked Mark Allison. As she pointed out, one of those men could have inherited the weapon used to kill Mark Malone. What if they were in the black SUV?”

“I’ll take Lydia with me this morning,” said Gus, “when she gets here. That list of names ought to be in her section of the Freeman Files. Check with her before we leave. While we’re in Bath, you can build backgrounds for those gang members. We need to discover where they’ve been since Mark Allison died, and what they’ve been doing. Contact Damian Hartley-Cole and ask him for the exact date of the party near Salisbury where the SUV first surfaced. Damian will try to avoid giving any details of the precise location, but it’s the date that’s important. We can fill in a few of the blanks ourselves. Then, make sure the same criminals, if you’ve got any names left, might have been in Newbury the night Mark Malone died. I do not doubt that the list will get smaller with every step you follow.

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