DEATH BY TELEPHONE BOX a gripping British crime mystery full of twists by P.F. FORD

Author:P.F. FORD [FORD, P.F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JOFFE BOOKS crime thrillers and mysteries
Published: 2024-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

‘Can I ask a question?’ asked Slater, as they walked down the stairs from Murray’s office.

‘You can always ask,’ Goodnews said, ‘but you have to remember there are some questions a lady just doesn’t have to answer. And then, of course, there’s always my privilege of rank.’

‘That thing with Murray. He’s the DCI and you’re the DI, yet there’s no doubt you were in charge. How does that work?’

‘Ah. Yes,’ she said, mysteriously. ‘I’m afraid that’s one of those questions I don’t have to answer.’

‘Don’t you trust me?’ Slater asked.

‘Believe me, it’s not that,’ she said. ‘The thing is, other people have put their trust in me. Would you expect me to break their trust just to satisfy your curiosity?’

‘Ah. Right. I see. No, of course I wouldn’t expect you to do that. Is the Old Man on the way out?’

Goodnews smiled at him, but didn’t answer. Instead, she changed the subject.

‘So now we’ve gone from having no suspects at all, to having three,’ she said. ‘So let’s hear where you think we should go from here.’

Slater was itching to know more about Goodnews and Murray, but he didn’t want to push his luck. She had quickly calmed down, but he didn’t want to risk pushing the launch button again. It would keep . . . for now.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘We have no idea where Slick Tony is, or might be. I agree with you he’s unlikely to be here in person, so really we have no idea who we’re looking for. We don’t exactly know where Jimmy Jones is, but we do know he’s still in custody. While it’s not impossible he’s involved, again he won’t be here in person. So, once more, we don’t know who we’re looking for. Tommy Howes, on the other hand, shouldn’t be that hard to track down. We can make a start with Norman’s wife.’

‘We’re on the same wavelength, then. That’s good to know,’ she said.

She looked at her watch.

‘It’s just gone three. Do you fancy driving up to the big city now?’

‘Why not?’ said Slater. ‘My car, or yours?’

‘You can have the pleasure of driving up there,’ said Goodnews. ‘It’s one of my pet hates.’

Slater’s phone started ringing just as they reached the incident room door.

‘It’s Becks,’ said the voice in his ear when he answered. ‘Are you in the building?’

‘I was just going out,’ he replied.

‘I’ve got the results from your cigarette butts.’

‘Brilliant. I’ll be right down.’ Slater had almost forgotten about the evidence he had found at the bottom of the tree outside Norman’s house.

He turned to Goodnews.

‘Becks has got the results from my cigarette butts. If you can hang on a few minutes, I’ll go down and get them.’

‘I need to see what’s going on before we go,’ she said. ‘That’ll take a few minutes.’

‘I’ll be five at the most,’ he promised her and rushed off to the basement.

* * *

Goodnews pushed her way through the door into the incident room. Steve Biddeford was waiting for her. She sat down at her desk and looked wearily at the pile of Post-it notes.

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