Death In The Berwyns: Book 1 in the Claire Tanner female sleuth series by JJ Sullivan

Author:JJ Sullivan [Sullivan, JJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mandrill Press
Published: 2023-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

The Major Crimes Investigation Team had slid into action. Detective Chief Inspector Sylvie McIntyre was senior investigating officer and the machine had gathered round her some of the best detectives in the force’s area. All of them had tasks recorded on HOLMES, the Home Office Large Murder Enquiry System, and were out on the street ticking them off. To DI Julie Roberts and DS Harry Walford, McIntyre had assigned a task she saw as central to the investigation. ‘We all know the three questions we need answers to. Why this person? Why here? Why now? Answer that and you’re well on the way to knowing who did it. The Moor’s Head has been known to this force for years – was known to us long before Bob Barnes bought it. We know the kind of people who use it. Some of them will have a damn good idea what Barnes had done to upset somebody so badly they cut off his digits and stubbed cigarettes on his balls before they killed him. You two talk to as many of the pub’s regulars as you can and find out what people are saying. Start by finding out the latest from SOCO. I should think the forensics in that place are going to be very interesting. And Barnes was married, right?’

‘To a Fitzgibbon,’ said Julie.

‘She doesn’t seem to have been there when her husband was killed. Find her, get her alibi and check it. A Fitzgibbon girl, she must know some of the least savoury people in town. If she wanted her husband killed, she’d know who to ask.’

Back in her room at the Empress, Claire felt at a loss. The story of the missing Mary Barnes would hit the streets shortly and until she heard from Eugene Cohen there seemed little she could do. Then her phone showed a message from Ted Hughes. “Check your email.” She was just about to fire up her laptop and do that when the phone rang to say that a Mr Cohen was downstairs. In her present mood, talking to someone seemed more active, more productive, than reading emails. Making a mental note to log on as soon as possible, she went downstairs.

“Find her,” the DCI had said, but finding Mary Barnes proved not to be straightforward. Terry Singh was crime scene manager responsible for the scenes of crime team that was still turning the Moor’s Head over. A place where someone has been murdered automatically becomes a crime scene. The advantage of that to the police in this case was not just that they could put their forensics experts in without needing a warrant or clearance from a senior officer. It also meant they could look for and take possession of evidence of any wrongdoing and not just matters concerned with Bob Barnes’s murder.

‘We’ve unearthed all sorts of stuff that we’ll be passing to the DCI. CID are going to be able to clear up a number of crimes they didn’t even know had been committed.

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