Death under the Apple Tree: An unputdownable cozy murder mystery (A Sukey Reynolds Mystery Book 7) by Betty Rowlands

Author:Betty Rowlands [Rowlands, Betty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838880552
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2019-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

16

The route from the CSIs’ office to the exit from the building took Sukey past DI Castle’s office. She was hoping his door would be shut so that she could slip past unnoticed, pick up her car and go home. She was feeling tired and a little bruised; the last thing she wanted at the moment was another argument with him. To her dismay, the door was wide open; even worse, he was standing there talking to DC Derek Page. As she approached, she heard the young detective say, ‘Right, sir,’ before making off down the corridor. The next moment, Sukey found herself inside the office with the door closed behind her and Castle facing her from behind his desk.

‘I think we’d better have this out right away,’ he said.

‘Do we have to?’ she said wearily. ‘I’ve already given DCI Lord an undertaking not to delay passing on information in future.’ After a moment’s thought, she added, ‘Although I think he understands the reason why I did it in this case.’

‘I dare say he does, and in a way I suppose I do too, although I wish you hadn’t done it.’ His expression was hurt rather than angry. He lowered his voice and said, ‘Sook, didn’t you give a thought to the risk you were taking? A woman was murdered in those grounds a few days ago and you never know who might have been lurking around. You said that fellow became aggressive – supposing he was the killer? He might have attacked you and with no one within earshot, heaven knows what could have happened. It doesn’t bear thinking about.’

‘With your prime suspect under arrest? I hardly think so.’

‘You know as well as I do that we always keep an open mind until we’ve got enough evidence to charge anyone. We might be pretty sure Kirtling’s our man – this latest bit of evidence strengthens the case against him – but we still can’t rule out other possibilities.’

‘Well, I don’t think that old boy is the killer type – although,’ she added mischievously, ‘as it happened, he did wave a spiky fork around in a rather threatening manner, so I decided not to argue and I ran away instead. The thing is,’ she went on hurriedly, realising from his expression that her attempt at levity had fallen flat, ‘none of it would have happened if you didn’t insist on monitoring my every move all the time.’

‘That’s not fair,’ he protested. ‘I said I was sorry for upsetting you on Saturday. You should have told me then about the paint on the gardener’s hands.’

‘Yes, I know,’ she admitted, ‘but things between us were still a bit edgy and I was afraid it would only set you off again. In any case, if Miranda had reported it as I expected, you’d never have found out I’d been there. OK, it was very stupid and I’ve already admitted as much to DCI Lord. When Kirtling denied seeing the paint and made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wanted the matter dropped, I knew I had to report it, and I did.

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