Death Rocks: A DCI Ryan Mystery by Ross LJ

Author:Ross, LJ
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

The team reconvened at Police Headquarters at four o’clock, minus Frank, who’d excused himself since it was his turn to do the school run and—unbeknownst to his wife—he was looking forward to taking Samantha to the McDonald’s drive-thru for their regular mid-week treat.

“Mac? You remember DC Charlie Reed?”

MacKenzie smiled, and held out a hand.

“Of course,” she said. “Good to have you with us, Charlie.”

Reed felt an immediate sense of kinship, and she understood then that being a part of Ryan’s team was like stepping behind an invisible forcefield, and gave an immediate sense of safety to all who were within its fold.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’m excited to work with you all.”

“Right,” Ryan said, and hitched a hip onto the desk at the front of the room. “Charlie? Why don’t you kick things off, and tell us the status of the investigation in Dunstanburgh?”

She took a fortifying sip of coffee, and started from the top. “As you know, the body of twenty-eight-year-old Will Harding was discovered by members of Dunstanburgh Castle Golf Club early on Saturday,” she said. “It turns out he’d been hired to photograph a retirement party the previous Friday evening, and the pathologist has estimated his time of death to be somewhere between ten o’clock that night, and two o’clock the following morning. Our interviews with key members of the club and attendees at the party have narrowed that to ten-forty-five on Friday night, because he was alive and well and captured on CCTV talking to Molly Finch at the bar, before then.”

Charlie paused to collect her thoughts.

“This morning, Jack and I spoke with Kevin Kincade, whose retirement was being celebrated, and he told us that he witnessed Harding leave the bar area and go down the utility corridor at around that time,” she said. “He also asserts that Molly Finch, who was working behind the bar, followed Harding down the corridor shortly afterwards, he assumes for an assignation in one of the rooms—there’s a disabled toilet, the kitchen area, and two cupboards that are lockable. That corridor also gives access to the back door, so it's possible they might have gone outside, but there’s no CCTV in that area so we’re unable to verify that.”

“What does Molly say?” Ryan asked.

“Her initial statement didn’t mention any rendezvous with Harding,” Charlie said. “In fact, she stated that Harding took her number then left.”

“We paid her a second visit today, but she’s adamant she didn’t leave for any kind of private rendezvous,” Jack put in. “She was quite angry at the insinuation.”

Ryan had heard plenty of manufactured anger in his time. “Did you believe her?” he asked them both.

“Hard to say,” Charlie said. “She was very believable.”

“I agree,” Jack said, and Ryan thought that Reed must have worked a miracle on her teammate, or else Jack had experienced an epiphany of some kind. “We checked the CCTV overlooking the bar again, and there are a few moments where Molly is out of sight. She could easily have been

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