FLESH AND BLOOD (DS Coupland series Book 5) by Emma Salisbury

Author:Emma Salisbury [Salisbury, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

It was a judgement call. The amount of information you released in one go to the victim’s loved ones. ‘We did everything we could…’ was a doctor’s stock in trade which readied the recipient for the blow to come, whereas in his line of work there was no crutch to lean on. There was simply no way to soft soap that a loved one had been murdered. Coupland dug deep into his reservoir of platitudes to find something to mitigate his sisters’ pain. ‘The blow to the head meant she was dead before the flames engulfed her.’ Deciding, in the circumstances, to say nothing.

That their mother had died in a fire was bad enough. That she’d been murdered… his sisters were struggling with the concept. Coupland found himself mentally running through the checklist he’d used countless times but the words stuck in his throat. Was there someone he could call? He already knew the answer to that. Pat’s husband was a porter at the children’s hospital, Val’s latest fella would be waving goodbye to his wife and kids before turning up to the office they shared as payroll clerks for a chain of garages. He asked anyway. ‘Do you want me to call Jim and Gary?’

Val looked to Pat to answer for them both. ‘I think we need time to work this out for ourselves first,’ she said.

Coupland nodded.

‘Does Dad know?’

‘Not yet.’

‘I’ll tell him,’ Pat said, asserting her position as the eldest. Already she was striding into the hall to get her coat.

‘No, I have to do it; Mum’s murder is part of an ongoing investigation.’

‘Christ, you don’t think Dad can help you with any of that, surely?’

‘No, but he may have information that would help.’

‘You mean something that he kept from us?’

Coupland looked at her. ‘Would that surprise you?’

‘He’s not devious, Kevin.’

In Coupland’s experience bullies were just that. Manipulative, patient, cruel for the sake of it.

‘Mum leaving like that devastated him.’

Not enough, he found himself thinking.

‘I didn’t think you’d be allowed to get involved, with it being our mam and everything. I mean…’ her voice tailed off as his gaze fell on her.

‘It’s not that easy to reassign cases,’ he said, ‘we no longer have the resources.’

Pat hadn’t yet stood down. She lingered in front of the coat rack defiantly. ‘When will you go and see him?’

Coupland blew out his cheeks; decided honesty was the best policy. ‘I might wait until tomorrow, not like one more day will make a difference.’

Pat thought about this. ‘I suppose it gives us a chance to get our heads around it. You’ll let me know when you’ve been, so I can go round afterwards?’

‘We both can,’ Val called from the hallway.

Coupland nodded. ‘If that’s what you want.’

Satisfied, Pat padded back to the living room where she slumped into her seat. She ran her fingers through her hair, sighed as she thought of something. ‘He’s going a bit deaf, Kevin, it takes him a while to answer the door.’

Coupland nodded, ‘I’ll wait,’ he said.

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