Grave Passion (DCI Cook Thriller Series Book 12) by Phillip Strang

Author:Phillip Strang [Strang, Phillip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-21T22:00:00+00:00

***

Gwen Pritchard stood outside the house in Holland Park, the photo blown up and on a large board secured to the front gate. It wasn’t the first time that a police officer had been in the street, but before the picture had been an identikit based on Larry’s recollection, and there wasn’t any shortage of women who matched Analyn’s description.

It was a thankless task, and it was cold, so much so that Gwen was looking forward to a break from standing outside the house. She decided she’d stop after talking to the first twenty people, mainly retirees with nothing better to do, and school pupils off to the first lesson of the day: the females looking up at the tall constable, pleased to talk to her; the adolescent males taking the opportunity to speak to her, some of them misbehaving, one getting a rebuke for getting too close, another for a smart comment.

Nobody knew anything, which wasn’t surprising as the house hadn’t been occupied for more than a few weeks, and there was a rear entrance down a lane at the back, a remote control to open the sliding gate.

‘I remember her,’ the next-door neighbour said when Gwen, tiring of the street, knocked on the door. ‘I could see her from my bedroom window, not that I could hear. I don’t make a habit of looking in other people’s backyards, seeing who’s who, but these days, you can’t be too careful, can you?’

The lady was in her seventies, obviously very well off financially judging by the antiques in the house, the oil paintings on the wall. Gwen had studied art and had once considered a career in the restoration of paintings, soon discounted as it had only been a fad brought on by her parents who saw the police force as a dead-end job, only suitable for the lower echelons of society. Her parents were snobs, she was not, but she could act the part if required.

‘New money, singers, we’ve had them all down here. No breeding most of them and some of the parties…’

‘Next door?’ Gwen glanced up at a Matisse, his blue period, a caricature of a nude female. It was genuine from what she could see, worth a fortune.

‘I can’t say I approved of the two of them, but they were quiet, hardly ever saw them.’

The story had already been told to other police officers, Gwen knew, having read the reports.

‘Cavorting?’

‘The two of them in that house together.’

‘Ian Naughton, the man in the house, said that his wife was away, and the young Asian woman was a housemaid, looking after the children. Not that we’ve ever found proof of that.’

‘I spoke to her once. My dog, a sweet little thing, wouldn’t harm a fly, had found a break in the wall and had gone into their garden.’

‘I know that this has been mentioned by you before, but I’d appreciate it if you’d tell me in your own good time.’

‘I can tell you come from breeding.’

It wasn’t mentioned,

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