HER HUSBAND'S SECRET a gripping crime thriller full of twists by JANICE FROST

Author:JANICE FROST [FROST, JANICE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books Mystery, Crime Thriller, Suspense Fiction
Published: 2016-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Ava’s dislike of Reg Saunders didn’t spring simply from the fact that he was old school in his attitudes. She could forgive the fact that he was more interested in her body than her mind. After all, she’d come across plenty of women who shared that very view of men. No, her dislike of him sprang from nothing more rational than a prickly feeling that she felt whenever she was in his company. It came down to the fact that she simply didn’t trust him. And in Ava’s book, trust was everything when it came to relationships, in her work and her personal life.

She wasn’t in the best of moods, therefore, when she approached Saunders for an update on the theft of chemicals from Ridgeway Farm on the night Ewan Cameron met his untimely end. His smile was lascivious when she greeted him with a reluctant, “Good morning.”

“At least pretend you mean it, Blondie,” Saunders said, just managing to keep his eyes on her face. “If you’re after info on the Ridgeway theft, I don’t have a lot for you. Josh Martin, the owner, might as well have advertised his stock of chemicals in the Courier and invited thieves to help themselves.”

“His security was a bit lax then, was it?” Ava said.

“Try non-existent. He kept his supplies of pesticides and fertilisers in an outbuilding out of view of the farmhouse. No security lighting, alarms or cameras. He did have a padlock on the door but the windows were unsecured. The thieves entered via one of them. Didn’t even need to smash the glass.”

“Any evidence left on site? Footprints? Discarded materials?” Ava asked hopefully.

Saunders shook his head. “Nada. We do know they drove across a couple of fields to access the farm. Left tracks behind but they used a transit van, common make, no identifiable features. They knew what they were doing all right. Magpie Farm is a couple of miles west of Ridgeway but Gordon Perkins has state of the art security. No one in their right mind would target his stores over the Martins’.”

“How much did they get away with?”

“Five grand’s worth of chemicals, but Martin also had ten grand’s worth of tools and equipment stored in the same outbuilding. They took the lot.”

“I’m assuming there were no identification markings on any of it?”

Saunders merely gave her a look.

“So. Ewan Cameron. Do you think there’s a connection? Or was it just coincidence that he died the same night? Murder’s a big step up from theft.”

Saunders pursed his lips and gave a non-committal grunt. “Not if you’re desperate or if you don’t give a shit about the value of a human life. If the thieves weren’t local opportunists, the alternative would be an organised gang of some sort, and Stromford’s got its share of low-life scumbags.” Ava suspected that he was alluding to the recent influx of Eastern European migrants to Stromford, to whom any rise in criminal activity was routinely attributed, justifiably or otherwise. She was aware of Saunders waiting for her to comment, but she let his remark go unchallenged.

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