Human Trials: A Detective Marshall Thriller by Karen Hastie

Author:Karen Hastie [Hastie, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Here be dragons Ltd
Published: 2024-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Wood Street Station. Sunday 10.30am.

‘So let’s hear it then,’ Thacker snapped, as Marshall closed the office door. ‘This theory of yours.’

Marshall took a deep breath.

‘It was something the verger said at St Bride’s. About the plagues of Egypt.’

‘There were ten, I’m well aware, thanks to a good old Catholic education.’

‘It’s probably nothing, but the numbers scrawled on the wall of Kostiv’s kitchen: 8:21 — there’s a passage in Exodus that talks about a plague of flies.’

Thacker’s expression softened a little. ‘And now we’ve had a plague of locusts.’

‘And the victim in the church, it was boils.’

‘Did he leave a clue at the church too?’

Marshall nodded her head. ‘He left it on the hymn board.’ She opened her phone and showed her the photo.

The DCI leaned against the edge of her desk and folded her arms. Marshall couldn’t tell from her face if she was about to send her for a psych evaluation or laugh her out of the office.

‘Okay, so just for the sake of argument let’s say that Childs is a religious nutter with an axe to grind, who’s using the plagues as a way to punish us or his victims, but why? What’s his motive?’

‘No, I don’t think it’s Childs. The guy who left the taxi at Twickenham was taller. Frazer is analysing his gait to see if he can identify him from the crowd. He thinks he would have gone to watch the match.’

Thacker sighed. ‘So if it’s not Childs, why was his DNA in the van?’

‘Probably planted. Childs never really fitted the profile. He’d been in the nick for most of his adult life.’

‘Maybe he found God. Old lags tend to either get religion or law degrees.’

‘Even if he did, there’s no connection to Michelle Sandborne other than using his taxi. We’ve got another potential suspect, the verger, Nathan Daniels. He worked at a church in Richmond before joining St Bride’s. Had allegations made against him by a couple of women from the congregation between twenty-twelve and twenty-fourteen. We’re checking to see if Michelle was a member too.’

Thacker shook her head. ‘Sounds a bit too close to home don’t you think? He might as well paint a big sign on his back if he’s stupid enough to kill someone on his own doorstep.’

Marshall had to agree, although Donovan had always told her to consider every possibility. ‘I’m not ruling anything out yet. Although it doesn’t explain why he would have broken into her office at home. I still think it’s got something to do with the pharma company. Whatever Michelle was involved with, I think it got her killed.’

‘Well, we’re still waiting for the search warrant to be approved. Apparently there have been complications.’ Thacker stood up and went around to the other side of her desk.

‘Latham’s are using every trick in the book to deny us access, not helped by the Swiss authorities who are refusing to assist us.’

Marshall suspected as much. International legal matters always came with complications, especially when it involved Switzerland.

‘Even with the threat of a virus?’

‘We’ve been told to keep that under wraps for now.

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