No More Blood: A British Murder Mystery (The Wild Fens Murder Mystery Series Book 13) by Jack Cartwright

Author:Jack Cartwright [Cartwright, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chestnut Press
Published: 2024-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY

Freya flitting around the incident room, preparing her briefings, always reminded Ben of his school days, when the room would hush at the teacher’s arrival and hissed conversations and silent gestures would pass between him and his friends. The only real difference in the adult world was that people replaced the hissed conversations and silent gestures with expressions, usually centred around wide eyes or shrugs.

“If you thought this investigation was growing heads faster than we can chop them off, then you should prepare yourselves,” Freya said, as she wrote on her whiteboard with her back to the team. She snapped the lid back on the pen and then turned. “In fact, it’s rather becoming a modern-day hydra.”

Those wide eyes and confused expressions returned on more than one of the faces in the room.

“It’s Greek mythology,” Freya explained, slightly disappointed in the team’s general knowledge. “The multi-headed beast?”

“Cruz would have known that,” Chapman said. “He’s the one for useless facts.”

“With all due respect, Denise,” Nillson said, “Cruz spends his life watching documentaries and attending quiz nights. Some of us have lives.”

“True,” Freya replied. “But in his defence, what we witnessed at the MacMillan house this afternoon was actually quite remarkable. I’d go as far as to say that he has become quite competent, and I’d appreciate it if we could all treat him with a little more respect. The last thing I want is for his newfound confidence to be destroyed because, believe me, he could give us all a run for your money.”

“So splitting him and Gillespie has worked, has it?” Nillson asked. “How does Gillespie feel about that?”

“Frankly, I don’t care how Gillespie feels. What I’m concerned with is ensuring that each and every one of you performs to the highest possible standard. And do you know what? It’s taken a year but I finally feel like we’re there. If Granger walked in here now and told me I had to lose a member of the team for budgeting reasons, I would have an extremely difficult time making that decision.” She let the sentiment rest for a moment and then gave a friendly smile. “But don’t, for heaven’s sake, tell Gillespie that.”

And just like a few of the better teachers from Ben’s schooldays had managed, Freya raised a few warm laughs.

“Now then,” she said. “Let’s see if we can cut some of these heads off, shall we? Has anyone heard from Gold?”

“Nothing yet,” Chapman said.

“Give her a quick call,” Freya said. “See if she’s in a position to talk. If not, can one of you send her the minutes of the briefing?”

Chapman assumed her usual role and quietly dialled Gold’s number, leaving Freya to continue.

“Primary suspect,” she said, tapping a name on the board. “Kevin Stone. I still want more on him before we can bring him into custody. He was the last person to see her, he had access to the property, and from what we can gather from Anne Hargreaves, he had a thing for Deborah. Now, that doesn’t tie the noose around his neck, but it does bathe him in a new light.

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