Nothing But Smiles: a female detective guns for a total creep (The DCI Gawn Girvin series Book 7) by Linda Hagan

Author:Linda Hagan [Hagan, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: THE BOOK FOLKS bestselling British crime fiction publisher
Published: 2023-07-22T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 40

Gawn was waiting with Maxwell in his office.

‘You think Emoji Man sent the doughnuts, boss?’ Maxwell asked.

‘Who else? We’ve no other cases on. He attacked Rainey last night and, keep this to yourself, Paul, he thought it was me he was attacking. I was the target.’

McKeown arrived at his open door just then, preventing Maxwell from commenting on her admission.

‘I checked with Harry in reception, boss. It was wee Kevin from Dockers’ Doughnuts at Titanic who delivered the box. Same as always. I phoned them and they told me they got the order over the phone late this morning. It was a man’s voice but there was nothing distinctive about it. He paid by credit card. I’ve checked that too. It was a stolen card.’

‘Fingerprints?’ Gawn asked hopefully.

‘One set on the box. I sent Jamie out to Dockers. They were Kevin’s.’

‘So we’ve got absolutely nothing,’ Gawn said. ‘How did he get the–’ she paused before going on ‘–the toy substituted for the doughnuts? Kevin couldn’t be involved, could he? Or someone else from the bakery?’

‘I’d be surprised, boss. There’s only a couple of them and they’ve all worked there for ages. Kevin told Jamie he had a delivery to an office on Holywood Road right before he came here. The caller said it was urgent – a last-minute thing for a leaving party today – so he did it first. Your box was on the back of his bike while he was inside doing the delivery. All he can think is someone must have swapped it then.’

‘Was it the same man who ordered the second delivery?’ Maxwell asked.

‘According to Kevin the voice didn’t sound the same. The second man had a bit of an English accent. But he admitted he wasn’t really paying much attention to the voice. It was good business for them. Fifty doughnuts. A big order and they were getting a generous bonus for a quick delivery. It was paid for by a corporate card which checks out and they were expecting the delivery when Kevin got there so it seems genuine enough.’

‘In which case our man must have been following Kevin and taken his chance when he stopped,’ Gawn said.

‘But how could he be sure Kevin was going to stop somewhere?’ Maxwell asked.

‘Good question, Paul. Look into the people who placed the other order, Erin. Maybe our man works there,’ Gawn said.

‘There was something else, boss.’ McKeown handed her a small business card. ‘It was at the bottom of the box under the… toy. I had it fingerprinted. Nothing.’ She shook her head.

‘That would have been too much to hope for. He’s careful. He doesn’t make simple mistakes like that,’ Gawn said and then began reading the card aloud so Maxwell would know what was on it. ‘Just a wee gift to keep you sweet until I can do the job myself.’

Her voice had wavered very slightly as she finished the message. She turned the card around to show him the printed words with an emoji face with sunglasses and a red heart.

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