One Is One and All Alone by Anthea Fraser

Author:Anthea Fraser [Fraser, Anthea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, British Detectives, Thrillers & Suspense, Crime, Murder, Traditional Detectives, Thrillers
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2014-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

9

Webb had assigned the following morning to interviewing Lethbridge CID, together with those in uniform who’d had contact with Bennett. First, though, he put a call through to the Crown Prosecution Service and was connected with a solicitor by the name of Terence Ryan.

‘DCI Webb, Mr Ryan, from Shillingham. I just wanted to let you know I’m investigating the death of Chief Inspector Bennett.’

He waited while the solicitor murmured his condolences.

‘Thanks. We have a rather tricky situation here, which I thought you should know about.’ Quickly, he outlined the omission from Una’s alibi and the unusually long time her journey to Steeple Bayliss had taken, thereby allowing for her having left home later than she’d claimed.

‘It might be nothing,’ he ended, ‘but I thought it was as well to contact you, in case we suddenly need the weight of the law behind us. I’ll keep in touch.’

As he put the phone down it started to ring and he lifted it again. It was a call from the house in Westwood Avenue.

‘A woman’s just turned up, Guv,’ the Scenes-of-Crime man informed him. ‘Says she’s the cleaning lady. She’s heard about the murder, and didn’t know if she was expected to come in as usual.’

‘Right, Phil, thanks; I’m glad she’s surfaced — we were wanting a word. Hang on to her and I’ll send a couple of men along.’ He paused. ‘How much longer will you be there?’

‘We’ve all but finished. Should be out by lunchtime.’ Webb put down the phone and lifted the intercom, wondering whether Una Bennett would now return home. No doubt it would suit Barbara Wood if she did.

Having arranged for Mrs Jones to be interviewed, he began his delicate task.

None of the officers he interviewed had anything but praise for their dead colleague — which, though understandable, did not rule out the possibility that one of them had killed him. Particular attention was paid to anyone Bennett had disciplined recently, but he’d been an easy-going man, not given to draconian punishments, and it seemed unlikely Webb would find a lead there.

Brian Stratton, seen in his turn, volunteered the information that Bennett had seemed particularly low on the morning after his birthday.

‘We arrived for work at the same time, and he was looking very down in the mouth. I kidded him about having a hangover.’

‘He didn’t say what was wrong?’

‘No, I wish now I’d probed a bit deeper, but I didn’t like to. Malcolm was a private chap, and he’d had his share of worries over the years.’

‘Have you met Mrs Bennett?’

Stratton grinned. ‘Association of ideas? I’ve met her a couple of times, but she’s not one for joining in social gatherings. Different from his first wife as chalk and cheese — but you’d know that yourself.’ He paused. ‘Do you still think the killer gained entry by conventional means?’

‘It seems that way, certainly, though he was canny enough to break the glass from the outside. In fact, it was something Mrs Bennett said that strengthened the theory, though it might not amount to anything.

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