River of Bodies: A gripping mystery about a terrible crime (The Welsh crime mysteries Book 8) by Nicola Clifford

Author:Nicola Clifford [Clifford, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: THE BOOK FOLKS bestselling crime fiction
Published: 2023-01-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty

The incident room was empty and quiet. Elsa had clocked on early and was digging through various bank accounts and credit cards held by Natalie Turrell, CEO of A Roof 4 All. After an hour or so she got to her feet, made coffee and spent a few minutes gazing out of the window. Too much screen time induced a kind of seasickness. Finally tearing herself away from the view, she walked back to her desk the long way round, flopped on the chair and refocused her eyes on the screen.

A credit card transaction suddenly jumped out of a page of other entries. Natalie had made a payment of ten thousand pounds to a Bristol casino. Elsa leaned back in her chair and chuckled. She’d put a month’s wages on the fact that her subject was a problem gambler. Widening the search she uncovered online gambling accounts which also led back to Natalie. Elsa compiled a list and began to think the money raised by remortgaging the property in Clifton had been frittered away – all of it. As far as she could see, Natalie Turrell was broke.

Elsa cleared the screen and began checking the woman’s alibi for the night Haddon had been shot. Salad Days had indeed been performed at the Bristol Old Vic, but there was no sign Natalie had bought a ticket. It was possible someone else had paid but that would be impossible to prove. She turned her attention to the floating restaurant in the docks and again couldn’t discover a booking in the subject’s name. Elsa checked her watch and saw it was just before seven. Hoping the forensic accountant was already at his desk, she dialled his number. She had some new questions for him.

Half an hour later, Ben walked into the room.

‘Good Lord, Constable Duffin,’ he said. ‘Don’t you ever go home?’

‘I work better when the office is empty,’ Elsa said. ‘Find it difficult to concentrate with everyone making a racket.’

‘I can sympathise with that. What are you working on?’

‘Natalie Turrell. I reckon I’ve found out what she spends her money on.’

‘Have you?’

‘Pretty sure. She’s a gambler – casinos and online poker. I’ve calculated her losses over the last year or so and she’s running at an average of around £10k a month.’

‘Bloody hell, that’s a lot of money. Does any of it come from the charity she runs?’

‘I’m not sure yet but the forensic guy is checking. I spoke to him just before you came in and he’s gonna take another look. He wondered if that’s why the charity’s income is down during recent years.’

‘What made you look in that direction?’ Ben asked.

‘I spotted a large payment to a Bristol casino from Turrell’s personal credit card.’

Ben raised his eyebrows. ‘How did you manage that?’

‘I… uh… had a few lessons… from Heidi Holtz.’

‘Ah, I see. Be careful, Elsa. Heidi isn’t a copper any longer. You are.’

‘Yes, sir. There’s another thing. Turrell’s alibi. I can’t verify her trip to the theatre or a late dinner at the docks.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.