THE LOST BROTHER an absolutely gripping crime mystery full of twists (Tyrone Swift Detective Book 10) by GRETTA MULROONEY

Author:GRETTA MULROONEY [MULROONEY, GRETTA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thrillers, suspense and mysteries
Published: 2022-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

I can help you about Corinne Buckley, née Ellwood, even if my husband is reluctant. Come and see me at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, when he’ll be out.

He wasn’t going to pass up the intriguing invitation and had replied, saying he’d be there.

‘Have I embarrassed you?’ Elizabeth Utley enquired.

‘No. I’m just not sure why you want to tell me that.’

‘Because you need to understand that Raymond is a liar and a cheat, interested only in himself and what benefits him. I discovered that soon after we married. It’s a way of life for him. He’ll always dissemble rather than tell the truth. His brain is wired that way.’ She smirked. ‘You could say it’s his factory setting.’

‘You’re telling me that he lied when he insisted that he couldn’t help me about Corinne Ellwood.’

‘Exactly. Do have a brandy snap.’

Swift wasn’t hungry, but he selected one from the tin to buy himself time and because they smelled good. Elizabeth Utley adjusted the Alice band on her long, greying, greasy hair. Her ghostly pallor spoke of a woman who spent many hours indoors. She wore a faded navy-blue tea dress, cinched at the waist with a white belt and a brown cardigan draped around her neck. The skin on her bare legs and arms was mottled, with reddened, scabby patches. She was a woman who’d given up bothering with her appearance, which might indicate that no one cared. She radiated simmering anger. When he arrived, she’d been raking leaves on the front lawn, stabbing the grass with the prongs as if exacting punishment.

‘Raymond and I have maintained separate lives for years,’ she announced. ‘We cohabit under the same roof, but otherwise we go our own ways, with agreed time slots for the kitchen. We have our own bathrooms.’

‘Do you have children?’

Her eyelids drooped. ‘None of your beeswax, but no. Raymond didn’t want them.’

‘The arrangement you have here suits you?’

‘I suppose it must. It’s a mutual agreement.’

Yet she kept tabs on her husband, knew where he’d gone for the day. Her eczema told a story of irritation and resentment. Swift found her need to tell a stranger about her fractured marriage sad, but her unhappiness could work to his advantage.

She gave him a sly smile. ‘I expect you’re wondering how I worked out you’d contacted Raymond and how I got your details.’

He wanted to say, People with cheating partners are always detectives in their own lives, constantly seeking clues, but it wouldn’t pay to antagonise her. ‘I did speculate. I assume you snooped. Takes one to know one, Ms Utley.’

She stiffened, unsure if she’d been insulted, then laughed. ‘I like your bluntness. I bet no one pulls the wool over your eyes.’

‘You’d be surprised. Sometimes, we don’t see what we want to ignore.’

‘That was true of me many years ago, but not for a long time. I heard Raymond’s weasel voice when he rang you, so I checked his phone and listened to your message. Then I saw that he’d searched for you online, so I looked at your website.

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