THE VALE VINEYARD KILLER an enthralling murder mystery with a twist (Detective Inspector Jack Dawes Mystery Book 8) by FRANCES LLOYD

Author:FRANCES LLOYD [LLOYD, FRANCES]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thrillers, suspense and mystery
Published: 2021-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Jack decided to leave questioning Suzy Black until the next day. Her split lip made it painful for her to speak, and according to Dr Griffin she needed to sleep. Next morning, when Jack and Bugsy arrived at her cottage, Sébastien let them in. He’d brought a huge bouquet of flowers from the Flower Pot and was comforting her. As it turned out, there was little she could tell them.

‘You won’t upset her, will you, officers? She’s had a terrible ordeal.’

‘It’s all right, Seb. I’m fine now. The police need to know what happened, in case the attacker targets someone else.’ She fixed her gaze on Jack. ‘I’d been working late up at the winery. Jolyon has a big presentation planned, and my job will be to extol the virtues of the Richington Vale sparkling Chardonnay, which is the jewel in the crown of his brand. When I got home, I parked the car as usual and I was walking up the path to the house, when someone in black leaped out at me. He must have been hiding in the shadows in my garden. He snatched my bag, then tried to grab my keys to the winery. I screamed and hung on, so he knocked me down, and I think he must have kicked me in the face. He ran off when you all came to my rescue. Seb thinks he wanted my keys so he could get in and damage the winery, but who would do that?’

‘Can you describe your attacker, miss?’

‘Not really. He was tall-ish, but not as tall as you, Inspector, and well-built, but not as solid as the sergeant. That’s about it. It was dark and he was all in black. Even his face was covered. It happened very fast.’

Jack remembered what Garwood had told him about Jolyon suspecting Sandra was behind the attempts to sabotage the vineyard and ruin him. ‘Could it have been a woman?’

Suzy thought about this. ‘I guess it could have been. But who? And why?’

Those were the questions that Jack would like answered.

‘I’m making arrangements for Suzy to move into Richington Hall,’ said Sébastien. ‘She can’t stay here. It isn’t safe.’

Remembering what it had been like on his last visit to the Hall, Bugsy wondered if, indeed, she would be any safer there. It certainly wasn’t any more cheerful.

* * *

George Garwood was sitting in his office, arranging his new pens in perfect formation on the pen-rest, as though they were about to take off for a maiden flight. He adjusted his in-tray so that it sat directly parallel to his out-tray, then — horror of horrors — he spotted a greasy finger mark on the highly polished surface of his mahogany desk. That would be Sergeant Malone’s, whose fingers always bore traces of the last thing he ate. Garwood took out his handkerchief and polished it away. He was wondering how he would explain the fiasco of the previous evening, and the extravagant squandering of overtime budget to the commander, when his phone rang.

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