TWISTED CRIMES a British crime mystery full of twists (Detective Sophie Allen Book 5) by MICHAEL HAMBLING

Author:MICHAEL HAMBLING [HAMBLING, MICHAEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books Mystery, Crime Thriller, Suspense Fiction
Published: 2024-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22: Mole Hunt

Friday afternoon, Week 2

Rae got down to work immediately. She started by summarising the information that Sophie had given her, following her visit to Bournemouth that morning. Rae used mind-mapping software rather than a physical incident board, and built up a web diagram on her laptop, securely protected with a new password. The boss had been right. There were just too many suspicious events. It wasn’t only the possible leak of information from the incident board early in the week. There was now a trail of suspicious activity. Requests for information had been delayed or played down, legitimate queries sent down blind avenues or cleverly diverted.

At least she now had a name to work with, but she would have to be careful. The diversions had all been done so cleverly that he might notice any investigation. The mole’s link to the Woodruff family business seemed pretty logical, but were there other connections?

The starting point must be that funeral. She thought so, and so did the boss. Something had happened there that had led to the deaths of Sylvia and Ted Armitage, who’d been present only by accident. She needed to know who had been present, apart from the Woodruff family themselves. But she couldn’t afford to set off any alarm bells. Not even a glimmer of what she was up to must get back to the mole.

Why had the Armitage couple been there? Because they’d been early for the next funeral, the one they were planning to attend. Rae sat thinking. Wait! Maybe the two groups of mourners had intermingled, just slightly. Maybe a person at the later funeral recognised someone attending the Woodruff service as they left the crematorium. She re-examined the notes Marsh had made after his visit there, then phoned Sharon Giroux for confirmation. Rae then identified the funeral directors, and then the family member who had arranged the later funeral, that of Sylvia’s friend, Georgie Palmer. Rae was up and running.

* * *

Rae drove south to Poole and spent an hour with Georgie Palmer’s son, Colin, an assistant bank manager and keen local historian — as she soon discovered. Eventually Rae came away with a long list of names, addresses and telephone numbers, with those Colin considered most reliable marked with an asterisk. Colin himself had been too preoccupied with his mother’s death to notice whether there were still people lingering from the previous service, but he was sure that at least a few of the guests would have been more observant.

Rae returned to the office and started the long task of contacting the guests. The first eighteen calls generated nothing, the people weren’t even aware of the committal just a few minutes prior to Georgie’s funeral. It was nearly six in the evening and Rae was beginning to feel despondent when someone volunteered the first key item of information.

This was Shirley Willis, a former work colleague of Georgie’s. ‘I saw Councillor Blythe coming out. I know him because he’s on the development committee and I’ve been to a few planning meetings.

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