The Corfe Castle Murders (Dorset Crime Book 1) by Rachel McLean

Author:Rachel McLean [McLean, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ackroyd Publishing
Published: 2021-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Six

Lesley stood outside her house, her heart racing. It had started to rain. Bloody typical.

She turned back to the house. The curtains had been drawn in the bedroom. Her bedroom. Where her toad of a husband was shagging a woman who was way out of his league.

She shouldn’t have stormed out like that. It was her house. She should have kicked the Spanish woman out. Julieta. Terry, too.

She sighed, imagining the legal wranglings over the house. Then there was Sharon to think of. With Lesley stuck in Dorset for the next six months, Terry would want custody.

She shook her head. The rain was making her face wet. Not tears. She was too angry for tears.

She’d been too busy with her career over the years to cultivate the kind of friends whose doorstep you could arrive at unannounced at ten o’clock on a Tuesday night, dripping wet and steaming with anger.

It would have to be a colleague. She should phone ahead, but her new Dorset Police-issued phone didn’t have the numbers of her old colleagues.

She flicked her phone on and brought up the Uber app.

Twenty minutes later she was standing outside a narrow terraced house in Selly Oak. She pushed her hair back, knowing she looked a state.

A curtain flickered in the bay window next door: a young man looking out at her. She gave him a sarcastic wave and he pulled the curtain shut. She took a breath and rang the doorbell.

A light came on, visible through the glass over the front door. She was home, at least. After a few moments, the door opened.

A woman in her early forties with long red-brown hair stood in the doorway. She had a grey tabby cat in her arms. When she recognised Lesley, her jaw dropped.

“Ma’am?”

Lesley shook her head. “I’m not your boss any more.”

Zoe looked past Lesley as if she was expecting to see a fleet of police cars behind her. “Everything OK?”

“I’m getting pretty wet.”

“Sorry. Come in.”

Lesley shuffled past DI Finch into a narrow hall. The cat yawned at her as she passed. Zoe remembered she was holding it and let the creature drop to the floor before closing the front door.

Lesley walked through to a chaotic living room. Empty Chinese takeaway cartons littered the coffee table and a pair of black Doc Martens had been slung on the floor next to the sofa. Zoe had never been known for her tidiness.

Lesley turned back to the woman who’d worked for her until a few short months ago. Zoe Finch had been her best DI, the only person she could trust with all this crap.

“Did Dorset not work out, Ma’am?”

“Call me Lesley, please. Dorset’s fine. I had to come back for an interview with Superintendent Rogers. First thing tomorrow morning.”

“Ah.” Zoe would know all about that. The interview was about the Jackdaw case, investigating Lesley’s corrupt former boss, Detective Superintendent David Randle. Without Zoe’s input, Rogers and his team wouldn’t have collared the man.

“Do you need something from me, Lesley?” Zoe looked awkward saying her name.

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