The Embalmer by Alison Belsham

Author:Alison Belsham [Alison Belsham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime, Mystery, Police Detective, Serial Killer, Suspense, Thriller, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9781409182702
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2020-11-11T23:00:00+00:00

37

Sunday, 12 November 2017

Francis

Francis stared across his kitchen table at Alex and Liv for a full minute before he remembered to shut his mouth.

‘You’re out of your tiny minds.’

‘No, we’re not,’ said Alex. ‘You know she’s innocent. We’re going to prove it.’

‘Paul Mullins is already on the run for GBH for attacking your mother last summer, and now there’s the distinct possibility that he murdered your father. The police are never going to sanction a secret meeting between you and him. It’s way too dangerous. Sergeant Mackay will flat out refuse.’

‘Which is why I came to you.’

‘My hands are tied. I’m a witness in this case, which means I can’t be operational.’

‘So my mother gets to stay in prison? You know what it’s doing to her.’

‘I know, and I want her out of there as much as you do. But you’ve got to let Mackay handle this.’

‘He’s done a great job so far,’ said Liv, scowling. ‘If your lot had actually managed to catch Paul after he beat up Marni last summer, Thierry would probably still be alive.’

‘Jesus, Liv!’ said Alex.

The accusation cut Francis like a knife. They’d had an APW out for Paul Mullins for months but Thierry’s brother had gone to ground most effectively. With no sign of him anywhere, Francis had assumed he’d gone back to France. Apparently not.

‘If he’s been in touch with you, the best thing you can do is let us have the details. We’ll be able to trace the mobile phone he’s using, and that should give us a location for him.’

‘If I don’t agree to the meeting, he’ll smell a rat and go to ground,’ said Alex.

‘And he’ll probably ditch that phone anyway,’ said Liv. ‘He wasn’t born yesterday.’

They had a point.

‘Let me see his messages,’ said Francis.

Alex accessed the thread and held up his phone for Francis to see. But he kept a tight grip on it – he clearly didn’t trust Francis enough to hand it over.

P: Let me explain what happened. It wasn’t how you think.

P: You need me more than ever now. We’re family.

A: Yeah, like they say, you don’t get to choose your family.

P: You’re not giving me a chance, Alex.

A: What do you expect?

A: I think you killed my father.

P: No, I wasn’t even there . . .

P: You know it was your mother . . .

P: Meet me and we can talk about it.

‘The last message arrived just over an hour ago,’ said Alex. ‘I haven’t answered it yet.’

As soon as Francis looked up from the screen, Alex thrust the phone back into his jeans pocket.

‘You should let me have that,’ said Francis. ‘We need to track him down and question him.’

‘You need to bloody arrest him,’ hissed Liv.

Alex frowned at both of them. ‘I want to meet him,’ he said. ‘I could get a confession out of him.’

Francis shook his head. ‘No way.’

‘But, don’t you see? I’m the only person who can do this. He won’t talk to anyone else.’

Francis considered his words.

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