The Hung Jury (A Gold and Silver Murder Mystery) by Robert Innes

Author:Robert Innes [Innes, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-19T22:00:00+00:00

8

The door opened to reveal a tall, black haired girl with heavy, dark makeup round her eyes. Nicola immediately recognised her as Estelle, Rebecca Winters’ daughter. She was wearing a dark hoodie, ripped black jeans and her hair was sticking up in an overdone perm at the back of her head. Nicola suspected by the smell of aerosol coming off her that her hair was spray painted jet black.

Estelle eyed the newcomers. “Who are you?”

“Oh, good evening,” Nicola replied cheerfully. “My name’s Nicola Golding, and this is my associate, Alexander Silverstone. We’re looking to speak to the Winters?”

Estelle groaned. “Oh, you’re not reporters, are you? Sorry, I thought my grandma had made it perfectly clear in her statement, that we don’t want disturbing by the media.”

She went to close the door, but Nicola put her foot in the way. “Actually, we’re not reporters. We’re investigative journalists. We specialise in cases concerning people being sent down for crimes they didn’t commit. We were hoping to talk to someone about Rebecca Winters?”

Estelle opened her mouth in surprise, but before she could say anything, an older woman appeared, who Nicola assumed must be the grandmother. She was wearing a white frilly blouse and her grey hair was tied up in a bun so tight that Nicola was surprised that she did not look to be in any pain.

“Estelle, who is it?” She opened the door wider and stared at them both. “And what can we do for you? My name is Sylvia Moorcroft. I’m Estelle’s grandmother. If you’re from the papers, I shall be calling the police.”

“They’re not, Gran,” Estelle replied. “They say they want to help us with Mum. They don’t think she did it.”

Sylvia eyed Nicola suspiciously. “And how do you expect to help us? My daughter has already been found guilty. Where were you before the trial?”

“Mrs Moorcroft,” Nicola said gently. “May we come in? We believe that evidence was discounted by the police at best, and not even investigated at the very worse. We suspect that you and your family were not listened to, because the police were under pressure from the media to bring this case to a close as quickly as possible. It’ll only take a few minutes.”

Sylvia’s eyes went from Nicola to Alex, who was standing somewhat awkwardly, giving her a weak smile. After appearing to weigh up her options, she sighed and opened the door wider to allow them both in.

“Thank you,” Nicola said. She glanced at Alex who looked horrified that they were being allowed to proceed any further. “You can take notes,” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

The interior of the house seemed lived in but cosy. While there was the odd bit of clutter here and there, the place appeared tidy and efficiently run, and while Nicola had not been expecting a chalked silhouette on the floor or bloody handprints dragging down the wall, it still surprised her that such a normal looking home could have been the location of a brutal murder.

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