The Body in the Ice House by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy [Hardy, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

‘The bank details are here, guv,’ Larissa said. ‘And it’s very interesting. As well as the accounts I’d expect to see, Karen Berry’s got a bank account that only has cash paid into it. It was opened two years ago. The deposits are about once a month, but not on the same day of the month, and they’re different amounts each time.’

‘Are there any outgoing payments?’ Colin asked.

‘No. It’s not an interest-bearing account, either, which is weird if it’s a savings account. There’s quite a bit in it.’ Larissa tilted her screen so he could see it.

‘The payments were made in various branches across London. Right. We need to talk to those branches and see if their records can narrow it down to the time the money was paid in,’ Colin said. ‘And we need the CCTV from the last three months, if it’s available, so we can get an image of whoever paid the money in.’

‘Provided they’re not wearing a face mask,’ Mo said. ‘I know we’re not under Covid restrictions anymore, but some people still wear face masks if they’re out at the shops.’

People who had health concerns, Colin thought – but it was also a useful excuse for people who didn’t want their faces seen for any reason. ‘Let’s hope not,’ he said. ‘Anything on the phone records, yet?’

‘Nothing that looks out of the usual,’ Larissa said. ‘Karen didn’t make any calls on Sunday – definitely not to a taxi firm or a friend – so maybe she was planning to drive herself up to London.’

‘Maybe,’ Colin said. ‘Can we do another check on the phone records for a couple of days either side of the dates for the last three times money was paid into that odd account? See if there’s a pattern to the phone numbers – incoming and outgoing – and if any of them crop up around all three dates.’

‘Will do,’ Mo said. ‘Though, if she’s got a secret bank account, could she have had a secret phone as well? A pay-as-you-go she only uses to contact whoever puts the money in her account?’

‘We’ll need to do a search for that as well as a beige wool item. In the meantime, I’m going to have a chat with Maggie Pritchard and see if she still has her notes about the things that went missing,’ Colin said. ‘If Karen really was taking small things from the house and selling them, that might account for the cash deposits.’

Straight after the phone call, Maggie emailed Colin her notes and photographs.

‘It seems as if something went missing from the house about once a month,’ Colin said. ‘It’s beginning to look as if Maggie Pritchard was right to be suspicious. If Karen was taking these little pieces – and, from the amount of the deposits in that bank account, it’s a strong possibility – who was she selling them to? And did that person meet her in London, or did they meet her at Hartington?’

‘Maybe the ice house was their meeting point,’ Larissa suggested.

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