To Die For by Dalgliesh J. M

Author:Dalgliesh, J. M. [Dalgliesh, J. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Crime, thriller
Amazon: B097CFNVMB
Goodreads: 58402981
Publisher: Hamilton Press
Published: 2021-09-18T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

The ride was uncomfortable as the car bounced along the dirt track. The verges to both the left and right were overgrown, the vegetation encroaching on either side of them, but Tom noted the growth was limited much as an overhanging tree is often shaped by the passage of traffic beneath it. This track had been used frequently by several vehicles. He pulled up to a rusting metal, five-bar gate. It was shut but he could see it wasn't locked.

"Is this it?" Kerry asked and Tom pulled the map from the door bin beside him and examined it. The structures were clearly marked and the track petered out just past the gate. He nodded and Kerry climbed out to open it. Tom pulled through and once clear of the tall hedgerow to either side, the barn came into view off to their right.

The track branched off to the old barn, a dilapidated brick building with Dutch gables. Where there would once have been a thatched roof, the building was now lined in corrugated metal sheeting. Several of the panels had slipped out of place or been torn away by storms exposing the rafters to the elements. Tom parked the car and they got out, looking around.

As he had seen from the Ordnance Survey map the largest barn was part of a small complex of outbuildings set out in a horseshoe arrangement, springing from both ends of the main structure. The surrounding pasture lands, too small to farm but good for grazing, were left fallow, looking as if they hadn't been occupied in some time. The boundaries of the Moy land were visible in the distance marked by damaged fencing, distinctive hedgerows or mature trees.

"Last one," Tom said, struggling to fold the map in the stiff breeze and tucking it into his coat pocket.

Following the conclusion of the interview with Danny Tice, they decided to look into Tice's comments and set about determining where the Moys' land began and ended. It quickly became clear that what was once a smallholding of significant note had dwindled over successive years as parts of the family business were packaged up and sold off. The Land Registry confirmed the change of titles and the new owners were often local farmers who purchased land adjoining their own and at the market rates. The reduction in land appeared to accelerate shortly after the death of Maureen Moy, but dramatically reduced four years later.

There hadn't been any sales in the previous three years. However, a quick scan of the business’s filed financial accounts in the previous two years showed a reduction in tenanted income from land leased to tenant farmers which had been a constant for the Moys since the death of Arnold, Maureen's husband and father to Billy and Simon. The profit generated however had increased in the same period. Associated costs had also increased whereas the land itself appeared far more profitable than it had done previously, and from a layman's eye it was without good reason.

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