Trio: An unputdownable British crime thriller (DI Nick Jellicoe Series Book 3) by Jack Murray

Author:Jack Murray [Murray, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-28T06:00:00+00:00

19

‘If my Bill were alive today,’ said Ada Bickerstaff to Crombie as they sat down to dinner in the hotel restaurant by the large bay windows which overlooked the sea. Outside, the sky was velvet dark, but they could still see white-crested breakers caressing the shore. Their sound was drowned out by the crashing of pots and pans behind the doors of the kitchen and the murmur of the hotel restaurant customers all around.

Sergeant Crombie chuckled, ‘What would he say about you dining with a strange man, working as undercover for the police?’

‘You’re not that strange Sergeant Crombie,’ replied Ada shaking a napkin and placing it on her lap.

All around the dining room, people were staring at her. Or to be more precise, they were staring at the diamond necklace. Ada was under no illusions about this, but a girl can dream, even when she is nearer seventy than sixty. She had been partly denied the triumph of helping clear up two crimes a couple of months previously by the horrific injury sustained by the young detective constable. Thankfully, he was not just on the mend, but back on duty.

Now, having thought that her career in crime-busting had reached its glorious conclusion, here she was back on the hunt of a gang of jewel thieves. It beat everything and no mistake, she thought. Her Bill would have been so proud. But he was no longer with her. His death five years previously had left a chasm in her life; one that she had never imagined could be filled. So young, too: he’d turned sixty-five. Retired less than three months; his whole life ahead of him. She blamed the cigarettes. How many times had she told him, ‘They’re doing you no good, Bill Bickerstaff. Mark my words.’

He hadn’t until too late.

Now she was alone, but not tonight or even tomorrow night. She would be needed by someone. That someone was the police in the shape of Sergeant Alex Crombie. She could no more get used to the idea of calling him Alex in private than she could calling him by his alias for the weekend, Horatio. Still, unless someone was listening in, how would they know? She settled back and decided to enjoy a three-course dinner paid for by the police. The only question on her mind was whether to choose the most expensive items on the menu or be more modest in her aspirations. Sergeant Crombie was under no such doubt. He ordered the most expensive of everything and let the bean counters worry about the cost.

So Crombie and Ada Bickerstaff enjoyed a three-course meal washed down by an expensive French Cabernet. The only thing glinting more brightly than the diamonds on Ada’s neck was the smile splitting her face.

*

‘How much?’ yelled Superintendent Frankie down the phone. It was Sunday afternoon when Frankie rang Chief Inspector Burnett at his home. Reginald Burnett was normally off duty on a Sunday afternoon and, Mrs Burnett permitting, enjoying his usual afternoon nap. Not today.

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