A Killer Christmas: Allensbury Mysteries, #3 by LM Milford

Author:LM Milford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LM Milford
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

A late council meeting for Dan meant that Emma wasn’t able to give him an update until Thursday morning. He stared at Emma opened mouthed as she recounted her conversation with Oliver Gateby. They were standing in the car park behind the Post’s building away from prying ears.

‘I didn’t see that one coming,’ he said when she’d finished.

Emma nodded. ‘I doubt his neighbour would be quite so friendly if she knew the truth,’ she said. ‘She seems like that sort of person.’

Dan sighed. ‘That blows your theory about the angry husband,’ he said.

‘Not necessarily. We now know that it wasn’t an angry husband after Martin, so we’re back to the idea that he was looking for Adrian and got the wrong man.’

‘Are you going to tell anyone about Oliver and Martin?’ Dan asked.

Emma shook her head. ‘It’s their private business. I told Oliver I’ll only quote him as Martin’s colleague.’ She looked down at the ground. ‘I felt so sorry for him and for making him cry. I left him my whole packet of tissues.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Dan said.

Emma took a deep breath and looked up at Dan. ‘Well, it’s made me more determined to find the killer. Oliver deserves to know why his partner died, especially because it seems like it wasn’t Martin’s fault.’

‘Are you going to look for Martin’s wife?’ Dan asked.

Emma shook her head. ‘They split up years ago and it sounds like she got her pound of flesh at the time. Why would she have come back again now?’

‘Is there any chance you can use your considerable powers of persuasion to make Lotte tell you where Adrian is hiding?’ Dan asked.

Emma groaned. ‘No, she was a closed book. I think it will take a miracle to get those pages open now.’

She turned and led the way into the building. As she arrived at her desk, the phone began to ring. She grabbed the receiver.

‘Hi, Suzy,’ she said when the police press officer identified herself.

‘I need your help,’ came the uncharacteristically brusque reply.

Emma straightened up and picked up her pen. ‘Go ahead.’

‘We’re struggling to get hold of Adrian Kendall,’ Suzy said. ‘Can you do an appeal for him to come forward?’

Emma nodded. ‘Of course,’ she said, writing Suzy’s name and date at the top of her notebook page. ‘He’s still not at home?’ she asked.

There was a sigh. ‘Which you know because you’ve already been there,’ Suzy said, sounding resigned.

Emma smiled to herself. ‘It was for the usual tribute piece. You didn’t tell me I couldn’t speak to him.’ She frowned. ‘And he’s still not come forward? Not even to identify his brother’s body?’ Emma asked, pen poised.

‘No, one of Martin’s work colleagues came to do that. We’d initially contacted Adrian’s boss at Fenleys but he said he didn’t know Martin. He was really shocked by the news though.’

Emma paused. She still couldn’t be sure whether Tony Cootes’s shock was genuine or more like guilt that he’d killed the wrong man.

‘If the ID has been

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