After the Flood by Peter Turnbull

Author:Peter Turnbull [Turnbull, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: UK
Publisher: New York : Severn House
Published: 2002-06-04T14:00:00+00:00

WEDNESDAY, 6th APRIL

The rain had lifted. Wednesday dawned bright, clear and sunny, chilly outside, especially in the wind, but visibility was perfect. Hennessey drove into York and to the police station, parking his car beside Yellich’s. Inside the building he saw Yellich standing by the table in the comer of his office, pouring boiling water into a coffee mug.

‘Any joy yesterday?’ he asked.

‘No, boss. Well…I’ll tell you. Coffee?’

‘Yes, I’ll have a mug, thanks.’ Hennessey stepped into Yellich’s office.

‘Well, I phoned the BMW dealership like you asked. They have computerised their records going back twenty years.’

‘And?’

‘No customer by the name of Preston had purchased a vehicle from them since their records began until the time of Amanda Dunney’s disappearance.’ He handed Hennessey a mug of steaming coffee.

Hennessey took the mug, laid it on Yellich’s desk and turned it round so that he could pick it up by the handle. ‘That tells us…well, what does it tell us?’

‘That Mr Preston’s car was second-hand. That’s what I assumed. The first owner bought it from the dealership, and sold it leaving the dealer’s sticker in the rear window. My old Ford is second-hand but the dealer’s sticker is still in the rear window. I’m not bothered whether it’s there or not, but it occurred to me that some folk might deliberately leave the sticker in the window to give the impression that they had bought the car new.’

‘All right, if it tells us that. Possibly. It possibly also tells us that Preston is an assumed name. People wouldn’t have to prove their identity when joining the reading group, unlike applying for a job, for example.’

‘Wouldn’t, would they, boss?’ Yellich nodded. ‘If that’s true, it points a suspicious finger at Preston.’

‘Who, of the reading group, is remembered as being obsessively neat, the likely profile of the murderer suggested by Dr Joseph. Do you think a neat person, a fastidious person, would be careful with his car?’

‘I would think so, boss.’

‘So would I. So why don’t you phone the dealership back? What was their name?’

‘Ferguson’s.’

‘Of course, same as the organiser of the reading group. Yes, phone them, describe Miles Preston, well built, muscular, blond hair, always well dressed, ex-public-school mannerisms.’

‘Will do, boss.’

‘You know, if Miles Preston was an assumed name used in the reading group, it would explain why he always paid for his outings in cash.’

‘Avoided using a cheque?’

‘Exactly. I mean a man with a BMW would chip in his fifteen-quid fee with a cheque.’

‘You’d think so, boss, you’d think so. Yes. I’ll get right on it.’

Hennessey carried the mug of coffee to his office and sat at his desk. He glanced out of his window at the medieval walls of the ancient city, at that moment gleaming in the morning sunlight. They were deserted, the stretch that he could see, but later, even on cold, windy days in April, the walls would be carrying tourists aplenty, and, thought Hennessey as he turned from the window and picked up his telephone, not a few locals too.

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