An Unsafe Pair of Hands by Chris Dolley

Author:Chris Dolley [Dolley, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Crime
ISBN: 9781611381108
Publisher: Book View Cafe

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

For the second time in two days Shand entered the marital twilight zone. All colour, and hope, and sound drained from his world leaving a silent, black and white wasteland. Despair. Shock. And an inevitability that had been building since the moment he left London. His marriage was over. Anne had moved on...

“Sir?” Taylor was still talking. “Are you still there?”

“Just,” said Shand, staring bleakly into the distance.

“Anyway, according to the receptionist, this Mrs. Marchant has been a regular visitor to the hotel over the past three months. Always with Gabriel Marchant. I’ve got a picture of her from the CCTV and I’m off to interview Sabine Delacroix.”

“Sabine Delacroix?”

“The woman who was at the restaurant with Gabriel. The one he made all the phone calls to.”

Shand closed his eyes. What was the matter with him? Of course the woman couldn’t be Anne. He’d have recognised her number in Marchant’s phone logs.

“Right,” said Shand. “Good work, Bob. Uh, did they make any calls from their room?”

“No. I checked.”

“Right.” Shand paused while he racked his still traumatised brain for something else to say. “Ask her if Annabel knew about her and Gabriel. Oh, and see if she knows anything about Marsh, George Benson or Gulliver’s.”

He could see the semblance of a motive for Annabel’s murder forming out of the fog. A mistress pressing Gabriel for something more than a fling, and a wife who would have taken half of everything he had.

And from what Shand had seen of Gabriel, he didn’t come across as the sharing type.

“I’m on my way,’ said Taylor.

Another thought.

“Oh, and see if Gabriel mentioned anything about buying Sixpenny Barton from the Montacutes.”

A re-energised Shand phoned Annabel’s estate agent next.

“You’re lucky,” a female voice answered. “I was just leaving.”

He introduced himself and swiftly moved on to the subject of Sixpenny Barton.

“How did the Montacutes react to the enquiry?”

“Not very well. They didn’t reply to my letter, so I rang and was told in no uncertain terms that the estate was not for sale.”

“How did Annabel react to the news?”

“She was disappointed but ... I think she saw it as the opening salvo in a long campaign. She was a very determined woman. She asked me to conduct an informal valuation of the estate for her without the Montacutes knowing.”

“Did you?”

“I was going to do so this week, but then…”

She let the sentence hang. Annabel had died and Sixpenny Barton had been saved.

“Did she mention any plans to develop Sixpenny Barton?” asked Shand.

“Yes, she asked about the possibility of planning permission and how she should go about it.’

“Would she have got planning permission?”

There was a long pause. “I think it would depend upon how she went about it. If she kept the development small – a dozen or so executive homes – and had local support, I think it would have sailed through.”

“What if the Parish Council opposed it.”

“It would have made things difficult, but not impossible. There’s a shortage of building land in the county and Sixpenny Barton’s part of the village envelope.

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