CRIME IN RETIREMENT a fiercely addictive mystery (Detective Markham Crime Mystery and Suspense Book 17) by CATHERINE MOLONEY

Author:CATHERINE MOLONEY [MOLONEY, CATHERINE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller and mystery
Published: 2022-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

8. Happy Ending

Of course, Natalie Noakes had over-egged the pudding (or banoffee pie) and the reality turned out to be considerably less dramatic than her breathless announcement implied.

The ‘intruder’ turned out to be Ray Franzoni, challenged by a flustered Mrs Cartwright when she found him ‘making free of the premises’.

According to Franzoni, he had come to Rosemount to do a ‘recce’ for some fundraiser due to take place at the nursing home later in the year. A telephone call to Sir Edward Hamling confirmed the truth of this claim, though it seemingly hadn’t occurred to the ballet master that he should obtain clearance for the visit as opposed to simply wandering in.

Given that Hamling vouched for Franzoni who showed no discomfort or guilty consciousness, there was nothing to justify detention of Andrée Clark’s former colleague. Not unreasonably, the coach was highly critical of the home’s ‘amateurish’ security, which meant the police were on the back foot from the off.

‘Sorry, guv,’ Noakes mumbled after they had let Franzoni go, ‘That’s down to me. We need someone covering the front door twenty-four seven.’ His scowl was ferocious. ‘’Specially if the likes of Pizza Boy ignore the notice telling ’em to bring the bell at reception.

‘Mister Franzoni was in the hall at the bottom of the stairs when Mrs Cartwright caught him,’ Hafsah Peri told them. ‘I think he wanted to look in Madame’s room.’

‘Why would he do that?’ Markham enquired but the woman merely pressed her lips tight together as though she not trusting herself to say more.

Afterwards, as they conferred in the staff room, Kate Burton told him, ‘There’s nothing doing upstairs, guv. Mrs Clark’s room’s been processed by forensics. It’s clean as a whistle.’

‘And yet Ms Peri seemed to think Franzoni was up to no good . . . on the prowl,’ the DI mused.

‘It might’ve suited her to turn the spotlight on him,’ Burton suggested. ‘If Natalie’s right about there being some kind of funny business going on here . . . an extortion racket perhaps . . . then she’d be keen to have us look elsewhere.’

‘An’ Cartwright didn’t say he were going upstairs,’ Noakes concurred. ‘She were jus’ wittering on about it being trespass.’

‘What else do we know about Franzoni, Kate?’ Markham asked.

‘Volatile, bisexual, in and out of therapy, but that’s nothing unusual with his crowd. Very intense, with a reputation for being a bully . . . screaming at dancers that they all “looked like shit and danced like shit”.’ She frowned. ‘Which is a bit rich, seeing that he accused Andrée of the same thing.’ The DI’s eyes narrowed, ‘There was a piece about him in the Gazette from way back. It said there was this lad who told him he wanted to be a soloist and rattled off all the ballets he wanted to dance . . . apparently, Franzoni smirked and said, “Why don’t you make a list of the things you want to do. And you can add to the list, ‘Leave the company’!”’

‘Hmm, he sounds a real charmer,’ Markham observed on hearing this.

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