Death and Other Obsessions by Robert Mills

Author:Robert Mills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2020-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Tracy Taylor surveyed the officers seated in front of her in the incident room. Brewer was wearing a tailored jacket for once but it was rather crumpled and she thought she could detect a stain on the lapel that looked like tomato soup.

“Right,” she said, “we’ve got another suspicious death on our hands. Those of you who have been paying attention will know the name Pearl Bailey. Sergeant Patel and DC Owen took a statement from her because she was a friend of Joan Templeton’s. Well, now she’s turned up dead and it seems more or less certain someone killed her.”

She paused while this new information sank in.

“The question is, was she killed by the same person who nobbled Miss Templeton’s brakes or was it someone else?” she continued. “We can’t answer this question at the moment so I propose to divide the team into two groups. I want DI Brewer to continue exploring the theory that Joan Templeton was killed by her niece’s husband for financial gain. Todd and Pringle can work with him. I will lead a second team, the rest of you, investigating the new killing.”

“Surely it’s too much of a coincidence,” said Drake. “Isn’t it more likely we’ve got one killer and it’s not Alan Musgrove?”

Taylor smiled.

“Well I can’t imagine why Alan Musgrove, or his wife for that matter, would have wanted Pearl Bailey dead,” she said. “I can also see that it’s a bit of a coincidence when two authors who are old friends and live in the same part of London both die in mysterious circumstances. At the same time I can’t think of a motive that would link the killings or an individual who would have wanted them both dead. So, for the time being we’ll treat them as separate cases. If one of you bright sparks finds a link between the deaths then we’ll change tack. Always keep an open mind, that’s my motto. Colin’s team can get cracking but I want the rest of you to stay here.”

Todd and Pringle headed for the door but Brewer came across to where Taylor was sitting.

“Can I have a word?” he said.

“In my office,” said Taylor.

Brewer closed the door of the chief inspector’s office and sat down opposite her.

“What did you want to talk about?” she said.

“The thing is I’m convinced he went home by bus after he nobbled the car,” said Brewer. “There’s loads of buses that go to Kingston from near the victim’s house.”

Taylor scoffed.

“Last week you were certain that it was Musgrove on the CCTV pictures from Kingston Station,” she said. “What’s made you change your mind?”

“Musgrove seemed convinced it wasn’t him in the pictures,” said Brewer uneasily.

“Maybe he was lying,” said Taylor.

“Well, if he was he’s bloody good at it, that’s all I can say,” said Brewer, flushing visibly.

“And another thing,” said Taylor, “we haven’t got the report from the facial recognition people yet. If they say it’s Musgrove then this new theory of yours goes out the window.”

“Fair point,” said Brewer.

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