Death by Dark Waters by Jo Allen

Author:Jo Allen [Allen, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2019-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

18

Ashleigh’s phone rang just as she stepped out of the shower. Pulling her towel around herself, she skated through the bathroom and into her bedroom, trailing water behind her all the way, and snatched the phone up just in time. ‘Jude. Hi. Sorry.’

‘Have I caught you at the wrong moment? Sorry. I know it’s Friday evening.’

‘No problem. I was just out of the shower, that was all.’ Gripping the phone to one ear, she clutched at the towel with the other hand, then realised how ridiculous she must look and burst out laughing.

‘I can call back.’

‘No, it’s okay.’ She let go of the towel, which slithered down to a damp pile at her feet, and switched the phone onto speaker mode. Laying it on the bed, she retrieved the towel and began, methodically, to dry herself. ‘I’m sorry. I was distracted. I’m fine to talk. How did you get on in Manchester?’

‘It was a false trail.’ She heard his sigh.

‘Really? Is there any such thing? There must be something we can learn from?’

‘You’re just like Doddsy. I admire your positive approach, both of you. But all I learned was that there are some people who are genuine mugs and honestly believe that people tell them the truth all the time.’

‘It wasn’t them? Chris will be disappointed, after all that work he put in.’ Almost as disappointed as he’d looked when she’d turned down his invitation for a quick drink after work. She shrugged. He’d bounce back; he was an optimist. And if he asked her again she might say yes.

‘He did a good job, and I’ll make sure he knows it. Yes, it was them, exactly as described by our friend Mrs Innes. But all they’re guilty of, as far as I can tell, is accepting money from a complete stranger to carry a box from A to B and asking no questions about it.’

She picked up the sodden towel and did her best to dry off her hair before giving up and twisting it round her head to keep her long curls out of the way. ‘You say it was a waste of time. The box was empty, then.’

‘Not empty. They said they were told it contained stones.’

‘The ones that were up at the old byre?’

‘I’d guess so. I’ll get one of them sent up to the lab and see if some geologist can be specific about where it came from, though I don’t suppose that’ll help us much, even if they can. I’d guess it’ll be from somewhere in the Manchester area. So that was a day of Doddsy’s and my time wasted, not to mention a couple of days of Chris getting frustrated with the CCTV.’

Sometimes, detective work was duller than Ashleigh could ever believe, a far cry from the novels that had got her hooked on the idea in her teens. She pulled open a drawer and raked through it for some fresh underwear. ‘Is that what it’s about? Just to waste our time?’

‘I expect so.

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