Death Comes to Dartmoor by Frances Powell

Author:Frances Powell [Powell, Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby

Chapter 14

The newspapers ran the artist’s sketch of the second victim the following morning, and the phones at the station hadn’t stopped ringing since the first issues hit the newsstands. When Kate and Sam entered the incident room, all the officers on duty were busy taking calls.

“Is there anything encouraging to report?” she asked.

Detective Alan Johnson had just hung up from a call and shook his head, “We’ve been taking calls for the last hour, and so far, all we have are reports of sightings. If we believe all the callers, our lady traveled the length and breadth of Devon and all the day before we discovered her body.”

“That’s not much help. Did any calls come in mentioning the same area?” asked Sam.

“Actually, yes. We’ve had six calls from residents of Buckfastleigh who claim they saw the victim the day before she was found dead,” replied Detective Johnson looking down at his notes.

Kate turned quickly to Sam, “How far is Buckfastleigh from where we found the victim on Dartmoor?”

“About 15 miles, give or take.”

“So, if this sighting is correct. How would our victim have got to the moors?” asked Kate.

“She could have driven if she had a car or taken a taxi and arrived there in about thirty minutes, or she could have caught the #113 bus, but that would probably take her well over two hours with all the local stops, and I can’t see her doing that,” replied Sam.

Addressing the team, Kate announced, “Sam and I are heading out to Buckfastleigh. Detective Johnson, bring that list of people you spoke with and join us. The rest of you keep handling the phones. If you come up with anything important, call either Sam or me. Thanks.”

On the drive to Buckfastleigh, Kate said, “Alan, contact the people you spoke with on the phone and see if you can find any additional information. See if they can describe her clothing and ask where they had seen her. If we get lucky, maybe she was staying at a local hotel or guest house, and we can get her name. If seen in a café, check with the owner. There is a chance she may have paid by credit card. Sam and I will check with the local taxi companies and try to track down the bus driver. We can meet at the pub in an hour if that is agreeable.”

As they drove, Kate searched her phone for local taxi companies and found that the closest was registered in Totnes and Newton Abbott, “Wow, I didn’t realize that there would be so many taxi services available. There are over forty in the surrounding area, but none are listed as in Buckfastleigh proper. We’ll have to split the list and call as many as possible during the hour. Let’s see if anyone recalls someone fitting our victim’s description taking a taxi up to the moors in the general area where she was found.”

Nodding his agreement, Detective Alan Johnson began heading for the first address on his list as Kate and Sam started to call the taxi services on their list.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.