Death in Distribution (#11 - Sanford Third Age Club Mystery) (STAC - Sanford Third Age Club Mystery) by David W Robinson

Author:David W Robinson [Robinson, David W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Cat Books
Published: 2014-03-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Like the day before when he had announced Cruikshank’s death as murder, Joe rode out the inevitable protests, silently formulating his response while Amy and Kane took turns to curse and castigate him.

When silence fell, Kane was left red-faced and sweating, Amy simply red-faced with anger, and Joe took up the reins again.

“Let’s look at the reality of the situation, huh? Because if I don’t, Burrows and his people will, and at some point, they’ll drag you both to the station for questioning. The business between Peter and Stan has been going on for about ten years, so you say. And who’s to blame? When you boil it all down, who is the real guilty party? Stan. All right, Amy, so you fell for his charms, whatever they were, but if you’re no pushover, and I assume you’re not, then it means he pursued you. We all know it takes at least two to party, but would you still be married to Peter if Stan had not seduced you?”

Her answer was reluctant, filled with bitterness. “Possibly. Probably. I don’t know.”

“And you, Dave. You tell me that Peter was your natural successor, your protégé, but Stan consistently undermined his authority, and you spent a lot of time in meetings with Amy and Stan trying to smooth things out. So if you had to get rid of one man, who would it be? Peter or Stan? The answer, so it seems to me, is Stan. Get rid of him and everything falls into place.”

“Joe, I’m the boss. There are ways and means of getting people out from under your hair without killing them.”

Joe screwed up his face. Do you mean out from under your feet, or out of your hair?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” Kane rasped.

“All right, I know. But I’m not talking about the death of either man. I’ll come to that eventually. Right now, I’m talking about Stan getting tanked up, and how that may have come about.” He fell silent, again mentally forming his words. “Let me paint you a picture. Like you, Peter has had enough of Stan, so he needs to find a way of getting rid of him. The opportunity presents itself yesterday morning, so he sneaks strong alcohol into Stan’s flask, then sends him on his way to a collection in Manchester where he knows Stan will be idle for at least an hour… no, no, hear me out, Amy.”

Again he paused so she could back off and listen.

“Peter’s plan is simple. Stan will get drunk on the coffee, and ring in for a relief driver to come and bring the rig back here. At that point, Stan will face disciplinary action for being drunk on duty. You may sack him, but even if you didn’t, even if you just relocated him to another department, he’s still out of Peter’s hair and yours. But it all goes wrong when Stan drives the truck back, does a lot of damage to other vehicles on the motorway and the police are called in.

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