Death in the Attic: A twisty amateur sleuth murder mystery (The Breakfast Club Detectives Book 5) by Hilary Pugh

Author:Hilary Pugh [Pugh, Hilary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Housemouse Press
Published: 2024-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

27

Charlie drained the last of her coffee and scowled at the team. She’d just had a message from Paddy Philips asking how the case was developing. Reading between the lines, it was more why the hell haven’t you arrested anyone yet?

‘You got anything to report?’ she asked, picking up a pen and walking towards the board in the hope of being able to add something. ‘Any of you?’

‘The Braddocks were helpful,’ said Annie. ‘They don’t like Colin Sugden much.’

Charlie circled Colin’s name on the board.

‘We can’t say he’s a suspect just because the Braddocks don’t like him,’ said Gary.

‘I thought he was manipulative,’ said Annie. ‘Possibly violent. And he’s probably being turned out of the cottage.’

‘Les, did you check his background?’

‘No criminal record,’ said Les. ‘But he’d come close. Brought in on suspicion of inciting violence after a fight outside the council offices. Something to do with people jumping the housing list.’

‘Hardly a motive for killing Halliwell,’ said Charlie.

‘We don’t know much about Halliwell, do we?’ said Gary. ‘Or the other bloke, Trubshaw.’

Annie checked her notes. ‘We know Halliwell had been accused of fraud, but the case was dropped. He was also involved with the scuffle that caused Trubshaw to shoot himself. He was local, lived alone in an upmarket flat in a converted warehouse in Slough. Never married, as far as I can find out. He seemed to live mostly for his work. I traced a couple of companies that he’d had contracts with. People I spoke to said he was an efficient contractor. Got on with the job, kept within budget and completed the work on time. I couldn’t find anyone who’d socialised with him.’

‘Gary, you checked out his flat. Anything of interest there?’

‘Not really. It was all rather impersonal. He bought a show flat complete with furniture. Hard to find any clues about what kind of person he was.’

‘How long had he lived there?’

‘A couple of years. He bought it with money his dad had left him. Before that he was in a flat share. I checked that with the agent but he wasn’t able to tell me much.’

‘Then nag him,’ said Charlie. ‘There must be a record of people he lived with somewhere. Did you talk to his current neighbours?’

‘The place was deserted when we searched his flat. I knocked on a couple of doors but it’s not the sort of building where people are very friendly. They mostly commute into London and work long hours. Those I did talk to said Halliwell was no problem. They’d seen very few visitors to his flat, no loud music or any other noise. There is CCTV covering the main entrance and parking area. Should we ask to see it?’

Charlie nodded. ‘Yes, contact the management and ask for all they’ve got.’

‘They probably wipe it after four weeks,’ said Annie. ‘But that’s still an awful lot to check.’

‘Go and chat to your mates downstairs,’ said Charlie. ‘See if they can spare anyone to help.’ If anyone could entice a couple of uniforms to spend a day sitting in front of a computer screen, it was Annie.

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