Death on the Line: A Judith Spears Mystery by Sam Oman

Author:Sam Oman [Oman, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Foul Duck Books
Published: 2024-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Detective Sergeant Raymond Collins turned the item one way, then the other, the lines on his brow deepening with every rotation.

“I don't particularly see it myself,” he said, holding Reeta’s twig sculpture under the light of his desk lamp. “If you were to ask me, I would suggest maybe it’s a starfish?”

DC Eastly plucked it from his fingers. “Or a really naff snowflake. Or an old star from a Christmas tree that’s been gnawed at by rats.”

Raymond Collins sat back in his desk chair and clasped his hands over his stomach. “You know, Eastly, there are protocols regarding how to handle evidence.”

Judith sipped scalding tea from the paper cup Eastly had provided and winced as it burnt her lips. “I think Reeta may have removed the need for any such protocols, detective. I think if you ran that through any form of fancy DNA testing, you'd find a collection of slobber, past meals, and remnants of other dogs' bottoms.”

Ordinarily, Judith always preferred to push ahead with her own tangential investigations without the cumbersome need to let others know what she was up to. She would normally restrain herself from revealing everything she had discovered as the thought of gazumping the police at their own game was ingrained in her DNA. But when she'd come across Reeta’s little treasure, she understood that it was her reluctant duty to hand in the evidence. After all, it might pertain to an actual murder. That said, when she called Detective Sergeant Collins to reveal her find, he didn’t sound too enthusiastic and told her to drop it off at the station whenever she could.

As she was now a potentially failed victim in the plot, Judith was feeling closer to the case than she ought to be. After returning from the dog walk with Charlie Walker, she had sent several more text messages to Maggie, keeping them as innocuous as possible and assuring her she had managed to get home in one piece without being mugged, kidnapped or otherwise harmed, and how lovely it would be to catch up to discover what she had learnt from Fabian. She was greeted with silence. Aside from building up a possibly wrong picture of their non-date, that left Judith completely stranded in Little Pickton. The last bus all the way out to the police station in Fulton had already departed, so with the snow still falling, she trudged back to her cottage only to discover her insurance company had delivered a miracle. Her hire car was already parked in the driveway. She was stunned at the company's efficiency, having mentally allocated several days of tedious phone calls to chase it. Efficient customer service was spoiling her fun. It wasn't exactly a like-for-like model to her humble Clio. The replacement was a monster. An enormous dark blue Mitsubishi 4x4 that barely fit in the drive. It had seen better days, with scars still visible despite diligent buffing and polishing to mask them. However, it was built like a tank and perfect for the snowy conditions.

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