FIVE NAMES a BRAND NEW absolutely gripping crime mystery with a massive twist (Detective Rutherford Barnes Mysteries Book 5) by ADAM LYNDON

Author:ADAM LYNDON [LYNDON, ADAM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JOFFE BOOKS crime thrillers and mysteries
Published: 2024-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The girls were asleep when Barnes rolled in, and Tamsin was drifting there herself.

“Fuck, what time is it?” she asked, her voice thick with sleep.

“Late. Sorry to wake you. Go back to sleep.”

“Coming to bed?”

“Shortly,” Barnes said, kissing her forehead. “I’m on call. Got some bits to finish.”

She stroked his face, her eyes already shut, and he went down to the kitchen, made himself a cup of tea and settled in under a desk lamp to sift through the contents of Gabby Glover’s box of secrets.

It was getting on for one in the morning, but being on call, he was in no rush to get to bed. He’d much rather be awake when the phone rang than in the surreal state of being barely awake having been catapulted from sleep by news of a shotgun suicide, or a double murder, or a live kidnap.

This was not the only box of Gabby Glover’s belongings, he was reasonably sure of that. And yet somebody — but apparently not his widow — had gone to the trouble of bringing this particular box to the station for him, presumably in the belief that it would help him find answers.

Did they know what was inside it? They must have done — but what playful purpose was served by not just telling Barnes directly? Why toy with him? He would have to go through the whole box again, focus as much on the keepsakes as the paperwork. For all Barnes knew, there was a password to a secret bank account or a love letter to Theresa Baily hidden behind the foam mount of one of the boxes of long service and good conduct medals.

Despite the bundle of commissioned reports on individual officers — all of whom were, himself included, on Glover’s shit list for one reason or another — being unorthodox at best, unlawful at worst, there was nothing leaping out as being an obvious trigger for Glover taking his own life. Not only that, but there was nothing in particular in the reports that came as any great surprise.

Or was there?

It offered an insight into how the ACC rolled, but nothing that was a particular surprise, and certainly nothing that would give him any more insight into why the man had killed himself. He’d conducted at least one extramarital affair, but that didn’t fit. His widow, Ella Short, already knew, and he agreed with her that any suicidal impulses may well have evaporated a little once the cat was actually out of the bag. There was no evidence of widespread corruption or seriously declining mental health. He did know that he couldn’t — couldn’t — go back to Ella again. That ship had sailed.

He found himself wishing Marlon was here to bounce theories off. What would the old man say? Look at it from another angle, or think about what you’re not seeing, or go and take a walk and come back to it, or something like that. Think outside the box, in fact.

Jewellery boxes with cufflinks and tiepins inside.

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