Murder on a Yorkshire Moor: Breezy English mystery fiction by Ric Brady

Author:Ric Brady [Brady, Ric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: THE BOOK FOLKS British crime fiction publisher
Published: 2023-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

The smell of garlic and soy sauce was getting stronger, but Henry was too excited to think about food. He leaned over the oak tabletop, his elbows resting on it, and cradled his chin in his hand. “Where was the house party?”

Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Had you been there before?”

He shook his head.

“Do you know whose house it was?”

Ryan continued to scratch his thumbnail with his finger. “No. Just heard it was some guy called Freddie.”

Henry felt his cheek twitch. He was getting close to something, but he wasn’t quite sure what. “Have you met Freddie?”

He nodded.

“What does he look like?”

He shrugged. “Blonde. Quite tall. He’s old. Like, thirty or forty.”

“What does he do?”

“He says he’s a DJ, but he runs some business or something.”

“Is he local?”

He nodded. “Yeah, he’s from around here. He said he’s from Leeds.”

“How did you get to the party? It’s not easy getting up there.”

He shrugged as if he couldn’t remember. “It was a taxi, or maybe Will drove, I can’t remember.”

“Where did you meet William?”

“In Addingham. I’d been at a party here, one of my mates’, then Will picked me up.” He nodded like he was remembering. “He drove. There were three of us.”

“Three?”

“Me, Will, and Louise.”

“Louise? Isn’t she someone William worked with?”

He nodded.

“At the party, who did you spend your time with?”

Ryan shrugged again. “I’ve no idea. I was out of it.”

Becky Miller tutted in the far corner of the kitchen, where she was leaning against one of the worktops, listening.

Ryan seemed to remember she was there and straightened up in his chair.

“Did anything happen at the party?” Henry asked.

Ryan shook his head.

“How did you get home?”

“I think I called an Uber around nine in the morning. I was still awake but wanted to get home and sleep in my own bed.”

“Can you prove you got a taxi? In case the police ask?”

Ryan looked at him like it was a stupid question. “It was an Uber, there’ll be proof on the app.”

Henry nodded as if he already knew that. “Was William still at the party when you left?” Henry asked, but he already knew the answer to this, as he’d found William’s body just before 10 a.m.

Ryan shrugged. “Don’t think so.”

“You hadn’t seen him throughout the party?”

He shrugged. “As I said, I can’t remember much.”

Henry looked into his bloodshot eyes and wondered if he could believe him or not. Then he changed tack. “What about Louise, did she leave the party with you?”

He shook his head. “I left on my own.”

“Oh, what happened to her?”

“She stayed, I think.” He looked down at the tabletop.

“Were she and William together or anything?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her about that.”

Henry decided he would. “So, between you entering the party with William and you leaving, you can’t say at what point William left?”

He seemed to give it some thought, then he shook his head like it was a sum too difficult for him to work out. “No idea.”

“You didn’t hear any arguments or see a fight or anything?” Henry asked, over the banging of pans.

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