The Creed (A DS Jason Smith Thriller Book 30) by Stewart Giles

Author:Stewart Giles [Giles, Stewart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: STILL Books
Published: 2024-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

“Susan Landon,” DI Smyth said.

He wrote her name on the whiteboard underneath the others. The list was getting longer and longer every day and Smith didn’t like it one little bit.

“And now we know the man and the woman found at the Holiday Inn were a married couple.”

“You’re kidding me?” DC Moore said.

“I’m not. Paul and Rita Applegate had been married for ten years.”

DI Smyth added their names to the list.

“Rita was left out in the open,” Smith said. “Next to the rubbish bins, and her husband was stuffed inside one of those bins. It was all caught on camera. Why did they do that?”

“And why was his index finger not removed?” Whitton added.

“This case is bugging the shit out of me,” Smith said. “There’s no consistency to it. We’ve got victims who are both male and female – we’ve got a man with his finger still attached to his hand, and we’ve got too much evidence and nothing to show for it. We’ve got two likely suspects who are refusing to talk, and that’s why we’re no closer to the woman behind it all. Our main priority is to break their vow of silence for them.”

“I will not have this conversation again,” DI Smyth said.

“I wasn’t aware that I was repeating myself.”

“I know exactly what you’re going to say, and the answer is no. Get that into your thick skull.”

Smith laughed without meaning to. DI Smyth had hit the nail on the head – his skull felt thicker than it had done in a very long time.

“Moving on,” DI Smyth said. “Forensics should have some news for us later today about the bodies at the Holiday Inn. A CCTV camera caught the people who brought them there placing their hands on the face of Rita Applegate, and it’s possible there was a transfer of prints.”

“They weren’t wearing gloves,” Smith said. “Which is another thing that’s puzzling me. I understand why they take the bin bags away. Refuse bags are beautiful receptacles for fingerprints, but them not wearing gloves strikes me as pretty careless.”

“Like I said,” DI Smyth said. “We’ll have something from Forensics later today. Mr and Mrs Applegate’s causes of death were different. Rita suffered a knife wound to her neck, but her husband was killed with a single stab to the heart. Rita’s finger was severed rather clumsily. In all the other cases the fingers had been surgically removed, but Rita’s finger looked like it was amputated with a crude instrument. I don’t know if that’s significant or not, but it’s worth thinking about. Susan Landon also died due to a single wound to her neck.”

“She’s the same woman me and Whitton spoke to on Sunday,” Smith said. “She came to us with information about what went on at the Creed meetings, and because of that she’s dead.”

“We don’t know that for certain,” DI Smyth said.

“I know it. I promised her that she would be safe, but the followers of the Creed got to her.

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