The Curious Life of Ada Baker by Karen Hamilton-Viall

Author:Karen Hamilton-Viall [Hamilton-Viall, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cranthorpe Millner Publishers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

When Inspector Matlock arrived at Hadfield airfield, he found Ada sitting on a sofa in their staffroom, a mug of sweet tea in her hand and a blanket around her shoulders. She looked tired and unkempt. The men on-site had looked after her but were staring at her as if she was some sort of alien being.

Matlock’s first concern was whether she was okay. He looked her over and could see the cuts and chafe marks, and her ankle was looking swollen. “What did he do? Did he hurt you? Did he… assault you?”

“Generally, I’m okay. Nothing that a hot bath and a good night’s rest wouldn’t fix,” she said, smiling, although he could see in her eyes that she was terrified.

“It’s okay, Ada. Kent is dead. He crashed into a tree on the runway, went head first through the windscreen and broke his neck. He can’t hurt you now,” he said, trying to be reassuring. “I think, all things considered, he must have been our killer. You were right.”

Ada shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I confronted him about it. He sounded surprised and he showed me his phone. He had video footage of Mary’s house. It was taken from a wildlife camera he set up in the garden. I didn’t see it all, but I think you might want to flick through them. His phone code was one, two, three, four. I don’t think he was our man.”

Matlock looked round the room, and in a lower tone of voice said, “Ada, did I really see what I thought I saw? A squadron of Spitfires taking off with your aircraft? How did you fly the plane? Do you have a pilot’s licence?”

She shook her head. “No. I met a truly great man. He helped me fly the plane.”

“Where is he now?”

Ada pointed upward.

“I see. You know there’s going to be a big furore about this? Lots of people saw you. Saw the dogfight. At first, they thought it was part of an air show, until the ME-109 crashed. That freaked quite a few people out. I don’t think you’re going to be leading quite such a quiet life after this. We’ll have a discussion about that later, but first of all I think we need to get you checked out at the hospital. Oh, and there’s a few people waiting outside to see you. I asked them to wait there so I could get my job done.”

She nodded.

“Come on then.” He helped her up and put his arm around her for support. “Thank you, gentlemen,” he said, nodding at the airfield staff who were being questioned by the officers. “We’ll be in touch.”

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