The Winder by John Hunter

Author:John Hunter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2020-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Barty Webb and his team of CSIs had ensconced themselves in the old stable block at the manor while Flett sat uncomfortably in his car. He’d managed to get a search warrant from the magistrate without too much bother, but hadn’t been able to find Superintendent Roberts to give him the heads up. He was away at some meeting or other. He’d emailed him instead. It wasn’t an ideal situation, knowing how touchy Roberts was about upsetting the local big-wigs. Roberts still didn’t know they’d been watching the Pear Tree either. He now had two opportunities to blow his top.

The warrant to search the old stables had been served up at the manor. Flett had been looking forward to seeing the reaction on the smug Wainwright faces, but sadly for him none of the Wainwrights were at home. Instead he was faced with the abrupt treatment metered out by the weasel housekeeper.

‘Do as you please’, she’d snorted through the half-open door, and blankly refused to give him any contact details for the Wainwrights who were in London and not to be disturbed. Then she’d shut the door in his face.

‘Suit your fucking self then,’ Flett had muttered under his breath, wondering what on earth went on in this enormous mansion which only seemed to contain this niggardly little witch. He drove back down the drive to the blue-taped area, made a few notes, spoke briefly to MacBrayne and then sat in his car flicking through the pages of the latest Model Railways and Locomotives magazine. He expected the old bag to ring up one of the Wainwrights who would contact the chief constable at the first opportunity who then, in turn, would be on the phone to Roberts whose little brown nose would be pulled out of someone’s arse and made to give an explanation. Given the severity of this social discourtesy it wasn’t likely to be much more than a couple of hours or so before Roberts would be tracking him down to pass the buck accordingly. He looked at his watch. Any time from now on, he thought, and turned off his mobile phone accordingly.

About thirty minutes later MacBrayne appeared in his whites, still inside the blue tape, with his mobile phone pressed against his ear. Flett smiled. MacBrayne seemed to be on the defensive.

‘The boss, sir? I’ll see if I can find him. It’ll take me a minute, sir, I’m inside the crime scene cordon.’ There were some agitated noises at the other end of the phone.

MacBrayne went on, ‘Er, yes, sir, we’ve categorised it as a crime scene for the time being,’ This didn’t seem to have a calming effect and the person at the other end was becoming animated.

‘It’s designated as a missing person’s case, sir,’ MacBrayne said in answer to a question. There was a further pause during which the chattering became louder.

‘I’ll see if he’s still here,’ MacBrayne said, and looked questioningly at Flett who shook his head.

‘Just missed him, sir, sorry,’ he said after a suitable interval.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.