VENOM ON THE LEVELS an addictive crime thriller full of twists (Detective Kate Hamblin Mystery Book 10) by DAVID HODGES

Author:DAVID HODGES [HODGES, DAVID]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JOFFE BOOKS crime thrillers and mysteries
Published: 2022-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

The inquiry team’s meeting with the DCI first thing in the morning was short and anything but sweet.

‘I am minded to pull the plug on this thing,’ he warned after he had been fully updated on the investigation. ‘It’s already tied up our resources for far too long. In this area alone, we currently have three rape investigations on the go, a series of high-value burglaries, a post office robbery and only yesterday, a serious assault on a care worker on her way to work.

‘As you will know only too well, we have been travelling light of a second DS and two DCs on this department for over a year and a half now. Previously, Detective Sergeant Percival was supposed to have been sent to fill the DS vacancy. But what happened? He was later appointed Acting DI with the unfortunate death of Detective Inspector Roscoe and then promptly promoted to substantive DI at Headquarters. As a result, we have now ended up back where we started, with just DS Lewis here remaining on the department and yet another Acting DI appointed instead of a substantive one.’ He added hastily, ‘Oh, Mr Woo, no offence.’ Then he frowned at the grins the remark elicited.

He was no doubt totally unaware, Kate thought, of the lyrics in the old George Formby song about a Chinese laundryman, but no one bothered to enlighten him, and he coughed and carried on with his analysis.

‘I am reluctant to countenance the expenditure of any more time or resources on something that is plainly nothing more than a tragic accident. Especially as it appears that this deceased man, Howard Dunbar, was carrying out a burglary at the time of his death anyway.’

Kate fidgeted in her plastic chair and darted a glance at Hayden, then at Charlie Woo seated to one side of his desk which he had vacated in deference to Ricketts’s rank.

Woo issued a discreet cough. ‘Kate, er, DS Lewis is convinced that Dunbar’s death was suspicious, guv, and that it requires further investigation.’

Ricketts made an irritable clicking sound with his tongue and concentrated his cold gaze on her.

‘Nonsense,’ he said. ‘We have established that Howard Dunbar was bitten by a poisonous spider that apparently escaped from its confinement because of Professor Dunbar’s carelessness. Dr Lawrence and Professor Dunbar himself, both experts in their field, have said its instincts would have been to look for somewhere dark in which to hide. We know there was a hole in the back of the desk drawer where it allegedly ended up and it seems logical to me that this, er, thing would have made use of that hole to crawl into the drawer. I have made a point of ringing another eminent arachnologist, a Professor Stapleton who works for the government in the same field as Professor Dunbar. I sent him an email attachment with one of the SOCO photographs of this drawer, including the measurements of the hole. He has already responded and is satisfied that

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.