What Lies Beneath (Rutland crime series Book 1) by Adam Croft

Author:Adam Croft [Croft, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Circlehouse
Published: 2020-07-27T23:00:00+00:00

28

The wait for the CCTV footage from the library seemed interminable. For all Rutland’s differences compared to London, it seemed they had one thing in common: waiting for councils to act.

Caroline felt surer than ever that Patrick Walsh was their man. She’d come across enough shifty people in her time to know when someone was playing her and trying to hide something. And although that wasn’t enough in itself, as far as she was concerned there was more than enough linking him to Roger Clifton’s murder.

Even more frustratingly, someone appeared to have replaced the coffee granules in the kitchenette with a different brand. She sipped the murky brown liquid, trying to ignore the taste and focus on the caffeine hit, when Sara Henshaw came in.

‘Sara, you’re smiling. Please tell me it’s because the CCTV footage has come back, and not because you’ve got shares in whoever makes this godawful piss.’

‘Wrong on both counts. But it’s either going to throw us a massive bone or put an even bigger spanner in the works. Remember Roger Clifton’s brother, who lives in Spain? The present-day Arthur. He’s back.’

‘Back? In the UK?’

‘In Rutland. It looks like he’s going to inherit the company. Apparently, there was a cloak and dagger meeting with a solicitor earlier this morning. Alice Clifton got wind of it and phoned the police. She was going apeshit, apparently, screaming that Arthur had killed Roger to get control of the company.’

‘On what basis? He wasn’t a shareholder or director, was he?’

‘Something to do with the will. Reading between the lines, Roger had cut Alice out of it and there was some sort of extra documentation leaving the business to Arthur.’

‘Christ. Okay, well that gives him a motive. Means and opportunity, not so much. Bit difficult to kill someone who’s in another country.’

‘Could have hired someone to do it.’

‘Then turn up within a few days to claim the money? Something doesn’t feel right there.’

She opened her office door and called over to Dexter. He stood up and walked towards them.

‘Got a little job for you, Dex. Can you pop over to Alice Clifton’s in Empingham and speak to her please? It looks like Roger’s brother’s back on the scene. We’ve had a call from her, kicking off about some secret meeting between Arthur and a solicitor over him inheriting the company.’

Dexter cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. ‘Right, I see.’

‘I know what you’re thinking. Don’t. These things happen all the time when people die. There’s always someone who crawls out of the woodwork wanting money. It’s rarely a reason for murder.’

‘Could be a starting point, though.’

‘It could. But we’re a small team and we need to make sure we always focus on our strongest line of inquiry. We don’t have the resources to be doing a full-on Sherlock Holmes reconstruction of every player’s movements and motives. We’re police officers. We look at the evidence and work backwards from there.’

As she said this, she realised how hypocritical it could sound. Had she really focused too heavily on Patrick Walsh and the religious aspect? No.

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.