The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club, #3)(80)

‘Seems like you owe us one,’ says Elizabeth.

‘I’ll owe you one when we find Bethany’s body,’ says Andrew Everton. ‘We’ll start concentrating the search in the same spot.’

‘Feels like it should be enough to arrest Jack Mason,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Ask him a few questions?’

‘Leave that with me,’ says Andrew Everton. ‘You can’t do everything.’

That was a moot point, but Elizabeth doesn’t feel the need to argue. ‘Do keep us informed though.’

Andrew Everton bows to her, a little sarcastically for Elizabeth’s liking. ‘Ma’am.’

Elizabeth veers off in the direction of Joyce and the Forensic Officer. She hears Joyce’s conversation as she approaches.

‘But say that three bodies are left in a cellar for many years,’ Joyce is saying. ‘At what stage would the smell disappear?’

Is Joyce asking her about the case in Rye?

‘Do they have wounds?’ asks the Forensic Officer.

‘They have been dismembered by a chainsaw,’ says Joyce.

That doesn’t sound like the case in Rye.

‘Well, they would bleed out very quickly,’ says the Forensic Officer. ‘So putrefaction would also occur fairly quickly. The smell would be awful for the first, let’s say two months, then gradually things would return to normal.’

‘Bit of Febreze every now and again,’ says Joyce.

Elizabeth reaches the bench and addresses the Forensic Officer. ‘Is my friend bothering you? She does that sometimes.’

‘Not at all,’ says the FO. ‘I’m helping her with her story.’

‘With her story?’ Elizabeth takes a look at Joyce, who won’t meet her gaze.

‘I thought I might give it a try,’ says Joyce to the flowerbed. ‘You know I like to write.’

‘Three bodies in a cellar,’ says Elizabeth. ‘That sounds familiar.’

‘You’re allowed to base things on real cases,’ says Joyce. ‘Andrew Everton does it all the time.’

‘Where do the chainsaws come in?’

‘You have to add bits of your own too,’ says Joyce.

‘And you added chainsaws?’

Joyce nods, and gives a little smile. Elizabeth wonders, not for the first time, just how well she knows her friend.

‘Shall we head home and see how the boys are getting on?’ says Elizabeth. ‘And tell them we’ve found a gun?’





66





Pauline and Mike have arrived for lunch.

Alan literally can’t believe his luck. Even more people! If only Joyce were here, the whole scene would be perfect. Surely she won’t be much longer. Pauline is tickling his belly as Mike Waghorn takes a seat.

‘This is Henrik,’ says Ibrahim. ‘He is a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, and Swede.’

Mike holds his hands together and says, ‘Namaste, Henrik.’

‘Henrik is also very good with money-laundering,’ says Ibrahim. ‘And this is Viktor, a former KGB colonel.’

‘Pauline has told me a lot about you, Viktor,’ says Mike.

‘Has she now?’ says Ron, and Pauline blows him a kiss.

‘It’s good to meet you, Mike Waghorn,’ says Viktor. ‘I will confess that two weeks ago I hadn’t known who you were, but I am now very familiar with your work. Though often I don’t catch everything you’re saying, because Joyce likes to keep up a running commentary through the local news.’

‘Any news on the search?’ asks Mike.

‘Still waiting,’ says Ron. Pauline told him that Mike had taken news of the garden search very badly. It was such an extraordinary story. The body buried as blackmail. The killer some unknown accomplice. Mike wants the murder to be solved, but it will be very final for him.

‘You arrive at an opportune moment, however,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Do you have the text of your message from Bethany to hand? About the new information? Viktor and Henrik would like to hear it in full. Perhaps it might unlock something.’

Mike takes out his phone and scrolls until he finds the message. He addresses Viktor and Henrik. Skipper. Some new info. Can’t say what, but it’s absolute dynamite. Getting closer to the heart of this thing.

Viktor nods. ‘She would call you “Skipper” normally? No clue there?’

‘Completely normal,’ says Mike.

‘And she would say “info” instead of “information”?’ asks Henrik. ‘It was normal for her to be informal?’

‘It was usually emojis and swear words, to be honest,’ says Mike.

‘Now, when she says –’

Alan starts jumping at the window and barking hysterically, as if he simply cannot begin to comprehend what he has just seen.

Viktor rolls off his chair, and crouches behind a sofa with his gun drawn. Mike raises one eyebrow. Henrik takes a moment, and then taps Viktor on the shoulder.

‘Viktor,’ he says. ‘You have to stop doing this. I’m the one who was trying to kill you. And I’m here.’

Viktor thinks for a moment, then accepts the truth of this observation, and puts the gun down the back of his trousers.

‘I’m glad I didn’t try to kill you,’ says Henrik, looking at the gun.