The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(22)

‘Everyone seems shocked and surprised about Avril,’ says Judy. ‘Doesn’t mean it’s not suicide though.’

‘Team meeting in half an hour,’ says Nelson. ‘Young Tony’s going to talk us through the cold cases.’

Tanya wonders how long it will be before Tony stops being officially ‘young’.



Tony looks slightly nervous, thinks Tanya, but he speaks well. She notices that he has made notes on his phone and she approves. She’s had enough of Judy’s iconic notebook and Nelson’s aversion to technology.

‘Karen Head was a teacher, divorced with one child. I spoke to two of her colleagues at the school who said that she didn’t seem depressed. They’d been out for a staff party the night before she died. Karen’s ten-year-old daughter was staying with her father. He found Karen’s body when he brought her home. Cause of death recorded as paracetamol overdose.’ Tony scrolls down with a practised thumb, hardly pausing for breath. ‘I spoke to Rosanna Leigh’s mother. Rosanna was a retired midwife. Apparently, she had suffered from depression in the past. She’d come off antidepressants because she was worried about the side effects.’

One of the side effects was suicide, thinks Tanya. But she doesn’t say this aloud.

‘Celia Dunne lived on her own. Sounds as if she was a bit of a recluse. I haven’t been able to talk to anyone who knew her. It was some days before her body was found, hence the uncertainty over cause of death.’

Nobody says anything about this because they can all visualise the scene.

‘Well done, Tony,’ said Nelson. ‘I’d say that Karen Head, at least, fits the pattern.’

‘Maybe Rosanna and Celia as well,’ says Judy. ‘Rosanna took antidepressants. That doesn’t necessarily mean she was suicidal.’

‘Hanging yourself does though,’ says Tanya, realising, too late, that this sounds rather callous.

‘What about Avril Flowers?’ says Nelson. ‘What did you learn about her?’

‘Both her daughter and her cleaner thought that suicide was completely out of character,’ says Judy. ‘Avril sounded active and happy. Very involved in her local community. There were a couple of interesting connections to Samantha Wilson too. Both worked at a library, both were churchgoers.’

‘Neither of those things is exactly suspicious,’ says Nelson. Tanya is tempted to disagree. She thinks churches and libraries are both rather creepy.

‘What about the locked room?’ says Nelson. ‘Any theories about that?’

Tanya decides it’s time she spoke. ‘The cleaner, Tina Prentice, said that the door was locked from the outside,’ she says, ‘though she did say that, afterwards, she wondered if she’d been mistaken. It was one of those old-fashioned keys. It’s possible Avril could have manipulated it from the inside.’

‘We’ll see what SOCO have to say,’ says Nelson. ‘At the least they’ll be able to tell us if anyone other than Avril and the cleaner touched the door. We should talk to the libraries and the churches. See if the women had any acquaintances in common. Judy, you’re in charge but keep it low key. The other cases might well be suicide, but Avril Flowers is different. If the room was locked from the outside that points to homicide.’

‘It’s a locked room mystery,’ says Tony. ‘Like in the books.’

‘Nothing,’ says Nelson, ‘is like it is in the books.’





Chapter 12


The post-mortem results show that that Avril Flowers, like Samantha Wilson, died from ‘respiratory failure due to chemical overdose’. The scene-of-crime report comes in the next day. The most interesting finding, as far as the team is concerned, is the presence of a third set of fingerprints – besides Avril’s and Tina’s – on the handle and key of Avril’s bedroom door.

‘So someone did lock her in,’ says Tony. He seems fascinated by the case. Judy is finding it rather trying although she tells herself that being keen is not a crime. She was the keen youngster herself once.

‘There was no sign of a struggle,’ says Judy, scrolling through the report on her laptop. ‘Avril was lying peacefully on her bed.’

‘It’s a bungalow,’ says Tanya. ‘Avril could have locked the door and climbed in through the window. It would have been easy with the veranda running all the way round the house.’

Tanya really is obsessed with that veranda, thinks Judy.

‘Why would she do that?’ she says. ‘If Avril was going to commit suicide, why bother to make it look suspicious? And who did the third set of prints belong to?’

‘They don’t belong to anyone on our database,’ says Nelson. ‘That’s all we know. We need to talk to more of Avril’s friends and acquaintances. Judy, did you say she worked part time in the local library?’

‘Yes,’ says Judy. ‘I’ve got an appointment to see the librarian this morning. Avril was a regular churchgoer too. I’m seeing the vicar this afternoon.’

‘Good work,’ says Nelson. ‘Take young Tony with you as he seems to like locked room mysteries so much. Tanya, can you organise some door-to-door? Someone might have seen a stranger hanging around. It’s a nice area. There might even be CCTV.’