The Missing Party-Girl: A Rags-to-Riches Cozy Mystery Romance by Nhys Glover (read after .txt) 📗

I plan to donate it to charity. But I won’t let him get his grubby little hands on the prize. Not after what he did to my dog.”

Adams gaze softened. “It’s unconscionable to poison pets. Any animal, in fact. In your situation, I’d also be pulling all the strings I could to make sure the man didn’t win.”

He paused and looked up, his expression thoughtful. “Have you any idea how this Winsley chap knew what to look for? Has he managed to get copies of these videos by some other means, do you think?”

Cage shook his head. “Not as far as we know. Hugo Davenport has the only other copies, and mine are well hidden at the farm. Even if he succeeded in breaking in, he wouldn’t find them.”

“Then how…?” Adie started, unable to see how Winsley could know anything about Georgie Wyatt.

“He’s part of the Old Boys Network,” Cage answered confidently. “And all he had to do was put out the word that he wants to know what Hugo is up to. Someone who knows someone would have given him the information, in return for a favor. Or maybe to get one up on Hugo. Who knows?”

The detective nodded his agreement. “That’s the way it works. I doubt my superintendent would have let it drop, given the line he was already crossing for Miss Reynolds’ executor. But someone could have overhead them talking at the club, or been listening in on a call or read an email… It’s amazing how easily information can get out. Believe me, the Metropolitan Police have enough trouble with reporters getting leaked information. It happens far too often for our liking.”

Adie sighed. “So, Winsley has what we have. He knows what we’re trying to do. How can he stop us? Surely, he wouldn’t kill a witness or something…”

Grunting loudly, Adams shook his head. “I know nothing about this Robert Winsley—although you can be sure I will be making it my business to find out all I can about him after you leave—but I doubt someone with his connections would need to resort to murder. He may bribe witnesses or even threaten them, but he wouldn’t need to risk murder.”

Cage and Adie exchanged troubled looks. She didn’t know what this would mean for their search, but it wouldn’t be good.

“Needless to say, keeping my part in this quiet becomes even more essential. If this man knows you have come here to get the file…”

“But we didn’t get the file, did we?” Cage said confidently. “You told us you couldn’t help us, and you haven’t. It’s distressing to know Winsley has what we don’t, but it’s hardly the fault of the police that they can’t help us.”

It took a moment for me to catch up with what they were saying to each other.

“Then why have you got the file, if not to give it to us?” Adie asked the detective, trying to figure out the spin we were manufacturing.

“I wanted to know about the cold case you two were asking after, so I pulled the file. I had no plans to give you anything. And I didn’t,” came the quick response that was so coldly formal I believed it, even though I knew it wasn’t the truth.

Or not entirely the truth.

“Exactly. Now we’ll leave, disgruntled that we’ve made the trip down here for nothing, being very verbal as we do so,” Cage added, standing up and preparing to leave.

Adie rose more slowly, still chewing on what was happening. This could end up being a real problem for everyone concerned.

Cage opened the door and gestured for Adie to leave ahead of him.

Loudly he said, “We came a long way to get this information. It’s a fifty-year-old cold case, we’re asking about, not something current.”

“I’m sorry, but as I’ve said several times already, I have rules I must follow,” said DCI Adams officiously, accompanying us to his open doorway. “It’s against policy to give the public access to police files that are less than a hundred years old. That someone has accessed these same files in the last few days is very troubling. I will be following up to find where the leak came from, you can be assured of that.”

“But that doesn’t help us. Winsley has information we don’t. He’ll stop me from solving this mystery!” Adie bleated, her anxiety fueling her play-acting.

“That is not my problem, Miss Reynolds. I’m very sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

And with that Adie and Cage left the detective, fully aware that there had been lots of interested ears tuning in on their discussion, just as they’d hoped.

Chapter 3

Adie leaned over the coffee table in their plush suite, hardly aware of the thick carpet beneath her feet or the satin feel of the love seat beneath her. It was just before midday and room service would be bringing up their lunch shortly. The noise of the city was muffled to almost nothing by the triple glazed windows that overlooked the Strand.

Cage had spread the photos they had printed of the police report over the coffee table.

It had been a wonderful surprise to discover their suite not only had two bedrooms but also a small personal office, complete with printer. It had been a simple matter to upload the pictures to the printer and create a hard copy of them. Cage had then done something to the printer so that no record remained on the printer’s memory. He also deleted the pictures from his phone.

Now they sat admiring their handiwork and worrying about what Winsley was making of his prize. Would he make more sense of it than they did? Would he find answers that they couldn’t?

Looking at the images of yellowed, typed pages was like looking back into the past. The old-fashioned typeset was blurred around the edges, words