The Inspector Walter Darriteau Murder Mysteries - Books 1-4 by David Carter (microsoft ebook reader TXT) 📗

the kitchen and fetch another. Maybe in a second. There were still a few names in the frame to review. Derek Nesbitt? No, there was absolutely nothing to suggest he was involved with Bel, unless Karen could come up with something via Bel’s broken passworded tech.

What about Marcus Royce, as Karen had now discovered his name to be? What was it Lena Freeman had said? He’d run off to one of the three B’s: Bournemouth, Blackpool or Brighton, seaside resorts all. If Walter had to bet, he’d choose Brighton, though a case could be made for all three. For now, the guy was beyond the reach of questioning, and there wasn’t sufficient intelligence warranting a nationwide search in order to bring him back to Chester for interrogation. That could change of course, but for now he was, in Walter’s mind, ruled out.

It didn’t leave much.

Speight of course, a nagging picture that would not go away. Andrea Dennehey, a tough young woman not averse to using violence. A so far unidentified drug dealer called Marty, and that left just two other possibilities. The fifth man, Belinda Cooper’s mysterious fifth lover, also yet to be identified. Surely to God there must be something within Bel’s tech to ID him, and Walter made another mental note to ask Karen about that in the morning, while the final possibility was someone yet to enter the picture. Someone new. Someone unknown. Someone mysterious. Seemed unlikely, but certainly not impossible. But who could that be? He glanced at his overlarge watch. 11.32pm. That wasn’t too late to ring someone, was it? Not when a murderer was still at large. He wandered through to the hall and picked up the phone.

DAVID BAKER PAID FOR the excellent meal and drove Karen straight back to her apartment. It was something of a relief, though if he had suggested a late night drive out into the wilds of North Wales it might have brought things on a little. Earlier, he had parried her questions well, and even she must have realised she was going to give her true intentions away if she persisted any further.

They’d only been in the flat for a couple of minutes when the phone rang.

‘Sorry to trouble you so late,’ mumbled Walter.

‘No problem, Guv. What’s up?’

‘I was wondering how you were getting on with Bel’s laptop.’

‘Good. There’s a lot of stuff in there, it’ll take a bit of time to get through it all.’

‘I was wondering about the fifth man. It would be weird if there was nothing there about him.’

‘If he exists.’

‘You think he doesn’t?’

‘We only have Bel’s word for it,’ said Karen, glancing across at David, who was busy standing and admiring some Greenwood family photographs on the far wall. He had a cute bum.

‘I don’t see why she’d lie.’

‘I am not saying she did, but we don’t have a fifth man until we have proof that such a person exists,’ said Karen, knowing that she was misleading her boss.

‘I think there is a fifth man, and I want you to step up your search in Bel’s tech. He must be in there somewhere.’

‘I’m on it, first thing in the morning.’

Walter sniffed and said, ‘I think the fifth man is the killer.’

‘Really,’ said Karen, still looking at the handsome Mr B, who had turned round and was smiling at her through those fab eyes. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘Because I don’t think it’s any of the others. Our man is smarter than the ordinary Joes we have in the frame, much smarter, and more dangerous with it. He’s a cunning foe to be reckoned with.’

‘You think?’

‘For sure. I wonder where he is now, and what he’s doing.’

Karen’s mouth fell open and she shivered.

David smiled. Walter sighed.

‘God knows,’ she said, thinking, maybe he’s right in front of me now, about to go to work again, God forbid.

‘Sorry to bother you so late.’

‘No problem, Guv. You’ve discounted Andrea?’

‘Not entirely.’

‘Neither have I.’

‘Ah well,’ said Walter. ‘Early start tomorrow, yeah?’

‘Yeah sure, Guv, I’ll be there. Sleep well.’

‘You too.’

Karen put down the phone as David said, ‘Who was that?’

‘My boss.’

‘Does he always ring so late at night?’

‘Sometimes.’

‘Does he fancy you?’

‘Good God, no.’

‘I should hope not.’

That was an interesting thing for him to say, I should hope not, but maybe not so surprising. Men are fiercely territorial creatures, they never like other males on what they see as their territory, but it was interesting that David Baker appeared to imagine that she might be part of his domain. Taking a bit for granted, a little bit arrogant too, but hey, it was a lot better than showing no interest at all, far better, for she liked him, and a little bit more with each passing day.

She shook her head and closed on him and said, ‘Now listen, Mr B, I have to be up real early in the morning, and you are going to have to go.’

‘So soon?’

‘Yes, soon, like now.’

‘But at least not until I have done this,’ and he reached out and tugged her to him and kissed her like he meant it. He was strong, really strong. It was good too, though she never let herself go, not completely, for that weird thought was there again, nagging away. Was she kissing a killer? Had this man murdered Belinda Cooper, snapping her neck with a baseball bat as if it were a twig? Walter seemed to think so, and that was worrying.

They agreed to meet again in three days. That would be enough time, she hoped, to prove his innocence, or guilt. Later, in bed alone before she fell asleep, she pondered on her predicament. One lie could quickly lead to another, or one half-truth to another, or one misleading comment to another, and it had. She had already denied in the office that she knew of a fifth man, and his ID, and now, this very evening, she had done so again, while actually looking into the fifth man’s smiling face.

She would have to come