IMPOSTURE: Hunters become the hunted in this gripping murder mystery by Ray Clark (good romance books to read txt) 📗

Once the spasm had allegedly passed she glanced at him, her arms still comforting her body.

“Can you pass that, please?”

He kicked it over. He doubted very much she could unseal it and do anything to him but his training told him not to take chances. As did his trypanophobia – if you were frightened of needles you stayed away from them.

She quickly picked it up, extracting the syringe.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” said the driver, slipping out of the room.

Chapter Thirty-nine

Entering the incident room, Gardener had a number of things on his mind but prioritising his actions was uppermost. Things had changed, and no doubt they would continue to, largely depending on what his team had to say.

He studied the whiteboards, which had been updated in his absence as the news came in. James Henshaw now had one to himself.

He took a sip of water and turned to face his team.

“Okay, let’s see what we’ve learned in the small amount of time we’ve had. As you all know we discovered a second body in Butts Court earlier today, which we believe to be James Henshaw. From what we saw, Sean and I are of the opinion he’s been held captive somewhere and systematically starved, kept alive with only water. That would have been excruciating. Underneath his body were a number of items, two of which were passports; one in the name of James Henshaw, and the other in his DPA character, Jack Heaton.”

“You make him sound like a character in a game, sir,” offered Patrick Edwards.

“Right now, he’ll wish he was,” said Reilly.

“Is he still alive?” asked Dave Rawson.

“I haven’t heard anything to the contrary, Dave,” continued Gardener. “Also underneath his body we had a quote on a scroll. Add that to what Sean and I discovered from Fitz earlier today, and this investigation has become a whole different ball game.

“Sean and I are now convinced that someone is taking revenge on the DPA team. Whoever it is, he or she means business, considering the extreme lengths to which they’re going to administer justice. What we don’t know is who’s responsible? We appear to have a number of suspects in the frame but I’d like to go with what, if any, information you guys have found before I make any decisions.”

Gardener turned to officers Thornton and Anderson. “One suspect now is Rosie Henshaw. Shortly after the hit and run, her husband, James, disappeared, as did the other members of the DPA team; one of his business partner’s then shows up and dies in suspicious circumstances. This morning, her husband is discovered near to death and, to my knowledge, is still critical.

“That leaves two people from the DPA team, either still at large, or also being held captive somewhere. Finding them alive is imperative. What does Rosie Henshaw know? Is she involved? You guys paid her a visit today, what did you find out?”

Anderson took up the challenge. “Well, we know from Winter’s notes that she’s been living a lie, but whether or not she knows more than she’s letting on is another matter.” He confirmed what they already knew about false business premises and the Overfinch not where it was supposed to be.

“When we spoke to her today, sir,” said Frank Thornton, “she claimed she hardly met any of the other members of the DPA team but she dislikes them intensely.”

“Why?” Gardener asked.

“She wasn’t very specific,” replied Anderson, “but it was the expressions and the gestures when she talked about them that backed up her feelings. She said that Zoe Harrison was totally unsociable, reckoned that to communicate with her you had to send a text or an email even if you were in the same room. Although she did say that it was Harrison’s money that started the company.”

“She claims to have met Michael Foreman only twice,” said Thornton.

“Twice?” questioned Gardener. “In how many years?” he asked, quickly searching his notes on DPA.

“About eight,” replied Thornton. “Apparently they were not the type of company to socialise or hold Christmas parties. They rarely, if ever, got together and the only person she spoke positively about was Anthony Palmer.”

“How so?”

“She reckoned he was more of a family man than the others. He had an aunt and uncle who lived close by but she didn’t know where.”

“But we do,” said Reilly.

“Did you feel she was hiding anything?” Gardener asked. “Is she capable of what we’ve seen?”

“I don’t get that impression,” replied Anderson. “She’s fiery, I’ll give her that, but I think it’s more of a passion for her keeping her family safe.”

“I think she feels totally let down,” said Thornton. “Her husband isn’t the man she thought he was, and despite the fact that she didn’t like the others, I don’t think she thought they were capable of murder. That alone has turned her world upside down. Winter asked if he could put a tap on her landline so that if any of them called her at any point, the conversation would be recorded. Shona Pearson gave us those transcripts.”

“Can you make sure we all have copies so one of us can study them?” Gardener asked.

Thornton nodded. “If you do, you can see that she’s getting wound up by the situation that they have landed her and her children in. That’s when she starts lashing out at them, calling them all sorts.”

“Do any of the conversations reveal anything?” asked Gardener.

“Nothing we don’t already know. Foreman was clueless and Palmer was evasive. She’s the one on the attack, trying to drag information out of them.”

“The most important being her husband’s whereabouts,” added Anderson.

“What happened when Michael Foreman called her?” asked Gardener. “Did Constable and his team follow up on that?”

“Yes, it took them a while to trace the call and when they did