A Room Full of Killers - Michael Wood (motivational books to read txt) 📗

‘Sounds like my kind of evening. I’ll get the menus,’ Adele said, heading out into the kitchen.

‘I saw the breaking news on the way over. I’m guessing Ryan’s name was leaked.’

‘Yes. I wouldn’t like to be at Starling House right now. The press will be all over the place.’

‘Shouldn’t you have someone guarding—’

‘Uniform are already there,’ Matilda said with a smile, guessing Pat’s question.

‘Sorry. Habit.’

‘Do you miss the force?’ Matilda asked, sitting down on the sofa next to her. She kicked off her shoes and settled back. She was beginning to relax in the warmth of the room and the friendliness of the company.

‘I didn’t think I did but I’ve really enjoyed these last couple of days.’

‘Have you dug anything up?’

‘I may just have.’

Pat lifted her bag up off the floor and began rifling through it for her notebook. Adele returned with the pizza menus, another bottle of wine and a spare glass for Matilda. She poured half a glass and handed it to her. Only Adele knew of Matilda’s drinking problem, and how she never drank alone as it made her maudlin. A maudlin Matilda was a self-destructive Matilda.

‘Choose your pizza and I’ll order online.’

They decided to hold off until the pizzas arrived before they began talking shop. While waiting the twenty minutes for them to turn up they made small talk and caught up on each other’s lives.

Adele and Pat had crossed during the line of duty and they knew the basics about each other. Pat was shocked to find Adele’s son all grown-up and on the cusp of a teaching career. In her mind he was still a five-year-old giving Adele a headache while she juggled her work and tried to find a babysitter.

Pat filled Adele in on what life was like for the retired. Random days away in the countryside and at the coast were wonderful, longer holidays, lie-ins during the week – all were bliss. Anton constantly in her way wasn’t as fun. She wished he’d take up golf or bowls or something to get him out of the house without her once in a while. Still, she shouldn’t complain. Without Anton she would be incredibly lonely, she didn’t mind admitting.

‘What’s Debbie Hartley like?’ Matilda asked.

The pizza boxes were open on the coffee table. Pat and Adele were on the sofa, a plate on each lap, while Matilda was cross-legged on the floor. They’d spread out to make room for the food and their paperwork.

‘Well, in my day I would have called her simple. I don’t know what you’d call her now.’

‘Learning difficulties?’ Adele suggested.

‘I don’t know. She’s certainly lacking in something. Daniel, Laura, and the kids were her life. Now they’ve gone she really has nothing else left. She lives in a grotty terraced house and works voluntarily in a charity shop.’

‘How old is she?’

‘I’m not sure. Mid-forties I’d say. I didn’t think to ask. I managed to take some photographs on my phone of the letters Thomas sent her. He’s written to her four times. The first was while he was on remand waiting for trial. The second was after he was found guilty but waiting for sentencing. The third was just after he arrived at Starling House, and the fourth was on her last birthday.’ Pat wiped her hands on a napkin and found the photographs on her phone. ‘Do you want me to email them to you?’ she asked Matilda.

‘Please Pat. That’s brilliant, thank you.’

She handed Matilda her phone. ‘Can you email them as I’ve no idea how to do it from a phone.’

‘Where was Debbie at the time of the murders?’ Adele asked.

‘Home alone. She spends every night at home on her own. No visitors, no friends.’

‘No alibi either.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Could she have killed them?’ Matilda asked.

‘I doubt it. I personally believe anyone has the capability to kill – it’s all down to circumstance. What I don’t believe is that Debbie Hartley has the mental capacity to frame Thomas and keep it to herself all these years. She’s an incredibly lonely woman. She was thrilled when I arrived as it meant she finally had someone to talk to. She made me a hot chocolate and we spent over an hour talking. Well, she did most of the talking, I just sat there listening. I couldn’t shut her up.’

‘What was she talking about?’

‘Nothing. It was about her colleagues at the charity shop, walks she goes on, her favourite ice cream flavour. It was just jibber-jabber. I felt sorry for her.’

‘Did she see Daniel often?’ Matilda asked.

‘All the time.’

‘Didn’t Laura mind?’

‘She said not.’

‘Hmm,’ Matilda thought aloud.

‘What is it?’ Adele asked.

‘Put yourself in Laura’s shoes. You’re married. You have two kids. You and your husband both work so your time in the evening as a family is precious. Do you really want your sister-in-law coming round every night?’

‘Well, I know I wouldn’t,’ Pat said. ‘Anton’s sister gets right on my nerves. If she’s not trying to flog her Avon she’s showing me her bunions.’

‘Exactly.’

‘So you think maybe Laura put her foot down and said Debbie shouldn’t go round as often.’

‘It’s a possibility.’

‘But would Debbie resort to murder?’ Adele asked.

‘Like I said, she’s certainly lacking in something. Maybe she saw Laura as a threat to her happiness and decided to get rid of her,’ Pat mused.

‘But then why kill her brother and niece?’ Adele asked, reaching across for another slice of pizza.

‘I’ve no idea. If she is, for want of a better word, simple, maybe her reality became blurred. Maybe she thought if Laura didn’t want her around after all these years of welcoming her into their home, then Daniel and the kids felt the same way too.’

‘Then why leave Thomas alive?’ Adele asked.

‘That’s what I have a problem with,’ Matilda said. ‘Whenever I think of who could have killed the Hartleys, I always ask why Thomas was left alive.’

‘No. I’m sorry,’ Pat came back from her reverie. ‘I don’t see Debbie as the killer. It doesn’t fit.’

‘Would you say she had