Shot of Silence (Justice Again Book 3) by M Comley (best contemporary novels txt) 📗

jumped in with another question to get her out of trouble. “Did your wife mention that she’d felt uncomfortable lately? Perhaps she thought someone was watching her.”

He thought the question over for a second or two and shook his head. “No. If that had cropped up, I wouldn’t have let her out of my sight. What am I saying? I couldn’t be with her twenty-four-seven, we both had separate jobs to do. Are you saying someone might have been following her around and we didn’t realise it?”

“Perhaps.” Katy replied, grateful for Charlie stepping in. “As I said, at the moment, all we can do is ask the questions, hoping they’ll give us some insight into what’s gone on in the lead-up to what happened to your wife today. If we can’t find anything along those lines then we’ll be forced to believe that your wife was obviously in the wrong place at the wrong time and someone took a pot shot or two just for the sake of it.”

“Hard to fathom,” he whispered. “Disgusting if that turns out to be the truth. What a waste of a life…” His voice trailed off.

“Indeed. If you have nothing for us, we’re going to go back to her place of work, see if there’s anything there, unless you know of any problems she’d had recently there.”

“No, she loved her work. She got on really well with her colleagues. They’re very supportive of one another, even though their environment can be fraught at times.”

“High pressured, you mean?”

“Yes, the stock market is up and down, as you probably know. Dips and rises, but she never brought any of that angst home with her. She left it at the door. Not sure I would’ve been able to do that if I was in her position. That shows you the type of character she was. Placid in her home life, eager to make all our lives better and less of a challenge when things went wrong at work. Am I making any sense? It sounded jumbled even to my ears.”

“I understand what you’re saying, Toby, don’t worry. I hate to repeat myself, but do you think you’re going to be all right when we leave?”

“Yes, I have a lot to consider. I need to find the right words to break it to the kids. What should I tell them?”

Katy shrugged. “The truth, that their mother won’t be coming home again and leave it at that for now.”

He stared at her. “My kids are very astute, they won’t be satisfied with that statement, Inspector.” He waved a hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out. You have enough on your plate trying to find a reason, and the killer.” He rose from his seat and walked over to the door.

Katy and Charlie followed him back into the hallway.

He shook their hands at the front door. “Promise me you’ll do your best for my wife.”

“You have my guarantee on that. Sorry for your loss. Here’s my card. If you need to speak to me, please reach out, don’t bottle things up.”

He smiled at that. “Is that a man thing, do you think?”

“Probably. Take care of yourself and your children, Toby. I’ll be in touch with any developments soon.”

“Thank you. Good luck.” He bowed his head and closed the door gently behind them.

“Jesus,” Charlie said, heaving out a large breath. “I don’t envy him having to tell a couple of teenagers, or thereabouts. What a dreadful situation.”

“Yep, life’s a bundle of laughs at times and a pile of shit at others. This situation definitely belongs in the latter category. That was tough.”

“Too right. And we’ve gleaned nothing from the visit at all.”

“Unfortunately. Let’s hope her workmates will be able to point us in the right direction, otherwise it’s going to be yet another albatross around our necks.”

They got back in the car, and Charlie chuckled.

“Sorry, not appropriate in the circumstances, but you do come out with some strange sayings.”

“Glad I amuse you. It makes the day go quicker, right?”

“It does.”

2

The young receptionist greeted them with a warm smile the moment they walked into the building.

“Hello again, back so soon?”

“Yes, we need to interview Grace’s work colleagues.”

“I get that. I’ve been sitting here trying to think of anything that might have happened over the last week or so and I keep drawing a blank. I wish that wasn’t the case. Poor Grace, I can’t stop thinking of her, lying on the pavement, her eyes wide open.”

“You’re going to have to stop punishing yourself like that, otherwise it’ll make you ill. Did Frank get off okay?”

“Yep, bless him. He was super cut up about it. He really, really liked her. Used to tell me she was one of his favourites. Never looked down her nose at anyone even though she was a high-flyer upstairs, at least I think she was.”

“That’s good to hear. Would it be all right if we went up?”

“Sure. I’ll ring ahead and let Jake, the security bloke up there, know you’re on your way.” She pointed to the lift in the corner and picked up the phone. “You want the top floor.”

Katy and Charlie waited for the doors to open and then jumped in.

Katy punched in floor six and blew out a breath. “Can’t say I’m looking forward to asking the same bloody questions over and over in the hope that someone has a tiny snippet of information we can follow up on.”

“I hear you. What else can we do without any other clues to go on?”

“Not a lot. Let’s hope Forensics come up trumps with something soon. I have an ominous feeling about this one.”

“Shrug it off. It’ll only get in the way,” Charlie advised.

Katy smiled at her. “That’s something your mum would say. How is she?”

“Fine. She asks how you’re doing all the time.”

“Checking up on me, eh?”

“No, I didn’t get that impression. More out of concern. I told her I love working alongside you and that we make a good team.”

“Ouch! How did that