Free Cut Short by Leigh Russell

driven by intuition. Not everyone appreciated that one didn't exclude the other. In her previous case, she'd spent hours trawling through reports. Only by memorising all the statements about a suspect who'd been cleared, and returning to question him again, had she picked up one possible inconsistency in his account.
      'You did well to spot that,' her DCI had admitted with grudging admiration. 'What made you go back and interview him again?'
      Geraldine had shrugged, embarrassed by the praise and the question. 'I just had a feeling something wasn't right, sir.'
      The DCI had scowled at her reply. 'Don't waste time on airy-fairy hunches. The key to success is sheer slog, Geraldine, sheer slog and hard evidence. Fancy ideas can lead you up the garden path. You can waste a lot of valuable time following hunches, Geraldine,' he'd warned her adding, more gently, 'and they can get you into hot water if you're wrong.'
      Geraldine sighed, opened her notebook, and began again. Everything pointed to John Drew. The report from Carter and Black had been interesting, alleging that Drew had been violent towards his girlfriend. The post-mortem confirmed the victim had sustained severe injuries in the past. The waitress at Bella Café hadn't mentioned anything about a black eye, but Angela had only been working there for just over six months. It was feasible that Drew had slipped away from the Honda show room, driven into town, killed his girlfriend, and returned to work without anyone noticing. A DC had driven from the Honda showroom to Lyceum Park and back again in just over forty minutes. The whole exercise could have been accomplished in less than an hour. But she found it difficult to believe Drew had dreamed up such a farfetched plan, and even less likely that he'd met Angela by chance in the park in the middle of a working day.
      Geraldine sighed and stared at her notes. It still struck her as improbable that Drew would have attacked his girlfriend in a public place when there was considerable risk of discovery. People often walked their dogs in the park, or jogged there, even in the rain. The body had been dragged into the bushes which afforded some cover, but the initial assault on the path would have been visible from several directions.
      'In any case,' she argued with Peterson as they sat over a coffee in the canteen, 'how would Drew have known where she was at the precise time he arrived back in Woolsmarsh?'
      'He might've followed her.'
      'Not if he was driving back from Honda's. And why follow her to the park and kill her there? It's a risky place. Someone might've seen them. He could've taken her anywhere.'
      'He would have wanted to kill her away from their flat, somewhere anyone could've done it,' Peterson said, but he agreed the exposed location suggested an unpremeditated attack. However, if John Drew had driven all the way back from work to kill Angela Waters, he must have had a plan in mind.
      Drew remained their only suspect. They'd ruled out Umberto. Christina confirmed he'd been in the café all morning.
      'Unless they're providing an alibi for each other,' Geraldine suggested, but neither she nor Peterson believed Angela Waters had discovered Umberto's irregular tax records, threatened to expose him, and been strangled by her boss to keep her quiet. To make sure, Geraldine had asked Sarah Mellor to check their bank statements. No money had unaccountably left Umberto's account and his lifestyle hadn't changed. Maybe his books had been fiddled, but no one had been blackmailing him.
      The DCI had Merton and Carter checking hostels, looking for someone with a record, but the boyfriend remained the most likely suspect. If he was guilty, Geraldine was confident they would wear him down, but she felt uneasy. She couldn't overlook his anguished protest, when they'd interviewed him the day after Angela Waters' death. That was the main problem: there seemed no obvious motive for John Drew to