Free The Shadow Collector by Kate Ellis

by a slender woman with short dark hair, a snub nose and large
     blue eyes. From the photographs on his dust jackets, Wesley knew that Gulliver was well into middle age, probably in his fifties,
     so if this was his wife, she was considerably younger than he was, maybe by twenty years.
    ‘Mrs Gulliver?’
    ‘I’m Gwen Gulliver, yes.’ She made a show of examining their warrant cards and told them to step inside. She sounded slightly
     exasperated as though she was finding the whole business tedious, and Wesley couldn’t help feeling like an estate worker who’d
     found himself on the wrong side of the lady of the manor. For a man who made so much of his humble roots, it appeared that
     Shane Gulliver had found himself a partner in life from a different world altogether – but it was a world Gulliver would probably
     have grasped eagerly the moment his first novel made the bestseller charts. According to Pam, although ninety-eight percent
     of writers struggle to earn a crust, a tiny handful right at the top could make serious money. Her own excuse for not embarking
     on the Great British Novel, apart from her children and her teaching career, was that she was extremely unlikely to find herself
     in the top two percent. She’d never been optimistic by nature.
    Gwen Gulliver ushered them into a spacious drawing room, tastefully decorated in cream and gold; a tasteful,feminine room and an unlikely setting for a man who sold himself on his gritty credentials.
    ‘I’ll get my husband,’ she said and turned to go.
    ‘Actually we’d like to talk to you as well,’ said Wesley. ‘No doubt you’ve heard about the body that was found next door at
     Jessop’s Farm yesterday afternoon?’
    She turned back to face him and frowned. ‘Body? No … I …’
    ‘A woman was found dead in one of the fields. Did you see or hear anything suspicious?’
    ‘No. Nothing. When I got home I heard a lot of sirens and police vehicles careering down the lane at high speed but that’s
     all I know. Apart from that I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, I’m afraid. Do you know who she is? How did she die?
     Is it associated with the filming?’
    ‘I’m afraid we’re treating the death as suspicious. And we’re still trying to identify the victim,’ said Wesley gently. He
     saw Gwen raise her hand to her mouth. She looked shocked. But shock was natural in the circumstances.
    ‘You didn’t answer the door yesterday evening when my officers called round,’ said Gerry.
    ‘I must have been out picking Shane up from Morbay station.’
    ‘Where were you yesterday afternoon?’
    ‘I was in Plymouth … shopping. I got back around five-thirty.’
    ‘Have you seen a woman hanging around recently … youngish, blonde hair, red coat?’ Gerry asked.
    Gwen shook her head. ‘It doesn’t ring a bell. But there have been a lot of strangers about because of the filming. We had
     to complain about teenage girls trespassing on our property.’
    ‘This woman was probably in her late twenties.’
    ‘The ones I saw were teenagers and it was over a week ago.’
    ‘Have you ever had any dealings with a woman called Lilith Benley?’ Wesley asked. ‘She lives on the other side of Jessop’s
     Farm land … place called Devil’s Tree Cottage?’
    Gwen Gulliver shook her head again. ‘The name’s familiar because there was a TV documentary about her a couple of years ago
     … and from time to time the papers do a feature on horrific crimes when they’ve nothing better to write about. She’s in prison,
     surely.’
    ‘Not any more,’ said Gerry. ‘She’s out and she’s come back. I wondered if you’d met her.’
    Gwen’s eyes widened and a look of affronted horror appeared on her face. ‘Why on earth would I have anything to do with someone
     like that?’ She shuddered. ‘I’m sorry, I’d like to help you but …’
    ‘In that case we’d better speak to your husband,’ said Gerry.
    ‘I’ll check whether he’s free