Free Love Lies Bleeding by Geraldine Evans Page B

we were and why we wanted to see him she produced enough frost to make me feel like a brass monkey in the trouser department.’
    ‘Mm. She was certainly not as subtle as the decor. Do you think she and Mike might be—’
    ‘Lovers?’ Rafferty finished for him, aware of Llewellyn's reluctance to openly refer to things he felt should be private. ‘Could be. And why not? Everyone else in the country seems to be at it like knives, if the papers are to be believed. Sodom and Gomorrah, Ma calls it. She'll be predicting the Second Coming next.
    ‘But to get back to the receptionist and Mike Raine, for all we know they're both free agents, able and willing to lie for one another like any other loving couple. She was certainly protective of him. Makes you wonder if she didn't have a hand in Raymond's death, on the principle that she might have believed that removing his cousin from Mike's path and lying for him might serve to encourage his commitment. And even if she had nothing to do with it, it seems that whoever gets to inherit the filthy lucre might well turn out to have the biggest motive for his murder. That being the case, it's fortunate we managed to trace Raine's solicitor. Because I think the sooner we speak to him and see how the inheritance land lies, the better. And given that Mrs Enderby suspected Raymond abused Felicity we have to wonder if he was abusive to anyone else. If he was, he may well have stoked the need for revenge in people other than his wife.’
    ‘Yes, but if he was this aggressive bully Mrs Enderby's portrait of him implies, doesn't it strike you as odd that he should have been killed so violently? In my experience, it's usually the case that such large, aggressive males are dispatched by subtler, more
safe
means for the perpetrator. Even given the possibility that he was drugged — could a lay person be sure how much of the drug to administer?’
    Rafferty shrugged and got in the car. ‘I suppose the lay person can read up on dosage amounts required, the same as the professionals. Ma's got one of those little books at home which she uses to check up on what the doctor's prescribed for her so she can challenge him if she doesn't like the sound of it or its potential side-effects. Then there's the internet, which provides the interested with more facts than they really want to know.’
    Or so he understood — his screen mostly seemed to fill up with stuff totally unrelated to his original query. ‘Half of the world are medical experts, now, Dafyd, or can be if they choose.’
    ‘Or have need so to be.’
    ‘That too.’
    ‘Pure speculation, of course.’
    ‘Of course. But that's what I do best, after all. Why waste such a talent?’
    But speculation was not, as Rafferty admitted to himself, getting them any further forward. ‘You haven't yet put forward any possible theories.’ Rafferty tried to tease a response from the generally non-theorising Welshman. ‘Who do
you
think did it, now that Felicity Raine has decided to widen the list of possible suspects?’
    But as Llewellyn wasn't to be drawn, Rafferty checked his watch. It was nearly seven. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘If we don't get a move on we'll be late for our appointment with the solicitor, and seeing as Jonas Singleton has been sufficiently obliging as to remain late in his office just for us, we don't want to get his back up.’
    As Llewellyn drove away from the forecourt, Rafferty thought again about Raymond Raine's secretive nature. He was curious to discover what his solicitor could tell them about him and the rest of the family. Not to mention who exactly stood to inherit the dead man's wealth.

Chapter Five
    Rafferty was relieved to find that Jonas Singleton was a relatively young man. The firm of Wilkinson, Warburton, Walker & Blenkinsop was old-established and, certainly on the surface, old-fashioned in its ways. An older member of the firm — given Raymond Raine's sudden and violent death — might be more likely to