Free No Hiding Place: An edge of your seat mystery/thriller. (DI Sally Parker thrillers Book 2) by M A Comley

you down at the station,
that’s fine by me.”
    “Jesus, you’re like a bloody
Rottweiler with a bone.”
    “That’s true. The sooner you
realise that, the better. Now what is it to be?” Sally glanced at
the door when she heard Mrs. Whiting’s footsteps in the
hallway.
    “I’ll come down the station. If
Leona found out about this, she would take a knife to my
knackers.”
    “Nice phraseology, Mr. Whiting.
Shall we make arrangements for you to pay a visit to the station
tomorrow then?”
    “No, it’ll have to be sometime
next week.”
    Sally shook her head. “It’s
either tomorrow or here and now. I have a murder investigation to
conduct, with a murderer out there on the loose. I’d call that an
urgent matter, wouldn’t you?”
    Leona entered the room again,
holding a plate of biscuits.
    As Sally stood up with the
intention of returning to her original seat to make room for Leona,
Colin whispered, “Four o’clock, tomorrow.”
    Once seated again, Sally nodded
at Colin, accepting the time he’d suggested, and continued asking
general questions about the family. “Maybe you can tell us what
Gemma and Mark’s relationship was like?”
    Leona picked up her mug and
settled it between her hands. “They have their ups and downs, like
we all do, I suppose. That’s right, love, isn’t it?” she asked her
husband.
    “More downs than ups in their
case, I suspect, Leona—unlike us, of course.”
    Sally wondered if he was trying
to deliberately cast aspersions in his brother’s direction.
“Thanks, we’ll note that down. When you say more downs than ups,
are you telling me that in your eyes their marriage was in
trouble?”
    Leona gasped. “No. I wouldn’t
put it as clear-cut as that, Inspector.”
    “What about you, Colin? I’d
love to hear your perceptions of your brother’s marriage. Care to
divulge what you feel about it?” Sally asked, smiling.
    “They love each other. Mark
would do anything to ensure Gemma was happy. Yes, they had the odd
spat, but I never once felt their marriage was problematic. What
did Gemma’s mum say about it?”
    “That’s between me and her. I
don’t usually pass personal information around like that, sorry.
That’s why we insist on questioning as many people as we can in
cases such as this. If nothing else, it helps us to form a picture,
sometimes a multi-faceted picture, of events leading up to a
victim’s demise.”
    “I understand that, Inspector,
but surely no one in this family would ever dream of hurting Gemma.
She is… I mean she was such a kind person and loved by a lot
of people.” Leona took a sip from her mug.
    “That’s often the case, Leona.
It seems most of the cases that cross my desk are accredited to
people of a nice disposition. I’d say it comes out at a
seventy-five to a twenty-five percent ratio.”
    “Really? That does surprise me.
Can you tell us how Gemma was killed? Sorry, if you’ve already
discussed it while I was out of the room.”
    The woman’s obvious question
heightened Sally’s suspicions towards Colin. Why hadn’t he asked
the same question in his wife’s absence? Sally’s focus remained on
Colin when she answered his wife, “I’d rather not go into specific
details right now, as the cause of death is yet to be determined by
the pathologist, who is performing the post-mortem today.”
    “I see. Does she have to have
one of those?” Leona shuddered, almost spilling the contents of her
mug in the process.
    “It’s procedure. A post-mortem
is a vital part of the puzzle in building a case against an
assailant. You’d be surprised the clues we can pick up from
examining a corpse. Most pathologists call the victims ‘silent
witnesses’ for that very reason. We should know more by
tomorrow—that’s when our investigation will truly begin. For now,
we’ll go about making general enquiries, asking friends and
relatives of the deceased if they know of any recent arguments or
falling-outs the victim might have had