Free Witchmoor Edge by Mike Crowson Page B

for a print out of the calls, so I can check the
call time against the till slip."
    "That should tell us how reliable the story
is," Hampshire remarked. "It's a pretty strange story but it may
well be broadly true." She paused and looked around. "Or of course
it may not. Shirley Hunter is a nurse, and that puts her high on a
list of suspects as regards means, and she's pretty high as regards
motive, considering the kind of man Hunter was. However, I talked
this morning to two other people who admitted wanting him
dead."
    She told them of her conversations with
Shields and Knowles. "They both have pretty powerful motives and
this IT specialist we have yet to speak to may have at least as
good a motive," she concluded.
    "DC Goss was starting from the other end.
What was Musworth doing Saturday night?" Detective Inspector
Hampshire continued. "How did you get on?” she asked, turning to
Goss.
    "According to what DC Hammond learned
yesterday, Musworth was definitely with Sansom and possibly with
Koswinski and the word was that Sansom was going to the Youth
Centre, so that's where I began," Goss explained, and recounted his
finding at the Youth Centre and the Apocalypse.
    "So they were together at around ten thirty,"
Cooke observed.
    "I'm going to check with the doorman at the
Apocalypse, but it looks that way," Goss agreed.
    "Musworth drowned, Koswinski swam ashore and
there was an unidentified body in the rubble," Hampshire said. "It
looks virtually certain the body in the burnt out building was
either Sansom or Barker. We'd better try and identify Barker and
trace him, before we tell Sansom's family he's dead. On the
evidence so far, I'd say they - some of them or all four - threw
the body in the canal and the fire broke out and cut them off. What
the four of them were doing only Koswinski knows." She turned to
Cooke. "What I'd like to do is have DC Goss and DC Hammond pick him
on suspicion of murdering Hunter and Musworth."
    There was a slight shuffling. "Oh I know he
isn't even a suspect," Hampshire said hastily. "But he's getting to
be a hardened nut and he won't tell us anything if we ask him
nicely. Hammond and Goss can give him something of a grilling and
just maybe he'll come out with the story. This time we're not
actually after him, at least I don't think we are."
    "Worth a try, I suppose," Cooke said at
length.
    "How did you get on at the hospital, DS
Gibbs?" Hammond asked, moving the agenda on.
    "Nothing very concrete, I'm afraid," Gibbs
said. "Shirley Hunter is a nurse, like she said, and seems
reasonably well liked. She would have had access to morphine, but
drugs are fairly well controlled. When something out of the
ordinary is prescribed for a patient, supplies are sent up from the
pharmacy, enough for a day at a time."
    "You spoke to the pharmacy?" Millicent
asked.
    "Yes. Youngish bloke called O'Connor runs it
and seems well in control. One thing I did come across, though ..."
He hesitated.
    "Go on," Cooke urged.
    "It's probably not important, but there was a
rumour linking the Hunter woman to a Doctor Patel in Respiratory at
Bradford Royal. He was on duty all weekend and seen regularly all
day Saturday doing different jobs. I think you can rule him out,
but it may give her even more motive."
    "Right," Hampshire said, "DC Bright was
checking with neighbours for anything to confirm Shirley Hunter's
story or call it into question. Find anything?"
    "Nothing useful," Bright answered. "The next
door neighbour says they were always quarrelling and that he used
to hit her, but we knew that anyway."
    "Take someone with you," Hampshire said,
"Keep at it. I'd like to find someone who saw them leave at around
eleven thirty."
    "Okay," she continued, "DC Hammond and DC
Goss can pick up Koswinksi tomorrow and try to put the frighteners
on him to find out what happened between ten thirty and twelve
thirty Saturday. DS Gibbs. First I want you to go to Hunter's house
and go through his work area for anything personal. Use