Free Dead Money (A Detective Inspector Paul Amos Lincolnshire Mystery) by Rodney Hobson Page A

subscription and they post it to me. As you can imagine, the latest edition was a bit of a stunner."
     
    "The paper is published on Thursday," Amos protested. You should have received it on Friday, Saturday at the latest. Why have you waited until the middle of the next week to come forward?"
     
    "I nearly didn't come forward at all," Mrs Jones replied quite sharply. "Why should I? Ray's death was nothing to do with me."
     
    "But you decided to do your civic duty," Amos said coldly. "Or did you decide to claim your inheritance? It must be a tidy sum."
     
    Mrs Jones was quite put out. "I have come here voluntarily," she said curtly.
     
    "Nonetheless," Amos pressed, "You presumably expect to gain something, possibly everything. Surely you are entitled to half anyway as his wife."
     
    "How do I know what's in the will? He could have changed it a dozen times and I wouldn't know. I should imagine he has left me something but I can manage one way or another."
     
    Mrs Jones made one of her pauses for effect. Amos was caught out again. He had slid down the chair into that slouching position. Quickly he pulled himself back up.
     
    "Perhaps he's left it all to that Sarah Miles woman," Mrs Jones went on in an amused tone of voice and with a twinkle in her eye. "She certainly pestered him enough."
     
    Amos attempted to contain his excitement. "Are you implying that your husband was having an affair with Miss Miles?"
     
    Mrs Jones's amusement turned into a laugh.
     
    "I don't think Ray could have stood it. She nearly drove him batty as it was. No, I don't think they were having an affair. They knew each other at church. I knew her as well, of course. She's been the organist for donkey's years.
     
    "Oh, she's a harmless enough soul, I suppose, and most of the time she's quite tolerable. But she can be very intense. She can't let go, like a terrier with a rag doll. I'm sure she saw her chance with Ray when I left him. He told me she was always fussing round him. Then she would have the sulks when she found she was getting nowhere. It all went round in circles.
     
    "If Ray had a fling with anyone over the past four years - and he as good as admitted it to me on the Sunday he did turn up - it certainly wasn't with Sarah Miles."
     
    At this stage Amos was reluctant to point out the inconsistencies in Mrs Jones's story. While she was willing to keep talking, it was better to let her. There would be time to go through it all in closer detail another time.
     
    "Did he indicate any names?" Amos asked without much hope.
     
    The answer was negative, as he expected.
     "I preferred not to know," Mrs Jones added. "We were talking about us, not other relationships that didn't mean very much anyway. Supposing I had gone back to him. I didn't want to bump into some acquaintance in the street and think she had gone to bed with my husband while I was away. I preferred not to know."
     
    "But he did talk about Sarah Miles," Amos interposed. "Did he indicate what terms they were on when he saw you?"
     
    "It was sulk time," came the instant reply. "In fact, it had been rather unpleasant at church on the previous Sunday. I know Ray was very apprehensive about what her attitude would be at the service that evening. I never found out what happened. Ray was going to tell me at our next meeting but, as you know, he didn't turn up."
     
    "Did he say if Miles had threatened him?" Amos asked.
     
    "Well, sort of," Mrs Jones replied. "Apparently she told him on several occasions in no uncertain terms that if she couldn't have Ray no-one else would. But he didn't take it seriously. She would never have killed him. She would probably have settled for a scene in public. That's why Ray was apprehensive about going to church on the weeks when all was not sweetness and light."
     
    "He mentioned this on the previous Sunday?"
     
    “He mentioned it any time we spoke over the past four years, which was probably about a dozen times in all. He put a