Free Murder in Bare Feet by Roger Silverwood Page B

names. He had a few business cards of his own describing the business as metal recovery experts, and that was all.
    He put the wallet and everything else except the key back in the envelope, sealed it down with an abundance of Sellotape and rang for Ahmed.
    ‘Take that down to the office. See who is on duty. Ask him to put it in the safe for me and get a receipt. Got it?’
    ‘Right, sir.’ Ahmed went out as Gawber came in.
    ‘Have you a minute, sir?’
    Angel noticed that Gawber’s eyes were shining.
    ‘What is it, Ron?’
    ‘You won’t believe it, sir?’
    ‘Try me.’
    ‘Well, you told me to see what I could find out about the two Frazer sisters, Bridie and Jazmin.’
    ‘Yes. Shut the door and sit down. What about them?’
    ‘They were from a respectable family in Skiptonthorpe. Bridie, the elder sister, was a teacher in a school there. Very smartly turned out lass. Happily married, or so it seemed, in 1978 to a quiet, hard-working lad called Larry Longley, a butcher. They had one son, Abe Longley. However, over the years, Bridie got to know a man who had a transport business. He had a fleet of wagons doing long haul, mostly taking steel billets from Sheffield up to Glasgow then bringing whisky back and delivering it to a warehouse in the Isle of Dogs in London. Well, the relationship got what you might call hot, and Bridie was having it off with this chap. In return, he was buying her expensive designer clothes and handbags, jewellery and taking her away on foreign holidays and stuff. They were flying really high. The thing is, the husband knew all about it. In fact, he used to look after the son, young Abe, sometimes while his wife and this chap went off together. More than one occasion he took his young son away, when they went away somewhere different.’
    ‘Yes. I remember some of this coming out in court. Nasty set up, the whole thing. But Bridie got too greedy, didn’t she?’
    ‘Yes sir. The boyfriend couldn’t keep up with the money. He wouldn’t or couldn’t stump up for something she wanted, so they had an unholy row, and she walked out on him. She went back to her husband and their son. Later that day the boyfriend came to the Longleys’ house looking for her. Larry Longley said she was out with young Abe. He pushed past him into the house and searched it. Larry saw red and went after him with a poker. The boyfriend pushed him away and stormed out of the house. Two days later Bridie’s body was found in an oil drum, chopped up in pieces. An AA man tried to move the drum off the hard shoulder of the A1 in Leicestershire and discovered the body.’
    Angel pulled a face. ‘The husband got sent down, didn’t he?’
    ‘He got twenty years, sir. The chopper used on Bridie was the same chopper he used to use for cutting up stewing steak in the butcher’s shop. He’s doing time in Wakefield prison.’
    ‘Has he appealed?’
    ‘Twice. Each time it was rejected. And this is the bit you won’t believe, sir. When the boyfriend walked out of Longley’s house, he went straight to Jones’s antique shop and enticed Jazmin Jones, Bridie’s sister, away from her husband, Emlyn Jones. Then Jazmin Jones changed her name back to her maiden name, Frazer.’
    Angel nodded and took over the story. ‘Charles Pleasant and Jazmin Frazer were at Larry’s trial, holding hands. They were together throughout the trial and have been together ever since … until his murder on Sunday.’
    Gawber’s face dropped. ‘You knew, sir!’
    ‘Not all of it.’
    ‘Yes. His father died in 2003 and left him the scrap metal business. Shortly afterwards Charles sold the haulage business for a tidy sum.’
    ‘He must have been pretty well off then?’
    ‘Not for long. Not while either of the Frazer sisters were anywhere around.’
    Gawber smiled.
    ‘What do you know about Bridie and Larry’s son?’
    ‘Information about him is a bit sparse. I worked out that Abe must be 28.’
    His eyebrows shot up. ‘Doesn’t time