Free Shrine to Murder by Roger Silverwood

several phone calls, sir. And nobody thought he was that bad…I mean bad enough for anyone to want to murder him. He wouldn’t have won any popularity contest, but as bank managers go, it seems he was pretty straight.’
    ‘ All right, Ted. I hope you’re right,’ Angel said and rubbed his chin. ‘There are a couple of details you can clear up for me. You know that Ronnie Striker went out to buy a sandwich from the shop for Ingrid Underwood. We know he bought the thing. Presumably he brought it back to the florist’s shop but there was no explanation as to what happened to it. Even in the clear-up, SOCO didn’t come across it. I want you to find out what happened to it. See Ronnie Striker; he should know, but be gentle, don’t upset him. Remember he has a man’s body but he’s only twelve years old in the head. All right?’
    ‘ Yes, sir.’
    ‘ And there’s something else. Go to the florist’s shop. SOCO will soon be finished there. Find out about the shop bell, and report back to me how it works.’
    Scrivens frowned. ‘The shop bell, sir?’
    Angel clenched his fists. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The shop bell. How is it powered? Electric mains, battery, gas, oil, solar, steam, coal, gravity…or is it simply a bell suspended and hit by a piece of metal screwed to the door when the door is opened.’
    Scrivens ’ face lightened. ‘Oh, yes, sir.’
    ‘ Well, push off then, lad,’ he said. ‘We are working against the clock here, you know. I don’t want the murderer striking a third time.’
    Scrivens ’ eyelids shot up and then down in alarm as the possibility dawned on him. He rushed out and closed the door.
    Angel turned to Carter. ‘Now then, lass. The link between Luke Redman and Ingrid Underwood has to be much more than him buying flowers from her shop from time to time, or her being a customer at the bank when he was manager, although they are obviously places where a connection may have started. We have to find the relations, friends and acquaintances of each of the two victims and from them, try to uncover a situation or circumstance they had in common. Whatever it is, it must be able to be incorporated in some way with another four people, because the murderer has signalled that he intends to kill four more.’
    ‘ Why six?’
    ‘ Who knows? It doesn’t fit a team number, does it? I don’t know of any particular group that would make six. Or it could be seven if you included the murderer.’
    ‘ There’s seven-a-side football, sir.’
    ‘ I can’t see Redman in a football team with Mrs Underwood. There’s more than twenty-five years’ difference in them for one thing.’
    Carter had to agree. She nodded accordingly.
    ‘ I don’t know why it’s six, lass,’ Angel said. ‘But it is. We know so little about Ingrid Underwood. The man across the road at the bike shop said she has a daughter but she’s not come forward. Start there. There should be an address book or some clue as to her ID in Ingrid Underwood’s house. See what you can do to find her or any other person close to her. Keep in touch. All right?’
    ‘ Right sir,’ she said and she was gone.
    Angel looked round the empty office, checked that he had everything he needed, then went out, closed the door, ran up the corridor to the front door of the station to join Crisp who was already in his car, his engine running, waiting for him.
    Angel slumped in the passenger seat, dragged the seat-belt across his chest, pressed the metal bit into the fastener, and signalled Crisp to move off.
    It was not a happy day.
    They travelled in silence. Angel used the time to mull over the case and then marshal the questions he had for the Krills.
    Crisp drove the Ford to Sheffield, and then through the twists and turns of the city-centre streets with their ‘No Entry’, ‘No right turn’, ‘No left turn’ signs and with certain roads restricted to buses and taxis only. He found the way on to Rivelin Valley Road, then on to the A57