The Whitby Murders (A Yorkshire Murder Mystery), J. Ellis [free ebook novel TXT] 📗

‘What?’ replied Ben. ‘But how?’

‘I’m not sure yet, but I’m not convinced that the whole thing is as simple as you say. He might be able to explain things.’

‘What things? You mean why he stabbed her? Okay, maybe he can, but the fact is he still did it,’ continued Ben.

‘Oh, please shut up!’ shouted Maggie. ‘I can’t cope with any more of it.’ She covered her face with her hands and slumped sideways onto the arm of the sofa. The doorbell rang and Maggie sprang up again. ‘Oh God, that’s the police! I’m not even dressed.’

Then they heard a voice calling: ‘It’s me. Jack.’

‘Oh, that’s a relief.’ Maggie relaxed again and Louise let the newcomer in. Jack was dark-haired and tall, wearing jeans and a coat. The others got up and greeted him and Louise brought him coffee. He sat down, holding the cup as if he didn’t know what to do with it.

‘I don’t know what to say. I set off at six this morning. Then I got your text.’ He nodded at Maggie. ‘It’s just awful. I can’t imagine what you’ve all been through. I feel bloody awful about not being here. Tell me exactly what happened. Maybe I could have done something.’

‘You couldn’t have,’ replied Ben. ‘It happened so quickly. Needless to say we weren’t expecting it. They had a furious row in the escape room, and Dominic stabbed her. Then he ran out of the building through an emergency exit.’

‘Bloody hell,’ said Jack, shaking his head. He put his undrunk coffee down on the coffee table.

‘I know it sounds unbelievable but that’s what we saw happen.’

‘So you say they were having a row . . . ?’ Jack seemed lost for words.

‘They were arguing, but you know what they were like,’ said Maggie. ‘It was no worse than we’ve seen before.’

‘Right. And has he just disappeared?’

‘No, he’s around somewhere,’ said Louise, and she showed him the text she’d received earlier.

Jack stared at it. ‘It’s a bloody nightmare, isn’t it? It’s the kind of thing you watch on telly but you never imagine happening to you.’

There was silence. No one could disagree.

‘So what are we going to do?’ asked Jack.

‘We’re waiting for the police to arrive,’ replied Maggie. ‘I thought you were them. They’ll want to interview us. What we do after that I’ve no idea.’ She sounded desperate.

Oldroyd, Granger and Steph watched the smudgy black-and-white images of the CCTV record of the murder. As the five people in the pictures were all dressed in goth costumes, the whole thing looked like some amateur horror film shot amongst the tacky gravestones and broken altar. Nevertheless, it was very chilling because of the terrible events at the end of the sequence. Several times they watched Louise and the others come into the second room and start to look for clues. Then the camera was partially obscured as the commotion took over. The figure of Dominic ran out of view and Andrea fell to the floor at the bottom of the picture. Maggie could be seen with her hands over her mouth, while Ben was crouched over Andrea with his back to the camera. Maggie then disappeared, presumably into the next room, pursuing Dominic. Louise and the actor came into the room and Maggie returned. It all seemed to happen as described by the witnesses.

‘Hmm,’ mumbled Oldroyd, frowning. ‘It seems to confirm what they all said.’

‘It does, sir,’ agreed Granger, thrilled to be working with Oldroyd again.

‘It’s weird watching it on the screen,’ observed Steph. ‘It makes it all seem like a black-and- white horror movie.’

‘That’s what I thought, and in those costumes they look like actors.’ Oldroyd sighed and frowned. The annoying thing was that despite what he’d just said, he was starting to feel, like Louise, that something wasn’t right. But was that just a feeling in sympathy with her? Could he trust it? It was hard to be objective when someone so close to you was involved. Maybe it was sensible to go with what the other two thought.

‘Is it our conclusion that the film confirms the witness accounts?’ asked Granger.

Oldroyd and Steph agreed; Oldroyd with great reluctance. ‘Is there any news of the fugitive’s whereabouts?’ he asked, wondering straight away what was stopping him from saying ‘killer’.

‘None yet, sir, but we’ve got several officers on the search and I’m expecting results soon. He sounds desperate judging from the text he sent to your daughter and he can’t have got far. He may be hiding in a boat or someone’s garage. It’s often the public who discover these people in the end. He must be still in a goth costume unless he had clothes hidden somewhere, but of course he won’t stand out in the town at the moment dressed like that.’

‘There’s always the danger that he’ll do himself in,’ added Steph.

‘Yes. I didn’t want to say that to Louise, but it’s a distinct possibility. How are you handling the press by the way? Have you . . . ?’ Oldroyd stopped himself and shook his head. ‘Look, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to take over your investigation. You’d be quite in order to tell me to shut up.’

Granger laughed. ‘Don’t worry, sir, it’s great to be working with you again. I’ve checked with DCI Garner and he’s fine about you both being involved. Why wouldn’t he be, getting such wonderful assistance free of charge? As long as you’re not involved too directly because of your daughter, you know. I want to clear the air with you about this at the beginning. We have no reason to suspect her of any involvement in anything criminal in relation to what’s happened. If at any stage that changes, I would of course ask you to stand down from the case.’

‘Absolutely understood,’ replied Oldroyd. He saw that Granger was heaving a quiet sigh of relief. It clearly hadn’t been easy to say that to her old boss, but he respected her for having done so.