Indefensible (DI Sara Ramsey Book 12), M Comley [world of reading TXT] 📗

sit down and have a heart to heart with them.”

“That’s sad, but understandable at the same time. Get Carla in here, let’s see what she has to say about the subject.”

Sara shook her head. “I think it’s grossly unfair to put this on her.”

“Do it!”

Sara left her seat and reluctantly shouted for Carla to join them from the doorway. Carla glanced around the incident room at her colleagues, some of whom gave her the thumbs-up. “Have I done something wrong?” Carla mouthed, on her walk towards Sara.

“No. We just want your opinion on something.”

She swiped her brow in relief and entered the office. Sara let her pass and then pulled an extra chair into the room.

Carla sat down and asked, “What can I do for you?”

Sara went to the other side of the desk and settled into her chair, then recapped what she and the chief had been discussing.

Carla placed a hand across her chest. “And you’re expecting me to break a confidence, is that it?”

“No, that’s not how I see it,” the chief replied defensively.

Sara suppressed the chuckle bubbling beneath. You go, girl. Give her hell.

“Okay, I give up,” the chief finally said after ten minutes of getting nowhere, even after Carla entered the room. “Let me mull it over. I need you two to keep the lid on this until I can come up with a viable solution.”

“Don’t worry, our lips are sealed, aren’t they, Carla?”

“Guaranteed.” Carla smiled at the chief and jumped out of her seat to let her pass. Once the door was shut, Sara let out the large breath she’d been holding in. “That’s twenty minutes I don’t plan on revisiting anytime soon.”

“I feel for you. What a terrible dilemma to find yourself in, Sara.”

“You’re not wrong. Save your sympathy for the person who is eventually going to lose their job once this godawful decision has been made.”

“Ugh… this is all so unfair.”

“Tell me about it. Come on, we’ve got better things to occupy our time rather than dwell on making a colleague’s life a misery. We have a suspect to question.”

6

As soon as Sara and Carla joined Zappel and the duty solicitor in the interview room, Sara picked up on the suspect’s mood. He appeared to be a broken man—defeated, some might even say.

Carla ran through the verbiage to get the proceedings underway for the recording.

“I’ll be calling you Jo, if that’s okay?” was the first thing Sara said.

He shrugged. “Whatever suits you.” He stared at the table, his head low, avoiding all eye contact.

“Why did you do it, Jo? Why kill that innocent old lady? You got what you wanted, why then take her damn life?”

His watery gaze met hers. “I didn’t.”

Is that remorse I’m hearing in his tone? His demeanour is remorseful too! What’s going on? We’ve captured him, maybe that was enough to do the trick. Perhaps he’s going to admit his guilt, and this is all going to be a doddle.

“Come now.” Sara took a crime scene photo from the folder she’d brought with her and slid it across to lay in front of him. “You’re expecting me to believe you didn’t end this woman’s life?”

“I didn’t,” he said quietly. His gaze averting the photo.

Sara pushed the image to a different part of the table, forcing him to lay his eyes on it. “Go on, look at it. You did this, at least have the courage to see the consequences of your actions. You took this woman’s life, leaving me to share the news with her grieving family, and you’re sitting there denying it. What kind of fool do you take me for?”

“I’m telling you I didn’t do it.”

Sara produced another image. This time, it was the CCTV footage from the ATM. Zappel groaned. “Next, you’ll be telling me this isn’t you.”

“It’s not.”

“I beg to differ. When we removed the same coat and hat from your house earlier, you admitted they belonged to you. Now you’re sitting there and denying it?”

“I’m not denying they’re mine, I’m denying that’s me in the photo.” He sat back and folded his arms.

Sara stared, trying to unnerve him. He was a strange subject to work out. “Why? Why are you denying you committed the murder when we have you bang to rights? It’s only a matter of time before we hear back from Forensics with any DNA found at the scene. But even when that comes through, the fact that you were seen extracting money from the dead woman’s account, as in this picture here, has put the ultimate nail in your coffin. And yes, pun intended. We’ve got all the proof we need to put you behind bars for a very long time.”

“Except, I didn’t do it.”

Sara mimicked him and folded her arms. “All right, let’s play things your way for a while, see where that gets us, shall we? If you didn’t do it, then who did?”

“No comment.”

Shit! Not what I was expecting at all.

“People usually tend to go down the ‘no comment’ route when an officer gets close to the truth, is that it, Jo? Am I close to the truth?”

He glanced up, bared his yellow teeth and said, “No comment.”

“Okay, we’ll move on in that case.” She removed another crime scene photo from the file and placed it in front of him.

He stared at the photo for several moments, appearing to be mesmerised by the image. “What can you tell me about the victim?”

His head tilted up and his gaze met hers. There was a look of confusion on his face. “What? Who is this?”

“This, as if you didn’t know, is your second victim within the past twenty-four hours.”

He shoved the photo away and turned to his solicitor. “No frigging way! I didn’t do it. They’re not pinning that fucking one on me. Nor the bloody first one, either. I didn’t do this, I swear.”

“What proof do you have that my client murdered this young woman, Inspector?” Mr Jordan demanded.

“Hmm… let’s see. Oh yes, here we have your