Condemned, R.C. Bridgestock [most romantic novels TXT] 📗

the team briefed as quickly as possible. Then all they had to do was wait for the tip-off that the Dixons were back on the caravan site, so that the teams could enact their plan and await for the Dixons’ next trip.

Charley sat at her desk, quietly running over what the investigation had revealed so far. Charley picked up a pen, and pulled a sheet of paper from her printer. She started to make notes.

Dixons housed – Primrose Pastures Holiday Caravan Park.

Personal data about the Dixons gained from Primrose Pastures has enabled ongoing cell-site analysis for mobile phone.

Patience was not one of Charley’s virtues, but it was one that was required of an SIO. She got up to go and make herself a coffee. In passing, Tattie warned her, ‘This operation is going to be costly.’

‘Ah, but money well spent,’ said Charley. ‘I have every faith in Tim.’

‘Oh, absolutely,’ Tattie smiled.

Annie stood at the kitchen door and nodded her head at the administrator. ‘What’s up with her, has she been drinking?’ she mouthed.

Charley tittered. ‘Never before has Ms Tate not given me grief over the cost of an operation. I’m a very happy bunny,’ she said.

There were no calls by lunchtime to say the Dixons had returned to Primrose Pastures. With the arrival in the office of Mike and Wilkie, the team were going over the intelligence about the Dixons. Annie Glover was sitting at her desk, quietly researching any undetected robberies in the North Yorkshire area to see if the suspect criteria matched the Dixons.

‘Maybe the heat got too much for them? Maybe they decided it was time to retire from a life of crime,’ she said, when nothing was forthcoming in the immediate area.

Charley shook her head. ‘No, I’m not buying it. Look further afield. These guys are cute, they won’t shit on their own doorstep again, not so soon.’

With the team updated on the Dixons enquiry, Charley and Mike set off to visit Lily. It was 2.30 p.m. in the afternoon. Lily, as Charley wanted her to be, was surprised to see them.

‘Is everything all right?’ she said, licking her lips as if her mouth were too dry as she answered the back door of the church.

Lily stepped back to let them in, her speech was rapid, and Charley wondered if she was nervous. If so, why?

‘Please sit down,’ Lily said, gathering papers that were strewn around the room, and stuffing them haphazardly into carrier bags. Cleaning up was not a pastime that Charley had learnt to associate with Lily Pritchard, so she wondered what was the rush.

‘Do you want a drink?’

Charley and Mike politely declined. Lily poured herself a large glass of blood-red wine from the decanter on the table, next to her chair, then she sat. Charley eyed her closely.

A picture of Father Connor O’Doherty had been left out on the table. Charley recognised his picture from the intelligence report on the board in the office.

‘You knew Father Michael O’Doherty, too didn’t you?’ said Charley, pointing at the photograph.

Lily nodded. Charley wondered what she was thinking. ‘He was an old man when I was a girl. I knew his nephew much better,’ she said, with a fleeting glance at the photo.

‘Uh-huh, well, we have lots of loose ends that need tying up in relation to the murder investigations at Crownest, and with your knowledge of the church and the people associated with it, we thought you might be able to help us solve a few of them,’ continued Charley.

‘In fact we don’t know anyone who knows the place like you do,’ said Mike, with a broad smile.

Lily appeared flattered. ‘I’ll try my best, but the old grey matter isn’t as sharp as it used to be,’ she said with a half-laugh.

‘One of the things that cropped up during our investigations is suggestion that he was a sexual deviant,’ said Charley.

Lily looked taken aback by the statement and crossed her arms tightly around her, in a defensive pose, which told Charley to tread carefully.

‘We understand that Connor was a voyeur. We are led to believe that he took photographs of women, and that he prostituted out at least one woman to fulfil his needs.’

The old woman took a sip of her drink without taking her eyes off the SIO. From her body language, Lily was not happy with the way the conversation was going, but Charley need to press on.

‘None of us, I suggest is without sin,’ she said quietly. ‘Father Connor was protective and sensitive to the requirements of his flock. He wasn’t sexually promiscuous, if that’s what you are saying. Although, my mother did tell me that he was obsessed with her, and she did say that she would do anything for him.’

‘We are not here to judge, but we have to investigate rumours and speculation, to see if there is any truth in them. We have been told that you are in possession of lewd, or artistic, depending on your viewpoint, pictures which belonged to Father Connor O’Doherty. Is this true?’

Lily shivered, her body stiffened, her eyes watered. ‘Josie Cartwright,’ she said. ‘You’ve been talking to Josie Cartwright. She never could keep a secret that one.’

‘We are not trying to discredit the Reverend, we just need to understand what happened back then, and if there were secrets we need to know about them.’

Chapter 33

‘Can you confirm that Father Connor’s box of photographs still exists?’ said Charley, in a matter-of-fact manner. ‘What we are trying to establish is whether these pictures could be connected to the murder of the woman that we discovered in the cellar at Crownest.’

Lily kept her facial expression so impassive that her emotions were unfathomable.

Charley turned to Mike, which was the indication for him to continue the questioning, in the hope that he could get Lily to open up to them.

Sympathetically, he leaned towards the frail woman. ‘We are investigating a murder that occurred many years ago.’ Mike’s voice was soft and reassuring. He repeated their