MURDER IN PEMBROKESHIRE an absolutely gripping crime mystery full of twists (Tyrone Swift Detective , GRETTA MULROONEY [books to read now .txt] 📗

so glad to see DS Spencer’s pudgy, beetroot complexion. He sat in Spencer’s car, rubbing his throat. A paramedic had checked him over and pronounced that his airways were bruised but not compromised.

Spencer handed him a bottle of water and he took a few sips. He croaked, ‘Is Elinor okay?’

‘She’s on her way to hospital. She saved you. Hit Guy on the back of the head with a soldering block. He’s been taken away unconscious.’ He bit his lip. ‘I thought you were as dead as the dog when we got here. The boss would never have forgiven me. She likes you — I can tell.’

‘I like her too,’ Swift said. God, I sound like a soppy teenager, must be the oxygen deprivation. ‘Did you arrest Gwyn?’

‘Yeah. She’s at the station. My mam’s always said that Gwyn’s a warm-hearted girl. She’ll be dead shocked.’ He gave a huge yawn. ‘Sorry, it’s like I haven’t slept for a week.’

‘You won’t get much sleep for a while yet, with four suspects to process.’

Spencer grimaced. ‘Still, the boss will be thrilled. I can’t get my head round it all. What led you to Peter Merchant?’

‘I’m not sure.’ This case had been like stirring a sauce that refused to come together. In Gwyn’s flat he’d hit the moment when it mysteriously thickened. ‘I reckoned that Afan might have approached Peter after Bruno told him about the Merchants’ plan. Jasmine has thyroid problems which make her tired. Bruno mentioned that she slept most afternoons, so she could well have been asleep on that Monday when Afan died. I’d gathered that Peter has much more of an emotional investment in this place than Jasmine. She’s tougher and sees it as a business, whereas he loves Tir Melys and hated the threat of losing it. He resented his son and didn’t see why he and Jasmine had to bail him out. I’d seen him doing yoga and although he seems feeble, he’d have the strength to kill and drag a man some distance. He’s the quiet, slow-burn type who could flip and that led me to think that if Afan had cornered him, he could have lashed out.’ Maybe it had been Elinor’s comment that every worm turns that had led him to Peter. His brain was tired.

‘Yeah, Peter’s always seemed more of a mouse than a man.’ Spencer gazed at Swift with the kind of devotion that Frankie used to bestow on Elinor. ‘What about Guy? What made you suspect that he was going to harm Elinor?’

Swift sipped more water, holding it in his mouth and letting it ease down his throat. ‘I wasn’t sure, but once I’d spoken to Gwyn, I thought again about Elinor’s smoke and mirrors technique. She was desperate, and she’d have done anything to preserve her marriage and the chance of adopting a child. Despite her confession to Gwyn, I just couldn’t see her as a killer. I could only assume that she thought Guy had killed Afan, so she panicked and was covering up for him. That was the sole reason she’d make such a claim.’ He coughed. ‘I remembered Suki saying that Guy monitored Elinor and listened in on her conversations. He could well have overheard Afan talking to her about Caris and Gwyn, and the conversation when Caris said she was going to expose him. He could have decided to murder Caris to shut her up. He didn’t care about the adoption — he’s never really wanted a child. That was just a way of keeping Elinor busy and onside. He enjoyed needling the social worker too. It made him feel superior, which is when Guy’s in his comfort zone. I’d bet money that he’d forgotten all about the miserable girl in the playground and her annoying little tale of woe. But when he overheard the details and recalled the incident, he wouldn’t have wanted Gwyn’s story to go public. Dr Brinkworth would have lost face and status, maybe even have become a pariah. Fingers would point.’

‘Hurt pride,’ Spencer said.

‘Exactly.’ Swift tried a gentle neck roll. It hurt, but it was bearable. He did another, anticlockwise. ‘Guy must have concealed Caris’s body in the hope that she wouldn’t be found for a while. Maybe he wanted to buy time. She might have been in that cold chamber for weeks before anyone noticed a smell or stepped in there. I believe that Gwyn might have been his next victim if he’d believed there was a chance that she’d talk. Then the news broke about the Merchants wanting to sell up, and Elinor became even more distraught and as Guy would see it, emotionally incontinent. She told me that they’d been rowing and her attitude to him had become less sympathetic. They were both under enormous strain. He’s a vindictive, callous bastard. I reckoned that once he found out that Elinor had stumbled on Caris’s body, he might well feel trapped and see that as a betrayal. I worried that he’d turn his fury on her.’ His throat throbbed. He slumped back in the car seat.

Spencer pursed his lips. ‘I never liked him. He was well up himself.’

‘Sometimes people are as rotten as they appear.’

‘Well this is a right old kettle of fish and no mistake,’ Spencer said, scratching his head.

Swift splashed water from the bottle on his face and massaged his neck. That was one way of putting it.

Chapter 21

Swift stood in Afan’s shed, sticking labels on his friend’s last batch of mead. When he’d finished the bottles, he crated them. They were now ready for the gathering after Afan’s funeral. He stood over them for a moment. A final offering.

In the cottage, he took a couple of painkillers. His throat had improved but his back still ached. His beard had grown, and the constant rain and wind had whipped his hair into a knotted mess. If his cousin Mary could