The Inspector Walter Darriteau Murder Mysteries - Books 1-4 by David Carter (best finance books of all time .txt) 📕

Karen, ‘Go and see what they can tell you, but before that, ring SOCO and tell them to get down here straight away, and I don’t care what day it is,’ and Karen bobbed her head and disappeared.

There was a combination of smells in the bathroom, blood, and vomit, and old dinners, and God knows what else.

Doc Grayling said: ‘Goulash, me thinks,’ sniffing the vomit.

‘Goulash is Hungarian,’ said Walter. ‘If the girl’s Bulgarian, must be some kind of Bulgarian beef stew.’

‘Well whatever it is, there’s paprika in it,’ said the Doc, gently cleaning the face to reveal a clearer picture of Luke Flowers.

The doc saw the look of recognition in Walter’s eyes.

‘You know who he is?’

‘Yeah, unless I am much mistaken that is the head of Luke Edward Flowers.’

‘Known to you?’

‘Recently, yes.’

‘Bad egg?’

‘Wanted murderer.’

‘Looks like someone wanted him more than you did.’

‘Seems that way.’

Mister Heale cocked his wrist and glanced at his watch.

‘Look, am I OK to get away? I have so much to do.’

They had almost forgotten he was there.

‘Yes, for now,’ said Walter. ‘But don’t leave the building until we have spoken again, and DON’T tell the press.’

‘I am hardly likely to do that, am I? It’s hardly good publicity, is it? One of their guests has just been decapitated; that’s the place for me!’

Walter nodded the guy away and the doc said, ‘Strange fellow.’

‘Yes, he is,’ said Walter, peering down at the head.

‘There is something in his mouth,’ said the doc, grabbing a pair of tweezers from his bag, getting closer, almost close enough to kiss, peering deep into the mouth, obscuring it from Walter’s view.

‘What is it?’

‘Just a minute, I think I have it. Yes, there you are!’

And he stood upright and displayed the foreign body.

‘Soap,’ said Walter.

‘Pink soap,’ said the doc. ‘Standard motel issue, I would say,’ and they both looked round and the absence of any other soap encouraged that belief.

‘And the hidden meaning is?’ asked Walter.

‘Wash your mouth out, mend your ways, cleanse your sins, wouldn’t you think?’

‘Looks that way to me.’

‘We are going to have to get him out of there,’ said the doc.

‘Seems sensible.’

Doc Grayling retreated to his bag and brought out a large heavy-duty clear plastic bag. Shook it open. Gave it to Walter.

‘You hold, I’ll grab.’

Walter shook the plastic bag again as the Doc slipped some implement between the head and the side of the bowl and eased it out. Filthy, bloody water dripped from the hair, and the head, and the ears, and the nose, and the mouth, and splashed back down into the bowl, and onto the rim and the floor beyond.

‘Mucky business,’ whispered the doc.

Grayling lowered the head into the bag that Walter was holding open, the static blue eyes still staring out, fastened the top and took it from Walter and through to the main bedroom. It was surprising how heavy a fresh human head could be.

Walter followed. ‘Good God, what have we here?’

‘Place of execution I would say.’

Walter bobbed his head, couldn’t speak, because he was already on the phone, ringing Karen just along the corridor.

‘Find out who booked room fifty, I want to know what time they arrived, how did they pay, and did they have any visitors? Oh, and see if there is any CCTV, inside the building and out, and find out if anything in here was touched by the staff, such as the body, and we’ll need fingerprints of all staff to eliminate them. We’ll also need a full record of everyone employed here, and another list of all the guests from yesterday and today, no, make that the whole of last week, to be on the safe side, and the last month for this particular room.’

‘Sure, Guv. On to it.’

‘Everything else all right out there with you?’ muttered Walter, as he glanced over his shoulder and watched the doc staring down at the severed neck.

‘Shaken up, but they’ll be OK,’ said Karen.

THE BODY WAS FULLY clothed, facing down, except there wasn’t a face, lying with the shoulders at the foot of the bed, feet at the top, both arms out straight to the side, as if it had been a cross. It was a big bed and he was a relatively small guy, and the hands didn’t overlap the sides. At the foot of the bed where the head would have been, should have been, was a large maroon stain, turning deep brown, spreading down onto the carpet. There were flies in the room and they were all getting pretty excited, not easily put off by the wafting, living humans.

The doc had set the head up on the wall table so that it could watch what was going on in the room. Walter stared at the face in the plastic bag and said to himself: What’s this all about, Luke?

The doctor went to the body and was gently touching the severed neck with his gloved hand.

‘Seems a very clean cut, might even be a single blow.’

‘Drugged first do you think? Or restrained?’ asked Walter.

‘Can’t tell that yet, the PM will though, for sure.’

‘Restrained means more than one person.’

‘Yes, it would, because if it was one blow it would have required a great deal of leverage. No one person could both hold, and sever.’

‘But if the victim was drugged that would be a different ball game.’

‘You have it, Darriteau, you have it.’

Walter looked around the room, checking for a murder weapon, but he didn’t expect to find such a thing, and didn’t.

‘What kind of weapon are we looking at?’

‘Hard to say,’ said the doc, standing up straight, pursing his lips. ‘But a very sharp one, and a very big one too, this wasn’t done with some home kitchen carving knife; you are looking at something far bigger, something much more impressive.’

‘Like an axe or a sword?’

‘Yes, that would fit the bill, or a specialist implement from an abattoir maybe, or a butchers.’

‘And time of death?’

‘You want everything, don’t you, Walter?’

‘Course, I am a demanding man,’ and he grinned