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

home to Kiev immediately. I can’t clean for you anymore, Mister Darto, I so sorry.’

‘Don’t be. Obviously you must go home if your boy is ill.’

‘I must go now, Mister Darto, plane sailing.’

‘The plane’s departing,’ said Walter.

‘Plane sailing, Mister Darto. Goodbye!’ and the phone went dead.

‘Damn!’ said Walter aloud. He had grown used to having Galina around the place at the weekend. He’d grown used to having a clean and fresh smelling house too, and now unless he found someone else, he knew it wouldn’t be long before that well lived in look and aroma returned. ‘Damn!’ he said again, and went upstairs to run the bath.

THE NEXT DAY FOLLOWED the same pattern, a steady stream of negatives that the monster ate in a trice. At ten past five Karen took a call. Didn’t give anything away. Attracted little attention. Walter barely glanced at her. She wrote something in her diary and slipped the phone down, and looked across the desk.

‘You are not going to believe this, but we may have a match.’

Walter exhaled loudly and said, ‘Where?’

She glanced back at her notes.

‘A dentist called Kirton & Baines; they say Mister Kirton is taking the paperwork home with him. Curzon Park. We can pick it up any time after seven.’

‘Did they give a name?’

‘Nope.’

Walter glanced at his watch. It was quarter past five.

THEY PULLED UP OUTSIDE the house at five past seven. Sizeable detached property, post war by the look of it, four, maybe five bedrooms, large well tended gardens, plenty of roses competing for the bees, double garage on the right side, big driveway, two almost new cars visible.

‘Fixing teeth pays well,’ said Karen, as they strode up the drive.

‘Always has,’ said Walter.

Karen rang the bell and took a step back and peered through the wavy glass door.

Someone was coming up the hall, a young woman, slim and blonde. Opened the door and stared at the strangers on the step. She was holding a pedigree dog that looked happy enough to be getting the attention.

‘I am Sergeant Greenwood and this is Inspector Darriteau,’ said Karen, flashing her card.

The pretty girl nodded and said, ‘It’s about my poor Luke, is it? I have been expecting you.’

Walter and Karen shared a look, one of some surprise the girl thought, and then Walter took a punt and said, ‘Yes, that’s right, Luke Flowers, may we come in?’

‘Sure,’ she said, standing to one side, ‘I’ll just put the mutt in the kitchen; he’s been on his own all day, that’s why he’s so pleased to see me. Please, go through to the lounge, take a seat, I’ll only be a sec,’ and they heard her say, ‘Go in, Pugsley! I won’t be long,’ and then she was back, taking a seat on the sofa opposite to where the coppers were sitting.

‘How well did you know Luke?’ asked Walter.

‘We were a couple, hoped to get married later in the year.’

‘What did he do for a living?’ asked Karen.

‘Don’t know. He was really cagey about that, but I think it was something to do with computers. Said it was a secret and he’d tell me when we were married.’

‘Were you surprised when he was murdered?’ asked Walter.

‘What do you think? Course I was, devastated, still can’t get my brain around that. Still expect him to walk in the door.’

‘Did you know he possessed a gun?’ asked Karen.

‘Course not! Never saw him with one. I still find that hard to believe. I think it might have been planted.’

‘So you wouldn’t know where he could have obtained such a thing?’ asked Walter.

‘I have no idea, Inspector. I still feel this is all one huge mistake.’

‘No mistake, Miss Kirton,’ said Karen. ‘He murdered one man, and tried to murder another.’

Melanie shook her head, still in denial. Then she said, ‘One minute he is telling me he is going to Australia and the next thing is he is all over the papers, dead, murdered. I just can’t believe it.’

The officers gave her a moment. She was holding herself together well. Then Walter asked ‘Did you know Jeffrey Player and Neil Swaythling?’

‘Not really, I’d seen Neil about, playing in the band, but the other bloke I’d never heard of.’

‘Why would Luke want to kill either of them?’

‘I have no idea; keep thinking about that, it’s just so unbelievable. The kind of thing you see in movies and on TV.’

‘Was he ever violent?’ asked Karen.

‘No. Not really. He was certainly a bit moody, and he could be a bit feisty, but only in play, you know what I mean?’ and she glanced into Karen’s eyes as if she would understand better than the big black bloke.

‘How long did you know him?’ asked Walter.

‘About a year, I suppose.’

‘How was he fixed for money?’ asked Karen.

‘No problem with that. We’d recently come back from Venice, he always paid for everything, very generous, he was.’

‘Did he have other girlfriends?’ asked Walter.

‘Not that I know of, but there was always the suspicion. He was the kind of guy who had a roving eye. Know what I mean? Always looking at the girls. When we were in Italy he couldn’t help himself, he was forever taking pictures of the senoritas on his mobile and flicking through them later.’

‘The senoras,’ said Walter.

‘Yeah, them too.’

‘We can’t find his mobile,’ said Karen. ‘You wouldn’t have it, would you?’

‘No, that’s odd, he’d never go anywhere without it. Should be in his flat somewhere.’

‘It isn’t.’

Melanie blew out and shrugged her shoulders.

‘We want to find it because we’d like to see the pictures he took,’ said Walter. ‘We think it might help us find his killer.’

The girl looked puzzled and said, ‘Can’t think where it could be. Maybe someone stole it.’

Karen and Walter shared another look and then Walter said, ‘We’ll need you to come in and make a statement. Can you call in at the station tomorrow?’

‘Yeah, suppose so, after work OK?’

‘Sure,’ said Karen.

‘As I said earlier, I am surprised you haven’t been to see me before.’

‘Until