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

today, Melanie, we didn’t know your identity, we knew he had a blonde girlfriend with a dentist for a father, but that was about it,’ said Walter.

‘So how did you find me?’

The police officers shared another puzzled look and then Karen said, ‘Information received.’

Melanie nodded, but didn’t look convinced.

‘Anyway,’ said Walter, ‘About the other matter.’

‘What other matter?’

‘Your father is a dentist?’ asked Karen.

‘Yeah, course he is.’

‘He said he’d leave something for us.’

‘Did he? First I’ve heard of it. Just a mo, they’ve gone out early, Round Table do, took a taxi. I’ll have a look.’

She went away and was soon back, clutching a large brown envelope. Walter took it and got up and said, ‘We’ll see you tomorrow?’

‘Yep, OK. Bye.’

Karen drove the car round the corner and pulled up. Walter slipped the envelope to Karen and said, ‘That was a crazy stroke of luck.’

‘Amazing.’

‘Take a look in the envelope, but don’t tell me what it says.’

Karen opened up. There were three pieces of paper inside. A tooth map, a brief explanation from Kirton & Baines detailing their findings, and some details of the patient they thought it could be.

‘Don’t tell me, but is there a name?’ he asked.

‘There is.’

Walter sighed.

‘You know who it is, don’t you?’ she said.

‘Maybe I do.’

‘Well come on, clever clogs, who do you think it is?’

‘Sahira Khan, aged twenty-three.’

Karen set the papers back on her lap. Shook her head, half grinned, half sniffed, muttered, ‘How could you possibly know that?’

‘Luck, and judgement. Wazir Khan is a friend of mine.’

‘Oh geez. So what now?’

‘Back to the station, I want to speak to Mrs West, and after that we’ll need to put a party together of ten officers, and then we are all going down to the State of Kerala, and sadly, this time, not for dinner.’

Forty-Nine

Mrs West had viewed the quiet day as an opportunity to go home early. She was up to her armpits in steak and kidney pie. Her husband was going out early and she wanted him well fed before that.  She shook some flour from her rubber gloves and grabbed the ringing phone off the wall in the kitchen.

‘Sorry to bother you, ma’am.’

‘What is it, Walter?’

‘The idontogram, we may have a match.’

‘Good God, that is a surprise.’

‘Thing is, ma’am, I know the family concerned.’

‘Who are they?’

‘The Khans, they own the State of Kerala restaurant.’

‘Heavens above. I think I know the guy too. Didn’t he recently get an MBE?’

‘That’s the one, ma’am. Services to race relations and providing harmony and opportunities for under privileged kids in the inner cities, something like that.’

‘You think this could be a so called honour killing?’

‘Don’t know yet, ma’am, but it’s not looking good.’

‘So what are you proposing?’

‘I am putting together a team of ten, going down there as soon as we are ready, going to scoop up all the family and bring them back here for questioning, close the restaurant, it could be a crime scene, get the SOCO shift in, and we’ll take it from there.’

‘Do you want me to put someone else on it, seeing as you know these people?’

‘No ma’am, I can handle it.’

‘If you’re sure, Walter. Look, I am up to my neck in something important here; I’ll try and get back in later.’

‘Fine, ma’am, I’ll keep you posted.’

‘Can’t wait to tell Gitts about this.’

‘Do I detect a little hostility?’

Walter guessed at the smile that came over Mrs West’s face.

‘Chief Superintendent Gitts, Gitt by name, git by nature. He crapped on me from on high during a course a year or so ago. Put me right in it, and lo and behold, we seem to have identified the body in his murder, and with a little luck, may have caught the ruddy killers as well! Justice, don’t you think?’

‘Sure, ma’am, yes,’ said Walter, hoping to God they had not yet identified the killers.

‘Well, get on with it, man, and well done. Can’t imagine how you could have known the teeth belonged to that family, but something’s still ticking in that old brain of yours, eh? You haven’t lost it yet, have you? Keep me informed.’

‘Of course, ma’am, and thank you.’

WALTER RETURNED TO the Incident Room. Karen had rounded up the team and had prepared a brief presentation. The tiny green power light, bottom left, on the monster was flashing on and off like a heart beat, monsters never sleep, not completely, and it seemed to be winking faster than normal, as if it had an inkling that something big was going down.

Gibbons and Hector Browne and Jenny Thompson were there, plus two SOCO blokes, or at least one bloke and one lass; and three uniforms that Karen had press-ganged into service, not that they needed much persuading, because it was clear something exciting was about to happen.

Walter sat on the desk at the back and nodded to Karen and she smiled and caressed the monster’s face. A big colour picture appeared of the Khan menfolk, culled from the StateofKeralaRestaurant.com website.

‘The Khan family,’ she said, ‘or at least the men. Wazir, Ahmed, Mohammed and Maaz,’ and she pointed to each in turn, and as she did so each picture magnified. ‘There should be three more members of this family too, but for whatever reason, they are not pictured, but then they are women. Nadirah, an old lady, believed to be Wazir’s wife, Akleema, and Sahira Khan.’

She minimised the pics and almost threw it to the bottom of the screen. Brought up a copy of the idontogram. The tooth map supplied by Manchester police.

‘Late this afternoon a local dentist, Kirton & Baines, reported that they had matched the idonto with one of their clients, none other than the previously mentioned Sahira Khan. However, there are some provisos to this. Idontos are not like fingerprints. They are not foolproof, and they are more likely to be compromised the less dental treatment the victim has ever received. In the case of our teeth,’ and she couldn’t resist bringing up a detailed enhanced picture of