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

businesses that needed further investigation. Jenny and Jan had managed to avoid being snagged by the treacherous incoming tide flooding up the Dee estuary.

They had looked at many cockle fishing licence holders, some of whom were Oriental, and still had further investigations to carry out. None of the cockle fishers recognised the picture of Sadie.

The phone next to Karen rang. She grabbed it. They all heard her say, ‘Yes, he’s here, just a sec, I’ll put him on,’ and she mouthed: ‘Mrs Cresswell.’

‘Sorry to bother you, Inspector, but I just wondered if you were making any headway?’

‘We have seen a smidgeon of progress.’

‘Oh?’

‘We have recovered some funds that we believe could have come from Donald Rushnell.’

‘Good! How much?’

‘Ten thousand.’

‘That’s not much.’

Walter didn’t comment.

‘Can we have that money back?’

‘Not until our investigations are finalised.’

‘When will that be?’

‘Could be quite some time yet. We’ll keep you informed.’

‘Thank you, Inspector, please do that,’ and then Mrs Cresswell was gone.

Walter and the team shared a look, but before Walter could say anything else Karen’s phone rang again.

The team stared at her as she said, ‘Who’s calling?’ as she glanced at her boss and said, ‘It’s the Chinese Consulate in Liverpool.’

Walter grabbed the phone.

‘Am I speaking to Inspector Darriteau?’

‘Yes, who’s this?’

‘My name is under secretary Da Chung, but everyone calls me Dan. I’m ringing from the Chinese Consulate in Liverpool.’

‘What can I do for you, Sir?’

‘I think it is I who should call you “Sir”. I have an apology for you.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes, it relates to the death of a young Chinese woman.’

‘Yeah, what about it?’

‘You requested information after supplying fingerprints and photographs and we told you the person in question was not known to us.’

‘And she is now?’

‘Yes, Inspector. Additional records have recently been uploaded to the database, and during a routine check on previous enquiries we have now located the person in our files.’

‘I see.’

‘You’d like her details?’

‘I certainly would.’

‘Her name is, or was, Yet Kwai Dang, and it appears she originated in the Chongqing area. She came from a bad family, Inspector, gangsters who specialised in knives, we’ve been able to track her journey through Macao and Hong Kong where we believe she was sold into prostitution, and presumably on into the hands of human traffickers.’

‘Filthy business. Have you a date of birth?’

‘Certainly,’ and Dan read it out.

Walter wrote it down and said, ‘We are still investigating her murder, but thank you for this information, at least we now have a name for the deceased, and we now know she almost certainly was not a UK citizen. We’ll investigate further.’

‘Thank you. Do you still have the body?’

‘Of course, it won’t be released until the case is closed.’

‘May I ask, Inspector, that you inform me when the late Yet Kwai Dang is released for burial? We would like to look after her in death, as she clearly was not looked after in life.’

‘Of course. I’ll make a note on the file. We won’t forget.’

‘The poor kid did not have much of a life.’

‘No, from what we know now that would seem to be the case.’

‘Are you any nearer tracking down her traffickers and killers?’

‘I’d like to say yes, but it is still an ongoing inquiry.’

‘Well Inspector, if there is anything else we can do, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.’

‘Thank you, I will.’

‘And I apologise again for misleading you in the first place.’

‘No need, you only advised us of the facts as you knew them.’

‘You are most kind, very understanding, good evening, Inspector,’ and Da Chung was gone.

‘Listen up everyone! We now have a positive ID for the dead girl, so no more referring to her as Sadie. Her name is or was, Yet Kwai Dang, and she came from China via Macao and Hong Kong. She was just twenty. The Chinese Consulate believe she was sold into the hands of human traffickers. We now have a clearer idea of what we are dealing with, a disgusting, despicable business, and one that we will get to the bottom of. Tomorrow, everyone in early please, we’ll step up our enquiries across the board.’

Several of the team nodded, some muttered short positive comments, and everyone began to move like pupils in school after being advised they could go home.

‘Do you want a lift, Guv?’ asked Karen.

‘Yeah, good idea, save me from the tentacles of the pub.’

Occasionally he had a way with words, she had noticed that before, as images of the Royal Oak on the high street, morphing into some monstrous sea creature, filled her mind, blazing eyes, vast tentacles covered in suckers, creeping out across the street, lassoing and dragging the unwary and dry-throated into the saloon bar, though she couldn’t imagine Guv putting up much resistance.

IN THE CAR ON THE SHORT journey home Walter said, ‘How’s Kit Contrick getting on?’

‘Legal summons in the post,’ she replied, smirking, but fact was, she had wanted to talk to him about that, and her recent discovery that recruits were putting way more money than she’d ever imagined into the company, and that meant the flood of cash heading into Kit Napoleon’s coffers could be astronomical. She was in two minds whether to tell him, but she desperately wanted to go to the Shropshire conference first, and maybe that was partly down to the magnetism that Kit exuded, fact was, she wanted to see him again, and wanted to take it up another level in order to discover as much as she could about the whole organisation, and see where that led her.

She imagined it might be better to tell Walter all about it then. It was a fifty/fifty spur of the moment decision that she was not entirely comfortable with, but found herself saying, ‘All good, Guv, all good, making a few quid, having a bit of fun, learning all the time.’

‘Mmm...’ he said, and she didn’t really know what to make of that.

Fifty

‘Brinton!’ yelled Mr Pryce.

‘Yep?’

‘Come and join me.’

‘Okay.’

A few seconds passed and Brinton entered Pryce’s office and sat down.

‘We