NO AGE TO DIE: The release of a dangerous prisoner leads to murder (DCI John Blizzard Book 9) by John Dean (digital ebook reader .txt) 📕

suggested that they revive the idea,’ said Blizzard. ‘He already moved in church circles so had no difficulty in persuading a small group of naïve young evangelicals to move to Hafton and start attending St John’s. Once he had driven away the older members of the congregation, it would be easy enough to persuade the new ones that St John’s was too small to survive, leaving the church authorities with no alternative but to sell. What no one knew was that he had struck a deal with the developer for ten per cent of the profits if he could deliver, plus an ongoing retainer. It would have been by far the biggest payday of his life. The thick end of a million, I think, Sergeant?’

‘I believe so, yes,’ said Colley.

Blizzard looked across the desk at Hatton.

‘Anything you want to say?’ he asked.

‘It’s a nice little fairy story,’ she replied. ‘But it has nothing to do with me.’

‘Ah, well, I’m coming to that,’ said Blizzard. ‘See, the problem was that the smooth-talking Matthew was too successful and the number of people attending the church grew more rapidly than he could ever have expected. Suddenly, everyone was talking about the remarkable transformation. Even the city council were impressed and suggested opening the hostel. There was no way the congregation would accept an offer for the site now. What’s more, the developer wanted to know what he was paying Matthew all that money for. Matthew needed something to turn St John’s toxic and quickly. Somehow, he found out that Albert Macklin was due out and came up with the idea of inviting him to the hostel, knowing that it would evoke fury. To stir things up even more, he asked you to become involved and he fuelled the fires with a few acts of vandalism. Matthew knew that once the protests made the future of the church untenable, it would be easy enough to persuade folks to accept the developer’s offer. Matthew gets his cash and you get kudos for shutting down an infamous hostel. The death of Jamie Holdsworth was the icing on the cake.’

‘How dare you…!’ exclaimed Hatton. She leapt to her feet. ‘How dare you suggest that I would welcome the death of a young boy!’

‘Sit down,’ rasped Blizzard.

For a few seconds, she remained standing then sat down and regained her composure.

‘Even if what you have said was true,’ she said calmly, ‘you’ll never get anything to stick in court. And what would you charge me with? Fraud? No jury in the land would convict someone like me of something like that, not once my lawyers had finished with them.’

‘You may be right. But then we wouldn’t be charging you with fraud, we would be charging you with the murder of Glenda Rutherford.’ Blizzard looked at Colley. ‘Bob Lennox has such a sweet singing voice, hasn’t he, Sergeant?’

‘Sure has,’ said Colley.

Margaret Hatton gave the detectives a sick look. Her lawyer stayed silent.

‘You see,’ said Blizzard. ‘We think you convinced Bob that the only way to get even for his son’s death was to force the hostel to close. A man like Bob Lennox on the rampage would strike fear into just about anyone, especially a bunch of naïve young evangelicals. All you had to do was wind him up and let him go. I’m prepared to accept that you hadn’t reckoned on Bob losing his temper and attacking Jacob but, once you realised that Glenda might have seen him, it was clear that she had to be silenced.’

‘He’s a damned fool!’ exclaimed Hatton. ‘A damned fool! He was only supposed to h…’

She clapped her hand to her mouth as she realised the enormity of her words but it was too late.

‘I am advising my client to say nothing more,’ said the lawyer quickly.

‘I don’t think she needs to,’ said Blizzard. ‘I am sure the tape caught that. What do you think a jury would say now, Margaret? Of course, the irony is that Glenda didn’t see him.’

Hatton seemed taken aback at the revelation but quickly regained her composure once more.

‘I am saying nothing more,’ she said. She looked at her lawyer. ‘And I’ll not make a statement either.’

‘Fair enough,’ replied Blizzard. ‘Just one thing before we finish, did you have anything to do with the murder of Jamie Holdsworth?’

‘No!’ Hatton’s voice was full of anger. Genuine emotion this time. ‘Whatever you think of me, I have always had the best interests of the children at heart. It’s always been about them, always!’

Blizzard pushed his chair back, stood up and headed for the door.

‘We will continue this conversation later,’ he said. His voice had a fierce edge to it. ‘But whatever happens, Margaret, you can be sure of one thing. They’re going to take your MBE off you. I’ll make damned sure of that. I owe it to all the people who looked up to you and whom you have let down.’

Once he was in the corridor, the inspector stood with his back against the wall and closed his eyes.

‘So, who killed Jamie?’ asked Colley, joining him. ‘We’re no nearer to finding out, are we?’

‘Actually, I think we are.’ Blizzard opened his eyes. ‘I think Margaret Hatton is right. I think that it’s always been about the children.’

Chapter thirty-four

The call which finally led the detectives to the killer of Jamie Holdsworth came the next morning as David Colley’s mobile phone rang when he was sitting in the CID squad room, catching up on his reports and sipping at a mug of freshly-brewed tea.

‘David,’ said a lowered voice which he recognised immediately as Chaz Gray. ‘I’ve found him. One of the blokes at the hostel knows where he is.’

‘Excellent. Address?’

‘Chandos Street. Number seventy-six.’

Colley ended the call and headed for Blizzard’s office. The inspector’s original hunch that their man was not