MURDER IS SKIN DEEP by M.G. Cole (read dune .txt) 📕

cheating. He was annoyed. A month’s diligent work had been suddenly ruined on an impulse. Disgusted with himself, he threw the two parts onto his wooden workboard.

Then he noticed there was something inside the ammonite. Curious, he flipped it over. No, not inside. It was a claw or a tooth that had cracked the once-living mollusc open from behind. The last act of a predator before something had killed it too, eventually leaving only their fossilised remains. Garrick took heart that predator’s crime had eventually come to light millennia later…

The feeling of being entombed in the MRI scanner was worse than last few times. The experience was further compounded by the machine’s rhythmic, heavy thumping as it scanned the inside of his skull. Each sound sent his migraine pulsing, and he wondered if that would show on the scan.

While waiting to go in, he had scrolled through his phone and found his original appointment was in his calendar, put there yesterday by himself when Rajasekar had called. Yet he distinctly recalled her telling him it was at the end of the week. He remembered every word of the message. He recalled the sinking feeling of having to go through the whole experience again. Was he so tired he was getting easily confused? Had he latched onto a false memory and convinced himself it was real? Either way, it alarmed him. And he wasn’t completely sure he should mention it to Rajasekar during their next session.

He was in and out in thirty minutes, knowing the results would land with his doctor soon. He only hoped that it would be good news.

27

He arrived at the station to discover Chib still hadn’t interviewed Terri Cordy as she had broken down when told about Huw Crawford. Now, a few hours later, she could talk. Garrick hadn’t escaped the ordeal after all.

He was surprised to find Terri remarkably composed. Her eyes were bloodshot, her voice was quiet but firm.

“Huw and I were no longer dating.”

Garrick nodded in understanding. “How long have you been apart?”

“Well, we were never really a constant item.” She flushed and kept scratching her nose, embarrassed about discussing her personal life. “It was more off than on.”

“When did you last see him?”

She exhaled a long sigh as she thought. “Two months. Maybe more. He called me a lot. I got annoyed. Told him not to. He wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“And how did he react to that?”

“He was very upset.”

“Aggressive? Argumentative?”

She gave a snort. “Huw was always argumentative. But never violent.”

Garrick mentally logged Rebecca Ellis’s lie.

“I’m curious about why Huw might have a grudge against Derek.”

“Where to begin? Derek has a talent for rubbing people up the wrong way.”

“Anything specific?” Chib asked with a tinge of hostility that surprised Garrick. She clearly wasn’t buying into Terri’s suddenly calm and vulnerable persona.

“Derek and I had a real relationship. Something he couldn’t have.” Was it Garrick’s imagination or did she sneer?

“But you and Derek split up because of the baby.”

“He left me! I wanted us to stay together, but he left me! We could have worked things out if only he’d given it a chance.”

“Your affair led to his divorce.”

“That was on the cards anyway. Those two mutually loathed each other from the beginning. God knows why they got married.”

“You must have hated Rebecca Ellis for taking him back from you.”

“No. It wasn’t her fault. The only reason he tried to patch things up with her was because it would ruin him financially.”

“Because she would take half his possessions. The liquid ones. Leaving him with nothing.”

“That’s more than he deserved.” She folded her arms and grimaced at the memory.

Garrick was confused. “I thought you were in love with him?”

“Not after he chucked me away. I was naïve then. I’m not now. When I heard that he’d died, I was glad. It actually made me miss Huw.”

Garrick drummed his fingers on the table, taking some pleasure to see it was irritating her.

“Back to why Huw would break into Derek’s hotel room. Threaten him with a gun to steal some valuable artwork.”

She frowned. “What?”

“Come on. You can’t be the only person who didn’t see him make a fool of me on the television news.”

“I saw that. But it was Huw?”

“You didn’t recognise him?”

“Are you serious? It was too blurry and shaky. I didn’t even recognise you. Huw wouldn’t have done that.”

“Maybe he did it to impress you?” Chib suggested.

“And how would that impress me? No. I don’t believe he would do that.”

Garrick pursed his lips. “For the sake of argument, suppose he was trying to steal them to get a better deal with the art buyer, a man you happened to both know. A man who was perhaps using his business to launder money.”

Terri nodded. “Mark. Typical.”

“You knew about Mark’s extracurricular activities?”

“Detective, please!” her solicitor cried out, speaking for the first time since he had arrived. “You’re leading her.”

“How else can I say it? Did you know he was a crook?”

She raised a hand dismissively. “I suspected it. But I didn’t know it. I didn’t want to get involved. I met Huw through him.”

Chib made a note in her pad. “While in London?”

Terri nodded. “He was just folding up his shop in Islington and thinking of moving down south.”

“And how did they know each other?”

“Huw tried to sell him a few pieces of his art.”

Garrick was surprised. “He was an artist?”

“That’s what we had in common. He was good, but I suppose he thought there was more money to be made being a doctor. We were friends, I suppose. He moved to Kent to study when Derek and I got together. I hardly saw him until Derek dumped me. He was a rebound thing.”

Chib thoughtfully tapped her pen on the notepad. Garrick suspected she had just reached the same conclusion he had. He showed her the CCTV footage of her and Rebecca placing the holdalls in the back of her car.

“Talk us through what is happening here.”

Terri studied it for a long moment. Then tossed it