The Devil's Due: A Cooper and McCall Scottish Crime Thriller by Ramsay Sinclair (nonfiction book recommendations TXT) 📕

“I’m waiting,” he reiterated with a frustrated expression and an irritated sigh. Ah, yes.

“Uh, here’s what we found last night.” I pointed to the slightly tea sodden bible and the ring I left out carelessly on display. “I presumed Laura’s death to be suicide, but it’s not in the least. Forensics found a print, matching a male size nine shoes,” My flurried speech conveyed my inner excitement.

DCI Campbell sighed in frustration. “Why does it matter? You’re supposed to be fronting Gavin Ellis’s case. We’re so close to getting Nathan. We can’t take our eye off the ball.”

“Nathan isn’t our guy,” McCall grimaced, breaking our changed news.

“What?” DCI Campbell heard. He just didn’t want to accept the notion.

“This was found on Laura’s bedside table.” I handed over our post-it note, giving him time to study the number and the writing. “Coroner, at a guess, agreed with my suspicions. Laura was forced down by the same someone who proceeded to slit her wrists. It’s not suicide.”

“The same number.” DCI Campbell had a faint turn, pinching his forehead in stress. “Reckon it’s also the same guy?”

“Certainly appears that way, doesn’t it? Assuming our killer has struck again, it’s not Nathan Smith. He was locked up here all night,” McCall stated the obvious.

“He’s a slimy bastard,” DCI Campbell grit his teeth. “Two murders poses the question of how far he’s willing to go.” He scanned the number with narrowed eyes.

“It’s a six,” McCall shared.

“I can read perfectly well, McCall.”

“Searched a bit in the bible for any correlating verses, or passages. All looked like righteous crap to me.” I banged the bible down in reference. “Someone else may think differently.”

“What’s linking these two people together?” DCI Campbell wracked his brains, finding it physically painful. His face steadily distorted. “They’re different age brackets, genders, from two different walks of life. A criminal and a religious churchgoer, but there’s always a reason.”

“What do you make of this, guv?” McCall hooked the heavy ring with a pencil off my desk and held it up for Campbell to see. “Finlay found it in Laura’s bin.”

DCI Campbell gaped at me specifically in disgust, his chins showcased eminently. “You rooted inside her bin? You’re hired for CID, not forensics. Hope you washed your hands afterwards.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s evidence, guv. I used gloves.”

DCI Campbell nodded and took the pencil from McCall, using it to move the ring so he could analyse its exterior. “Not the foggiest. Cheap though,” he noted to McCall’s amusement, “and extremely large. Wouldn’t fit any of us here.”

“Definitely costume. The jewellers in town may know more than we do?” McCall queried and flapped her sodden tea sleeve to dry off. Her bright eyes glared at me in mock contempt for ruining her work outfit.

“I’d like permission to visit the church today, Guv,” I distractedly mentioned as I wrote myself a note.

“Didn’t know you were religious, DI Cooper?”

“I’m not. Lucy, the, uh, schoolteacher who found Laura’s body,” I clarified for DCI Campbell, “mentioned Laura would always visit the church before picking Jimmy up from school. Perhaps they saw her last, the vicar or the like.”

DCI Campbell hummed to himself. “Any potential suspects?”

“Ex-husband. Always dodgy.” McCall shrugged ruthlessly, quick to point her finger to the first person on her radar.

“Yeah, maybe if it was only Laura’s death this was connected with. Why would her divorced husband kill Gavin too?” I pointed out.

“Fine, then no. None,” McCall huffed and revolved to face DCI Campbell, purposely blocking me out.

Knocks bellowed from the other side of the office. Someone waited patiently to come inside.

“Come in,” I instructed.

It was DC Ben Staines. His lanky body meant he had to duck underneath the door whenever he entered, in fear of bumping his head.

“Guv, some files and Nathan Smith’s paperwork.” Staines handed it over to Campbell, who tossed it straight into my paper bin.

“Useless. Tell everyone that Nathan Smith is no longer a suspect. We’ve got new leads to follow.” The guv rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“Right. Ugh, you want me to tell everyone? They’ve been working all night long to incriminate Nathan though, sir.” Staines remained respectful, itching his ear uncomfortably.

“So did Lionel Richie. They’ll get over it.” DCI Campbell smacked his lips. DC Staines got distracted by my desk, tilting his head quizzically.

“Nice ring, sir,” he addressed me. “Didn’t expect you to buy those sorts of things. Watched a documentary about it once. Not really my style, truth be told.”

“What documentary?” McCall leaned forward, intrigued by Ben’s nonchalance.

“You know,” he chuckled nervously at our intense stares, “about cults and… things?” DC Ben Staines hated any awkwardness or silence. “Well, I’d better go tell them lot to stop wasting their time. We want to watch football tonight.” He gave a tight-lipped, polite smile, closing the office door to leave us all in stunned silence.

“It’s all about religion. God, we’ve been so blind.” My eyes couldn’t focus on a specific object, intertwining and interlinking points in my head. I thumped the desk in irritation.

“Perhaps God isn’t the best person to bring into our topic of conversation,” DCI Campbell advised, humorously, given what breakthrough Staines had given us.

“It doesn’t make sense. Laura was religious, but Gavin wasn’t. He can’t have--” I talked to myself, rummaging through random objects on my desk, searching for something specific.

“So we’ve got a cult loose in the bay?” McCall took a sip of what remaining tea she had left. “I can get my head around the animal slaughters, but cults beginning to kill people for their beliefs? Surely, that’s a step too far, even for them.”

“I wouldn’t put it past them. I heard groups like that recruit people off the streets.” DCI Campbell interlaced his chubby fingers.

“Like Misfits. One episode had a cult who possessed people into agents of Satan,” McCall agreed.

“What’s Misfits?” DCI Campbell requested, forever out of touch on the topic of TV shows.

That’s also when I tuned them out to focus on my search. I knew I’d stashed some vital photographs