A Fatal Verdict by Tim Vicary Read Free Book Online Page A

bled, not her daughter at all, ever again. She reached for the girl’s lifeless hand, clasped it in her own, felt the flaccid eternal inability to respond. The skin stiffening slowly.
    ‘Oh Shelley, Shelley ...’ She bent her head and wept, and the tears fell on the hand that could never feel again, that could only decay. ‘Shelley, where have you gone?’
    Thanks, boss, Tracy Litherland thought, watching from the door. How on earth am I going to handle this?

 
     
    6. David Kidd
     
     
    In the car David Kidd was, as Tracy had predicted, sullen and resentful. ‘You’re not arresting me, are you? I’ve got my rights!’
    ‘So has that girl’s mother,’ said Terry firmly, driving the car out of the car park. ‘That was an assault, what you did to her back there.’
    ‘Get lost! I never touched her!’
    ‘You shook her and knocked her down. I could arrest you for assault and battery, if I wanted to. Quite apart from the brutal way in which you told her her daughter was dead. What did you think you were playing at, son?’
    ‘You don’t know what she’s like. You’ve never met her. Anyway it’s my girlfriend who’s died. How do you think I feel?’
    ‘Grief, I imagine. Do you?’ Terry studied him curiously in the driving mirror, wondering what the answer to this question was. He could just see the articles in the Press if a complaint was made against him for arresting an innocent boy moments after his girlfriend had committed suicide - Police Arrest Grief-stricken Boyfriend; Passed Over Inspector Takes It Out On Public. That would really improve his stock with Will Churchill. On the other hand, if this was a murder he was dealing with, the prime suspect was right there on his back seat.
    ‘Course I feel fucking grief. What do you think?’
    It looked more like rage to Terry. The surprisingly young, smooth face glared back at him in frustration and contempt. Surely if he’d really loved the girl this ‘fucking grief’ might be expected to manifest itself in a few tears, rather than outright fury? But then people were different, that was one thing he had learned in eighteen years as a police officer. He had seen people laugh at car accidents and fires, and met murderers who wept bitterly when told their victim had died. Sometimes he had the impression of operating in a foreign country.
    ‘You said she drove her own daughter to suicide, David. That’s a dreadful thing to say.’
    ‘So? It’s true. Why else would she do it?’
    As they passed along Gillygate, Terry saw a police Landrover parked on the pavement and forensic officers in white paper suits going inside. David Kidd saw them too.
    ‘What the hell’s all this? Is that my flat they’re going into? They can’t just do that!’
    ‘A young woman’s just died in your flat, Mr Kidd, in circumstances which need to be explained. It may be suicide, but it’s also possible a serious crime has been committed. So we have a duty to ...’
    ‘What if I want to go home? I need to change my shirt.’
    ‘You’ll just have to wait, son, I’m afraid. Until they’ve finished their investigations, you’ll have to keep out of their way. So you might as well come to the station and make your statement now.’
    The scowl on the stocky youth’s face looked oddly childish, petulant somehow. Terry drove on in silence, wondering if he had misjudged the situation. Was that performance in the hospital an attempt to divert suspicion from his own guilt? Or was the boy just behaving badly because he was in shock? Perhaps, when he calmed down, David Kidd would become a more appealing character, easier to understand.        
    After a while David’s voice resumed from behind him. ‘All right, I’ll give you your sodding statement, for all the good it’ll do. Christ. You heard what that woman said. She thinks I killed her, stupid bitch. She drove her to kill herself, that’s what she did.’
     
     
    ‘Mrs Walters?’ Tracy said hesitantly when at last