Cruel Justice (DI Lorne Simpkins (Book one)) by Tania Mel; Tirraoro Comley Read Free Book Online Page A

have another one?" Lorne's patience was beginning to falter.

    He wandered over to the filing cabinet, retrieved a key from his waistcoat pocket and opened the third drawer down. After locating the missing woman's personnel file, he relocked the drawer and returned, file in hand to his desk.

    The photo he showed them bore no resemblance to the body lying in the mortuary. This woman was much taller and much stockier in build. Pete and Lorne exchanged a knowing glance. Lorne asked for a copy of the photo, despite knowing it would be of no use to their enquiries.

    "I want that bitch caught , Inspector."

    "Do you always speak of your staff so highly, Mr Timmins?"

    " She stole from this bank, and guess what, it's me who's left with the tarnished record. The quicker you find her and that money, the quicker I can return this bank to where it belongs — top. Before this happened, this branch was number one in the region. Since the bad publicity in the local press, the customers are departing in droves and it's all thanks to Miss Fishland."

    "It looked pretty busy out there to me," Lorne said.

    "Yes … well, you happened to catch us on a busy day." Timmins' face coloured up.

    "Well, we won't hold you up any longer. Thank you for your assistance, Mr Timmins, we'll be in touch should Miss Fishland pop up any time in the near future."

    As he showed them out, Pete couldn't help whispering to Lorne, "He probably misses his Friday night bonking session in the storeroom with her. He's shagging her, it's a dead cert, that's why he's so pissed at her."

    The same thought had occurred to Lorne, but she would never voice such an opinion. Especially when the person she was insinuating it of was less than ten feet away, but that was Pete for you.

    "That I believe, leaves us with just one option," stated Lorne as they headed towards her car.

    "Yup, Belinda Greenaway, she's a widow. Her sister informed us of her disappearance. She has a son who lives about two hundred miles away."

    "Does the sister live nearby? Perhaps we've got time to drop in on her before we have to swing by Arnaud's office for the PM report."

    "About half an hour away." Pete glanced at his watch.

    "You can fill me in on the way, it'll take your mind off my driving." She poked his chubby midriff.

    "With respect, boss, as long as I'm in the passenger seat of your car nothing will take my mind off your driving." He opened the door and squeezed his large frame in. "Apparently Belinda was due to attend her niece's daughter's christening. There was no family dispute or anything like that, and the family grew more anxious the longer she was gone. It was her favourite niece you see, there was no way she would have missed it."

    "What's the woman's background?" Lorne asked as they ground to a halt in a traffic jam.

    "Widowed four years ago, husband Jack died in a crash. Nothing else showed up on file except that she was a housewife," Pete said, slamming his notebook shut.

    "That's not very PC of you, Pete," she teased as she crunched through the gears.

    Pete cringed. "PC, what the heck is that?"

    "Political correctness. I believe the terminology for the skill is a domestic engineer. Nowadays, there is no such term as a housewife."

    "Housewives, domestic engineers," he grumbled, as he watched the green, wide-open spaces of the countryside whiz past his window. "It all amounts to the same thing, don't it? They all sit on their arses watching daytime TV all day long and then just before the old man is due home, they rustle up a meal in twenty minutes that they've just been watching on Ready, steady cook , pretending it took them three hours to prepare. While the breadwinner is out some twelve to fourteen hours, five days a week, busting a gut so they can have a cushy lifestyle."

    "God, you bloody MCP, you can be so infuriating at times. You missed your vocation, you should've been a caveman. You're forgetting one thing, though." He glanced over at her and she took her