Gunrunner by Graham Ison Read Free Book Online Page A

United States on Christmas Eve, but that his wife hadn’t shown up.
    ‘D’you mean he went on his own?’ King sounded incredulous. ‘We knew they were going to New York for Christmas, but we naturally assumed that they’d be going together.’
    I explained about Hammond’s excuse that he’d had a deal to settle.
    ‘Damned funny business,’ muttered King. ‘Are you saying that he actually went to America without knowing what had happened to Kerry?’
    ‘It would appear so, Mr King,’ I said.
    ‘I never liked that man,’ said Diana King, speaking for the first time since our arrival. She looked sideways at her husband. ‘I think I could do with a drink, Charles.’
    King crossed to the table and prepared a gin and tonic for his wife.
    ‘What didn’t you like about him, Mrs King?’ I looked at her; despite a valiant attempt to hide her grief, the tears had started to come. She took a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed irritably at her eyes, annoyed that she was unable to control her emotions.
    ‘I think he was seeing other women. And he never looked you in the eye when you were speaking to him. He was nothing like her first husband, Dick Lucas. We liked him very much. He was killed in a car crash, you know.’ Diana King took the glass from her husband and sipped at it.
    ‘So I understand. We spoke to the Hammonds’ neighbours, Mr and Mrs Maitland, on Christmas Day, and they told us about the accident.’
    ‘If Kerry was found on Christmas Day why has it taken so long for you to tell us, Chief Inspector?’ asked King, sitting down again. It wasn’t so much a criticism as a genuine enquiry.
    ‘We didn’t know where you lived until we spoke to Mr Hammond earlier today,’ I said. ‘Your address wasn’t among her possessions, and the Maitlands didn’t know it.’
    ‘Yes, I see. I quite understand.’
    ‘As a matter of interest, had your daughter always lived at Elite Drive?’
    ‘Yes. She and Dick moved in there when they were first married.’ King finished his brandy and returned to the table for a refill. ‘Do you have any idea who might have killed our daughter?’ he asked, as he sat down again.
    ‘Not at this stage, Mr King, no. This might sound like a pointless question, but are you aware of anyone who might’ve wanted to kill her?’
    ‘No,’ said Diana King, answering the question. ‘She was a bubbly, outgoing sort of girl. Did very well at university.’ Once again, she dabbed at her eyes.
    ‘Which one?’ asked Dave.
    ‘Cambridge. She got her degree in economics and then went on to do a postgraduate course in business management. She took over the company when Dick died. It’s a haulage company in West London somewhere . . .’ Diana King paused. ‘Where is it, Charles?’
    ‘Chiswick,’ said King.
    ‘What sort of woman was your daughter?’ I asked, hoping to learn a little more of her background and lifestyle. In fact, anything that might help us to find her killer.
    Charles King seemed to weigh the question carefully before answering. ‘Pretty much what you’d expect a girl in her early thirties to be, I suppose,’ he said eventually. ‘Her first marriage was a very happy one, and it was an absolute tragedy when Dick died. I don’t think she ever really recovered from it. She seemed to change after that happened, got harder somehow. Whether it was that or the fact that she’d taken over the company and become a hard-headed businesswoman, I couldn’t really tell.’
    ‘I suppose the business took up most of her time,’ I suggested.
    ‘Oh no, not at all. She immersed herself in good works for a while; charities and that sort of thing. But there was a period when she became a good-time girl, always at parties and generally living the high life. To be honest, we were quite worried about her. But a couple of years after Dick’s death, she married Nicholas and seemed to settle down again. But she was never quite the same as she was before Dick died.’
    ‘When