Tainted Ground by Margaret Duffy Read Free Book Online

crime.’
    â€˜He’d really hate me if I solved the crime.’
    â€˜Bugger Carrick!’ I hollered. ‘This is
your
new career!’
    Patrick gazed around somewhat apprehensively but no one flung open windows to throw anything or remonstrate with us. ‘OK,’ he said quietly and walked away for a few paces to make the call.
    I went to the entrance door, expecting to have to contact those within over a security system as there was a row of bell-pushes alongside grilles and small brass plaques listing the residents but it was open. I was pleased to see that Patrick made a note of all the names as he came in and we went to the door of Flat 1, to the right in the spacious marble-floored hallway that was home to several large and exotic potted plants.
    There was no reply.
    Flat 2 was accessed off to the left and after ringing the bell twice we heard slow footfalls within.
    â€˜Yes?’ said a lugubrious elderly man, opening the door about twelve inches.
    â€˜Police,’ Patrick said briskly, showing his warrant card. ‘I’m acting Detective Superintendent Gillard and this lady is my training adviser. I would like to ask you a few questions about the people who lived on the first floor. I take it you’ve heard about the deaths?’
    â€˜Yes, we but never saw ’em,’ said the man sourly.
    â€˜May we come in?’
    â€˜S’pose you’d better or you’ll only keep pestering me. Someone rang the doorbell early this morning, too early, but I didn’t answer it. That could have been your lot.’ A tall, heavy man, he led the way down the hall and into a large sunny room at the end of it. ‘Keep it short, though, the wife’s in bed with shingles and I’ve enough to do.’
    We made suitable sympathetic noises and then sat down without being asked to do so. Patrick immediately got to his feet again and went over to the window to look out, glancing quickly at his notes as he did so. ‘Mr William Brandon?’
    â€˜That’s right.’
    â€˜Do any of your windows overlook the car park?’
    â€˜Not likely. That’s why we bought this flat and not the other one on the ground floor – it’s for sale by the way and they’re in South Africa so it’s no use knocking there. There’s a hedge but they must get all the slamming doors and engines starting up.’
    â€˜Thank you,’ Patrick murmured. ‘But you do live right beneath one of the flats where the murder victims lived.’ He smiled like a death’s head, one of his tricks of the trade, and even though I should be used to it by now my skin always crawls.
    â€˜What about it?’ Brandon asked sharply, duly rattled.
    â€˜Did you hear anything odd the day before yesterday?’
    â€˜No, nothing.’
    â€˜Not even in the hallway outside? No sounds of extra people going to and fro, no raised voices, nothing out of the ordinary?’
    â€˜Nothing that I noticed. It’s pretty quiet here but for the people on the top floor in the studio flats when they have parties. I complained last summer when all the windows were open so you could hear their damned music even louder. Not music, an infernal racket. Loads of drink too judging by the din they made. And drugs, if the truth was known.’
    â€˜The residents of
both
flats on the top floor have parties? What, as combined efforts?’
    â€˜No, at different times. But they tell one another when they’re going to have them so the others can go out for the evening. Or invite them. The rest of us can go to hell.’
    â€˜Who told you this?’
    â€˜Mrs Dewitte. She’s the one in South Africa. She got invited.’ Brandon guffawed. ‘She’s the kind of woman who would have been called fast when I was a lad.’
    â€˜Were there any parties last Thursday night?’
    â€˜No, thank God.’
    â€˜Do you know if the people upstairs, Christopher and Janet