The Careless Word (#8 - The Craig Crime Series) by Catriona King Read Free Book Online Page A

They’d probably get him for imitating his mother’s broken Italian-English soon.
    Finally Liam finished and Craig decided to add to the lightened mood with a vivid description of John’s lab that Liam couldn’t help but embellish.
    “It was like being inside a giant sherbet lemon! The Doc thought he’d no choice.”
    Craig cut in. “It’ll be back to normal by Monday, but no-one’s to mention that to Natalie. OK?”
    He scanned their faces until he was sure that the innocent expressions weren’t concealing mischievous intent, thinking how fed-up he got having to be the grown-up all the time.
    “OK, back to work. According to John there were five people in the shop. Two bodies were found intact but badly burnt. They would have been standing further away from the bomb than the two others, with the sole survivor, Fintan Delaney, standing furthest away, behind the bookshelves. That’s what protected him.”
    Annette cut in. “So he was standing near the front door?”
    Craig nodded. “There were free-standing bookshelves between the back door and the front. They provided sufficient cover from the blast.”
    Liam interjected. “Delaney’s not small so they must have been nearly ceiling height.”
    “How do you work that out?”
    “Well, otherwise Delaney’s top half would have been exposed to the explosion, whether he was standing by the front door or not. If they’d been waist-high jobbies the blast would have gone clean over the top of them, so only the lad’s legs would have been saved. There’s hardly a mark on him so he must have been shielded head to toe.”
    Craig nodded. The shop must have been laid out with six-feet-plus bookshelves front to back to avoid killing the young man. Liam continued.
    “And if he was by the front door it stands to reason he’d just entered the shop or was just leaving.”
    Davy had been tapping his pen quietly against the desk but now the volume suddenly increased. Craig turned towards him.
    “Yes, Davy?”
    Davy had been so deep in thought he jumped at the sound of his name.
    “W…Well… this is just a thought, but if you owned a shop that s…sold expensive books, things that are easily stolen and carried out of the shop, and you had high bookshelves preventing a clear view...”
    Annette finished the question, smiling. “How could you see shoplifters?”
    Davy nodded, setting his long hair flying. Liam had a fleeting thought that he would rake his hair all day if he owned that. He parked his follicular envy and answered before anyone else could.
    “CCTV.”
    Davy and Annette squinted at him menacingly for stealing their thunder and Craig jumped in like the good boss he was.
    “Well done Davy, good call. There had to be CCTV in the shop or books would have been stolen every day.”
    “There was one of those scanner things by the door as well, boss. You know, like they have in clothes shops.”
    Annette nodded. Liam was referring to the shop exit gates that set off an alarm during thefts. “That means the books must have been tagged.”
    Davy looked puzzled. “W…Why would they have needed both? If they had tags then why have CCTV?”
    Craig thought for a moment before answering. “Some books might have been too valuable to tag, and they would have needed to watch for people removing the tags or just defacing books.”
    Nicky’s husky voice rang across the room. Even though she was ten feet away at her desk she missed nothing.
    “What sort of eejit defaces books? If I ever caught our Jonny…”
    Craig turned to face her. “Jonny values his life too much.” Nicky’s twelve-year-old son was one of the best behaved kids he’d ever met, more from fear of his mother’s wrath than instinct he suspected. He just hoped that Nicky didn’t keep the reins on too tight, but then in the paramilitary dominated area she lived in she probably needed to more than most.
    “Anyway, there’ve been plenty of book-destroyers in history, Nicky, the Nazis for instance.