The Murder Suite: Book One - The Audrey Murders by Leonie Mateer Read Free Book Online

harbor.   She pushed open her wooden gate and rushed inside to the phone.  It was going to be an exciting day.  Not much happened in the sleepy little place… this was something really big.
     
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    Driver couldn’t believe it.  He was awoken at dawn to the telephone ringing. It was an emergency.  A black Toyota truck had been seen floating in the Whangaroa harbor by the old pier.  He was in his car with the siren blasting within minutes.  When he arrived at the scene there were just a few locals standing around looking dazed.  One of the locals was an expert scuba diver and had already dived into the water to see if he could find the driver.  
    “Nothing, nobody is down there,” he told Driver when he arrived on the scene.  “I don’t know how long the truck has been in the water. Could have been all night,” he said.                 
    “It wasn’t there at ten o’clock,” said Driver. “I was parked behind it”. 
    He ran the plates and was told the truck was registered to a Doug Blackmore with an address in St Helier’s Bay in Auckland.   He contacted the Auckland police and asked them to enquire at the address if they knew where Mr. Blackmore was. 
    In the meantime he arranged for more divers to check the bay for a body.   Maybe the driver wasn’t hurt in the accident and simply walked away.  He may have been worried that he would be arrested for being over the drinking limit and walked home.   He would check with the motels and B & B’s in the area to see if they had a Doug Blackmore registered.  He remembered seeing the black truck heading up towards Tauranga Bay.  When the Kerikeri police crew arrived with the forensics team he excused himself and headed in the direction of the Three Suites.
     
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    Audrey awoke to the sound of a siren screaming in the distance.  She had hoped to sleep in this morning but that was not going to happen with all the noise.  She got up and turned on the kettle for a nice cup of tea.  What a perfect day, she thought as she opened up the blinds to let in the early morning sun.  She took her tea outside to her patio and relaxed.  It wasn’t more than twenty-five minutes when she heard more sirens heading off towards Whangaroa harbor.    It seemed to be quite a frenzied response to something. The noise forced her back inside. Changing into a pair of jeans and black short -sleeved top,  she swept her hair in a knot and washed her face in scoops of hot water holding her hands over her cheeks and eyes and enjoying the warmth and relaxation of the familiar morning ritual.  Patting her face dry on a fresh towel she looked in the bathroom mirror.  Her face looked younger today. More relaxed.  She looked happier than she had in months.
    It was going to be a good day.  She might even spend the afternoon in the garden. This morning she had planned to spray all the wasp paper nests that hung on to cactus and flax leaves before it got too hot.  They were bad this year.  Some of the nests were the size of melons.  She would creep up on them.  There were always a couple of guard wasps keeping watch on the outskirts of the leaf.  If she approached too closely they would attack.  She had developed quite a reaction to their stings.  Her arms would swell quickly with the poison.  She always took a couple of anti histamines before carrying out the job but it still wasn’t pleasant if she got stung. The Maoris had told her to put local manuka honey on the sting to stop the swelling.  She must admit it did help.   Audrey felt vindicated in destroying the nests.   She couldn’t have the wasps attacking the guests and she had been stung enough times to feel righteously relieved of any guilt associated with their death.
    Just as she was collecting the bug spray and donning her gardening gloves she heard a car coming up the driveway.   The automatic gates had a code written on the keypad