The Reckless Engineer by Jac Wright Read Free Book Online Page B

clients’ mansion. Jeremy had watched Molly and Max herd the Mercedes to a more prestigious location closer to the house. The dogs judged a book by its cover and allocated parking accordingly, he thought.
    ‘But he hasn’t given me any indication whether or not he would let Jack come home on bail afterwards, although I am hopeful,’ Harry broke the possibly bad news.
    Félipé, the brown lad, brought in a silver tray of sandwiches delicately cut into triangles with potato crisps and grapes on the side, and set it on the coffee table. He then brought in a tray of tea and coffee followed by some side plates, paper napkins, and cutlery. The working staff of the estate had reported for work and all except Félipé had been sent away by Caitlin. Félipé, being Spanish, was much less likely to spread gossip in the village, unlike the English staff, Caitlin had explained.
    ‘Please help yourselves,’ Caitlin said and sat on the couch at the end close to Harry as if she were seeking his protection from the difficult experience she was about to go through with DCI Edwards.
    ‘Edwards will be here in about an hour. I should like to go through a few things with you before that, Caitlin.’ Harry got straight down to business in his trademark fashion the way Jeremy had seen many times before. ‘Jeremy has outlined to me the events you have related to him. The police have the anonymous letter sent to you. Edwards put it in front of Jack during the interview. Have you got a copy of it somewhere?’
    ‘I put a copy of mine away in a box up in the attic. The police would have taken it from there, but I asked them to leave copies of everything they took in my office upstairs. Papa took the originals and I think he has given them to the private eye he hired.’
    Jeremy dashed up to Caitlin’s office and back. ‘There’s quite a pile of paperwork by the copier, too much for us to go through right now. They have also taken the PC base units, both in Caitlin’s office and in Jack’s workshop.’
    His heart felt tight and was thudding from the sudden exertion.
    ‘Caitlin, have you got the contact details of the private investigator your father hired?’ Harry asked.
    ‘No, but Papa does. He’s expected to arrive later this afternoon.’
    Having finally caught his breath, Jeremy picked up the plate of sandwiches he had left on the mantelpiece and moved unobtrusively to the chaise lounge nearby.
    ‘The main time period of interest to Edwards, according to his questions yesterday, is from about 5:40 Wednesday evening when Michelle was last seen alive in her local Morrisons supermarket, till 2:10 Thursday afternoon when she was found dead by her friend and neighbour who also does some housekeeping. Ideally we need alibis for both Jack and yourself . . . at least one person to vouch for your whereabouts during this time. That is someone to vouch for Jack’s and your presence at a place other than at Michelle’s house.’ Harry added a bit of humour to his leading question.
    Caitlin nodded thoughtfully.
    ‘Well, I work in my office at BlackGold Monday through Friday from about 8:30 am. Jack and I both leave home shortly after 7:00 a.m., which we did Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week as usual. Hannah should vouch for this. The drive takes an hour. We take the same route, but I drop Gillian at school and, just before reaching Portsmouth, I turn east towards Havant while Jack heads west towards Cosham. Some of my engineers at BlackGold start work earlier than I do and they should verify my times of arrival.’
    She paused.
    ‘Caitlin, please have some food. You are not going to feel well going through this interview on an empty stomach.’
    ‘Thank you.’ She picked out some sandwiches before continuing.
    ‘Jack’s office has swipe-card access; the electronic access logs should show when he got in and left. Jack normally leaves the office between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m. and gets home about an hour later. Some days he leaves