Read Online 48 Hours - A City of London Thriller by J Jackson Bentley - Free Book Online Page A

officer that you are crucial
witnesses to a blackmail plot and potentially two
murders.”
    “ Two murders?” Dee looked puzzled.
    “ Yes. When the Scene of Crimes Officers looked at Sir Max
Rochester’s phone last night they discovered a number of texts.” I
guessed what was coming, but I let the Inspector continue unabated.
“The upshot of it is that he, too, had been given forty eight hours
to deliver a rather larger sum than yours, and he refused to play
ball. He died within a few minutes of the deadline
expiring.”
    “ My God, this man is serious about killing his victims!” Dee
Conrad seemed surprised, but I wasn’t. I fully expected to die if I
didn’t pay. Otherwise why would I shell out a quarter of a million
pounds?
    “ Obviously this is a working theory at the moment because the
death looks like natural causes, possibly a heart attack, but
hopefully a toxicology report will provide some answers.” Boniface
paused for the inevitable question. I asked it.
    “ Is it possible for someone to induce a heart attack,
then?”
    “ The short answer is yes. It doesn’t strictly cause a coronary
infarction but you can interfere with heart function with a
sufficient dose of potassium chloride. They use it as one of the
components for chemical executions, more politely referred to as
lethal injections in the USA. Anyone who knew that Sir Max had
heart problems could reasonably assume that a large dose of
potassium chloride would be enough to kill him.”
    “ Does it have to be injected?” Dee asked.
    “ No, but it’s colourless, and in a strong drink such as whisky
it would be almost undetectable. Another reason for suspicion is
that by the time the paramedics arrived on the scene, Sir Max’s
whisky glass had disappeared from the table.”
    “ So it was murder,” I concluded.
    “ We may never get to prove that, Josh. It’s touch and go at
the moment.”
    “ But what about toxicology? Won’t that find the chemicals in
the body?” I couldn’t believe that the team in CSI Miami wouldn’t
have known with certainty it was murder. Boniface had an answer for
that, too.
    “ The trouble is, Josh, that when someone has a heart attack
the levels of potassium are often raised in the body immediately
afterwards. It’s a natural chemical reaction, caused by an enzyme
being released into the bloodstream. So, higher levels of potassium
may not be conclusive evidence of murder.”
    “ And what about Andrew Cuthbertson? Are the police treating
his death as suspicious?” Dee asked.
    “ Suspicious, yes, but for the moment it looks like either an
accident of some sort or a suicide, and if it wasn’t - well, you
two will be considered prime candidates for interview.”
    Strangely enough I really could imagine Andrew ending it all
after hearing his frantic call last night, but who would commit
suicide by jumping ten feet into mud? No-one.
    We were suddenly interrupted by Andrew’s phone ringing.
Boniface lifted the phone from the clear plastic evidence bag using
a latex gloved hand. By the time he got it free of its container it
had stopped ringing. The screen announced a missed call from Work.
While he had the phone in his hand Boniface scrolled down the
recent calls list. The last call was to a person listed as LH. The
call had been made late last night, after he had called
me.
    “ LH. That could be the blackmailer.” I realised that I sounded
a little desperate. Boniface lifted the phone to his ear after
dialling the last number called. The phone rang out without an
answer and went to an anonymous woman who asked us to leave a
message after the tone.
    “ I’ll get a trace on that number straight away. Maybe LH, or
Bob, has made his first mistake.” Boniface stepped out of the van,
holding his own phone to his ear and speaking urgently.
     
    ***
    Bob felt the phone vibrate in his pocket as he stepped onto
Beech Street and headed back to his hotel. He knew who was calling.
That cheap Nokia was reserved