Read Online Dark Side by Margaret Duffy - Free Book Online

that to the Met and the Independent Police Complaints Commission?’
    â€˜Oh, yes. I’m just interested in the Bath connection – if there is one – with regard to our Jockenese friend. I think I shall take Monday off.’
    With that in mind and not really wanting to go against Greenway’s orders, Patrick slogged away at home with his assignment through most of Sunday, even declining with apologies his father’s request to sing in the choir for the morning service. John, unused to being countermanded on such matters, was not pleased, even though I helped out.
    Patrick went out on Monday morning and did not come back until early evening. I had stayed at home, writing and dealing with family matters. We have a home help two mornings a week, who also gives Elspeth a hand, but with a large house and extended family there is always plenty to do. These ‘normal’ activities also salved my conscience as I worry about the amount of time I spend away engaged on my other career.
    â€˜I paid a visit to Miss Braithewaite,’ Patrick started by saying. ‘The old lady who was involved in the Pryce case Sergeant Woods told you about. She lives in the flat above Paul Mallory.’
    â€˜The lady who was James’s one-time English teacher.’
    â€˜That’s right. She told me he played the part of Lord Peter Wimsey in a school play she wrote that was an adaptation of one of the Dorothy L. Sayers stories.’
    â€˜He must have been just perfect with his fair hair,’ I said. ‘But I have to say, before I spoke to Derek Woods I hadn’t thought he spent any of his youth in this area.’
    â€˜She told me that his mother moved south when he was in his early teens and when he left school he trained to be a physical education-cum-sports teacher. But it wasn’t exciting enough so he joined the Met. James actually came
back
to Bath. Anyway, after I’d finished cleaning Miss Braithewaite’s living-room windows—’
    â€˜
What?
’
    â€˜She’d been up a really tall set of steps cleaning the insides of the windows. She must be all of eighty-five so I offered to finish them for her.’
    â€˜You’re a saint. I take it you made it an official call.’
    â€˜Of course. It’s not a security risk as there’s no love lost between her and Mallory. She was praying he wouldn’t come back after he was released from prison but he has. And he’s playing his music again. She can hardly hear it normally because she had her flat soundproofed and he hasn’t had his windows open.’
    â€˜Did she tell you anything useful?’
    â€˜Only that she can just about hear him having huge rows with another man who I can only guess is Cooper. She hasn’t seen him and made a point of telling me that she doesn’t stand by the window spying on everyone else in the square. That’s what Mrs Pryce, who everyone hated, used to do.’
    â€˜Has she met Cooper?’
    â€˜No, but his picture was in the local paper after the trial so she has an idea what he looks like. The reason she hasn’t seen him might be because there’s a back way that leads into a small car park for residents only. A path from that takes you into a little lane that joins another on the west side of the Circus, probably intended for the use of servants in the old days. Which means that Cooper doesn’t have to enter the square in order to visit Mallory.’
    â€˜Cooper said he’d see Mallory tomorrow. That was yesterday.’
    â€˜Miss Braithewaite didn’t hear or see any movement yesterday. They probably met somewhere else.’
    â€˜We’re really no further with this then, are we?’
    â€˜Patience. Then
I went to the council offices and tried to track down this Raptor character. One of the surnames he’s been using recently is Kingsland. Lots of Kings and names beginning with King on the council tax register but