Read Online Murder in the Neighbourhood: A Diane Dimbleby Cozy Mystery by Penelope Sotheby - Free Book Online

was able to ascertain all of this information,” Diane thinks aloud.
    “We will be running a background check first thing tomorrow morning, and we should be able to confirm whether or not this woman is, in fact, Mrs. Rosalyn Thomas,” says Darrell. “Now go straight home and lock all the doors.”
    “I will. Good night Darrell.”
    “Good night.”
    Darrell’s mind drifts back to Mrs. Thomas’ glare he had witnessed just a few minutes ago. For a split second, he thinks that maybe this woman is putting on an act, but what the act is he cannot be certain of right now.
     
    ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠
     
    Driving away from the police station, Mrs. Thomas feels anger creep through her shoulders and back. Her face feels flush, and her head is beginning to ache. She needs to calm down.
    She pulls over to the side of the road and turns off her engine. She closes her eyes and attempts to calm her breathing.  Of course Carys has a will, who doesn’t have a will? They just haven’t found it yet. It will all work out.
    Mrs. Thomas thinks back to the relaxation audiobook she had borrowed from the library. The instructor on the CD had said to visualize a beautiful place. Mrs. Thomas closes her eyes and visualizes the tropical island that she wishes to live on. The sunset over the crashing waves helps to calm her anger and anxiety every time. And if all goes to plan, this tropical place of serenity will soon become a reality.
     
    ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠
     
    Richard is tossing and turning in bed. Unsurprisingly, he has not been able to sleep since Saturday.
    He gets up and goes to the kitchen. He checks all the bottles on the counter to see if any have any drops of beer or whisky left. Richard rarely drinks, perhaps a pint on his birthday, but this weekend is far from orthodox.
    One of the bottles is still half-filled with ale. He chugs it despite the beer being unappetizingly warm. He sets the bottle down on the counter so hard that it smashes in his hand.
    “Bloody hell!” he shouts.
    Richard runs to the bathroom and unrolls a wad of toilet paper to wrap around his bleeding hand. He stares at the red soaking through the outermost layer of the tissue and then looks straight in the mirror at the bags under his eyes.
    “You are a bad person,” he says to himself over and over again.
     
    ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠
     
    The next morning, Darrell leaves home before the children are even out of bed. He’s only done that a handful of times in the past. Even though it’s early, when he arrives at the station he finds the forensic report waiting for him on his desk.
    “Note to self, I owe the whole forensic lab a round at the pub,” Darrell thinks.
    Before he even takes a sip of his coffee, Darrell starts reading. According to the fingerprint analyst, two sets of prints were found on Mrs. Thomas coffee cup. One set belongs to him, which makes sense because he hadn’t been wearing gloves when he removed the cup from the bin. 
    The other matches a set of prints found at Carys’ Jones house.
    Darrell realizes that it is almost a certainty that the woman he spoke to last night is a liar. She could have been lying about being a relative of Carys’. Or if she is, in fact, Carys’ cousin, she lied about not seeing Carys after Carys left Wales. How else could she explain her prints being in Carys’ Apple Mews home?
    Darrell also reads in the forensic report that a sample for DNA analysis was also obtainable from the cup, but it will take a few days to compare that particular DNA with Carys Jones’.
    “Good morning Bob,” says Darrell to Sergeant Webster sitting at a desk on the other side of the room.
    “Good morning, Sir. I got your note and am starting the background check on Rosalyn Thomas. I also left the information you asked for on Carys Jones’ caregiver, Richard Butler.”
    “Thank you, Bob.”
    Darrell finds the folder on Richard and opens it. Currently lives in Apple Mews, employed by Mrs. Carys Jones, clean criminal