Read Online The Domino Killer by Neil White - Free Book Online

and private lives are revealed.
    Sam went straight towards an oak bureau in the corner of the room. It was three drawers deep, with cupboards on either side. The top drawer was filled with placemats and napkin rings. It was the drawer below that held the document envelopes. He peered inside. Bank statements, bills, papers relating to the house, like insurance and mortgage details.
    He checked the mortgage documents first. The first one was a letter from the building society: they were behind on their payments.
    Sam rifled through the bank statements. They were ordered but they told the same story: things were not going well financially.
    Charlotte came back into the room.
    ‘Anything unusual?’ Sam said, looking around.
    ‘No, nothing. And you’d have been fine up there. The vibrator count was low.’
    ‘Less fun down here,’ Sam said. ‘There’s money trouble. I wonder if he went to the wrong kind of person for help.’
    ‘But why would his fingerprint be found in blood at another murder scene?’ she said. ‘They might be in money trouble, but people like this always are. Their life is all about how other people see them, a family to be admired. Affording it is something else entirely.’
    Sam was about to start looking at entries for a month earlier, any purchases or cashpoint withdrawals that might put him near the other murder, when a car sped into the cul-de-sac, braking sharply on the driveway.
    Charlotte raised her eyebrows. Someone had passed on the news that they were at the house.
    A car door slammed. Angry footsteps were followed by the front door opening so quickly that it banged on the wall in the hallway. The woman from the photograph burst in. She didn’t look as radiant as she did in the pictures. Her hair was shorter and her eyes flared with anger.
    ‘Who the hell are you, in my house?’ she said.
    Sam pulled out his identification. ‘I’m DC Parker, Greater Manchester Police, and this is DC Turner. Claire Mason, I presume.’
    ‘What’s he done now?’
    ‘Henry?’
    ‘Who else?’
    ‘Please sit down, Mrs Mason,’ Sam said, his voice softer.
    ‘No, I won’t sit down. Tell me what the hell is going on.’
    Sam stepped forward and took hold of her hand. He looked her in the eyes and gave a smile loaded with regret. ‘No, please sit down.’
    That’s when she knew.
    Claire Mason slumped onto the sofa, her hand trembling in front of her mouth. Charlotte sat next to her and held her other hand.
    Claire stared straight ahead. She hadn’t asked any questions, even though Sam could tell that she was full of them. Eventually, she looked up at Sam and said, ‘How?’
    Sam gave her a regretful smile and said softly, ‘We’ve found a man in a park near Stalybridge, murdered. We think it’s your husband.’
    ‘What, so you might be wrong?’
    Sam didn’t answer. There was a chance they might be, but they didn’t think so. The clothes matched the footage from the florist and so did the pictures in the house.
    Claire wailed and put her head in her hands. Sam and Charlotte waited once more, until she looked up and said, ‘What was he doing in Stalybridge?’
    ‘It looked like he was meeting someone,’ Sam said. ‘Do you know anything about a meeting?’
    ‘Meeting someone? Who?’
    ‘That’s what we’re trying to find out,’ Sam said. ‘Does he know anyone in that area?’
    ‘No. He works on the other side of Manchester,’ she said. ‘That’s where his showroom is, near the airport.’ A pause and then, ‘Why do you think he was meeting someone?’
    Sam swallowed. This was the hard part. Any chance of his memory being fondly held was about to end and Claire’s life would become about bewilderment, but they had to get the answers. A delay in a murder case can allow forensic evidence to be scrubbed away.
    ‘He was carrying flowers,’ Sam said. ‘We’ve got footage of him buying them and they were found at the scene.’
    ‘Flowers?’
    Sam nodded.
    Claire started to shake