Read Online The Scent of Blood by Tanya Landman - Free Book Online

he’d been dismissed by his commanding officer. She walked on, snapping a curt “Good morning” at us as she passed by.
    She was the walking embodiment of an efficient, respected boss. Which was odd, considering she was Mr Monkton’s secretary. Interesting, I thought. Very interesting.
    “April,” I said to Graham, “was the only person who cried about Mr Monkton.”
    “Is that significant?” he asked.
    “Maybe.” I remembered her face when she’d come running back from the Frozone. She’d looked terrible. Her shock and distress had seemed genuine. But could she have been acting? “There’s something funny about her,” I said. I stopped and looked back towards the house – a vast stately home with acres and acres of land. It must be worth a fortune.
    “What will happen to it all?” I wondered aloud. “Who will inherit this lot?”
    Graham frowned. “An estate would normally pass to the next of kin.”
    “Next of kin?”
    “The wife or children – or, failing that, the nearest surviving relative. It said in the information I downloaded that Mr Monkton’s brother was killed in a car accident some years ago. It will probably go to a nephew or niece,” said Graham. “Seeing as he never married.”
    “As far as we know,” I said.
    “What are you suggesting?” asked Graham, surprised.
    “April…” I said slowly as I finally realized what had been odd about her manner. “When we first saw her with Mr Monkton she was formal and polite, wasn’t she? Like any secretary would be with their boss. She called him ‘sir’, and she was like that at the party, too, once the staff began to arrive. But in the entrance hall – when she thought no one was around – she called him ‘dear’, do you remember? She straightened his tie. And she picked fluff off his jacket. That’s the kind of thing you only do if you’re close to someone.” I grabbed Graham by the arm. “Suppose she was married to him? She’d inherit the lot!”
    “Surely people would know if they’d been married. No one’s said anything about it.”
    “They might have done it in secret.”
    “Why would they have done that?” asked Graham.
    “He was really rich!” I exclaimed, setting off once more. “And you know what families can be like about money. I bet his relatives would have objected if they’d known he was planning to marry his secretary. Especially with him being a bit eccentric. They’d have called her a gold-digger or something.”
    Graham glanced at me with rising excitement. “As you know, money and property are number five on the motives for murder list.”
    “So it’s possible that April could have persuaded him to marry her and then killed him off? The whole ‘S.M.’ thing could be a diversion?”
    Graham nodded eagerly. “It’s certainly plausible. But would she have had time to stab him? She wasn’t gone very long. And where does Charlie Bales fit in?”
    I thought some more. “OK… Here’s what I think could have happened,” I said at last. “We were right about Charlie. He did fake the sickness and sneak out to stab Mr Monkton. April could have been paying him to do it. But then he got too pushy. Perhaps he started threatening to blackmail her or something – that’s just the kind of thing he’d have been likely to do, isn’t it? He’d probably have thought it was all a big joke. So she had to get rid of him.”
    By then we’d reached the Australian Outback. We’d arrived five minutes early for our session, so we stopped to draw breath, leaning on a fence overlooking the enclosure where an enormous saltwater crocodile lay basking under a sun-lamp.
    “Sadly, we don’t have a single shred of evidence. Do you think we ought to mention it to the police anyway?” asked Graham.
    I didn’t answer. Because it was then that I noticed the shoe wedged between the rocks to one side of the crocodile. My stomach turned over.
    Kids lose shoes all the time. They’re forever pulling them off and