Read Online Thrown Down by David Menon - Free Book Online Page B

Can’t all that wait until later?’
    ‘Not if you’d met my brother-in-law’s family’ said Jade with a very disapproving look. ‘They’re very working class and are probably trying to figure out how they can get their dirty little hands on my sister’s money as we speak. Please come through to the lounge and I’ll get the maid to serve you some coffee whilst you wait’.
    Jeff and Ollie raised their eyebrows at each other. Just who did these people think they bloody were? They followed Jade into the lounge that had a large window almost from floor to ceiling offering an admittedly amazing view of the house gardens and the Cheshire plains beyond. The maid looked young and had the slightly olive complexion of an Eastern European. She was dressed in an all white style of uniform served the coffee and then they waited. And the longer they waited the more irritated Jeff in particular became. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been kept waiting whilst a widow sorted out her financial position before talking to the police about who may have murdered her husband.
    ‘How long does your sister plan to keep us waiting?’ asked Jeff.
    ‘I couldn’t say’ said Jade, irritably. ‘But she’ll be through when she’s done’.
    ‘She does understand that this is a murder investigation?’
    ‘I think she has grasped that, yes’ answered Jade sarcastically. ‘But there are practicalities to consider and if you knew my sister you’d know that she has to sort all that out before she can even consider grieving’.
    ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
    ‘It means that people deal with death in their own way, officer’ Jade stated. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me’.
    ‘I’d be obliged if you could tell your sister what I said’ said Jeff.
    ‘I can’t promise’.
    ‘Do your best, please’.
    When Tabatha Murphy came through she didn’t apologise for keeping them waiting. She was clutching her mobile phone as if her life depended on it but at least she looked the part of the grieving widow. She was in an all in one black dress with a black belt around her slender looking waist. She looked thin and almost emaciated. Jeff thought that it must be like making love to a bag of bones. She’d probably never actually finished a meal for years. He’d never found stick insects like her attractive. His late wife Lillie Mae had never been overweight but she’d been blessed with what he’d call a normal figure, the kind of figure preferred by men who really did respect women and didn’t see them as bits of skirt. Sometimes she’d only have to look at him a certain way and he felt his legs turn to jelly. He missed her so very much. 
    ‘First of all, Mrs. Murphy, I’d like to say we’re very sorry for your loss’ said Jeff. ‘And as I’m sure you can imagine we need to proceed as quickly as we can’.
    ‘Well I can tell you who murdered my husband’ stated Tabatha who’d settled into a large armchair that was more like a throne with its high back that went way above the top of her head. It was almost blocking out some of the light coming into the room. ‘It was one of his Irish peasant family’.
    ‘Say that again?’ Jeff questioned. Something didn’t quite reach the finishing line here.  There was no trace of any tears around those perfectly made up eyes and why was she holding her phone like that?  And why did she keep looking at the door as if she was waiting for some visitor? It would be expected for her to receive calls of condolence following her husband’s death. But Jeff had already decided that her diligent attention to her mobile hadn’t much to do with grief. So what did it have to do with?
    ‘They’re Irish peasants and that’s that’ said Tabatha firmly.
    ‘But did your husband maintain contact with his family?’ Jeff wanted to know.
    ‘Well since I’ve known him not until recently’ said Tabatha. ‘He’d been estranged from them for years but recently he’d started to see some