connected,â Lou said.
A few pages further on, mention of shoe marks, badly smudged, at Yonder Cottage, a small size, indicating a child or a woman.
A few pages further on, fingerprints taken from inside Polly Leucharsâs car, which had been parked, locked, in the driveway to the cottage.
âPrints belonging to the victim, Nigel Maitland, and three unidentified sets. Thatâs a bit odd, donât you think?â
âIs it?â Jason replied.
âWell, how many different sets do you think would be in your car?â
Jason thought for a moment, his skin flushing. âWell, quite a few. I had the car fixed a couple of weeks ago. Could have been several mechanics working on it, right?â
âHmm, fair point, I guess.â Lou made a note; someone would have to check the carâs service history, get a list of people who were insured to drive it. âWonder why Nigelâs prints are in there? He has better cars to drive than hers.â
âMaybe it was in the way and he moved it.â
âMaybe.â Next report, forwarded from Andy Hamiltonâthe prints from inside the kitchen of the Fletcher-Normans: two sets, his and hers. No others.
âWe need Brian to wake up,â Lou said.
âThe phone data is coming through,â Jason said. âI need to start work on that.â
âWill it take long?â
âYouâre a hard taskmaster.â
When she looked up he was giving her a smile. Cheeky.
âDamn right I am. Youâd better get busy before I start thinking up penalties for slacking.â
07:57
Detective Superintendent Gordon Buchanan had descended like the Lord Almighty from the command floor to attend Louâs second briefing.
A small man, he made up for his lack of stature with a personality that demanded full attention, rewarded it with hearty good wishes, and punished the lack of it with a merciless bellowing that put the fear of God into all those unfortunate enough to find themselves on the receiving end. Lou had worked for him on a previous case, had been lucky enough to spot something that should have been glaringly obvious but which everyone else had missed. She took it to her colleagues first, who were grateful that sheâd not taken the matter straight to Buchanan himself. Theyâd worked through the case, but somehow Buchanan had got wind of what had happened and had had a soft spot for her ever since. He valued hard work and bright intelligence, and she was there ready to dish out both in spades.
In addition, she wasnât half-bad-looking either, and as everyone knew, Gordon Buchanan liked his ladies.
He sat at the front, facing the room, a reminder that there would be hell on a stick if anyone made any unfortunate cock-up, and that if things went well there might be future glory for whoever made the vital breakthrough that helped bring Polly Leucharsâs killer to justice.
Lou was supposed to have offered some sort of prebriefing briefing for him, but she had been too busy. As she strode into the room ahead of everyone else she mouthed an apology. Buchanan pointedly looked at his watch as though things were running behind schedule and he was a very busy man, but Lou was on time and she knew it. Her priority was the investigation, in any case, not sucking up to the boss.
âSir,â she said, âthanks for coming. I appreciate it.â
âNot at all,â he said, melting. For someone with such a lot of front, he was very easily buttered up. âHowâs it going?â
âRather well, I think,â Lou said, âbut itâs very early days.â
âThanks for your voice mail last night. Iâm afraid youâre going to get the other case too, by the look of it. However, Iâve managed to get you a couple more DCs, for now.â
Andy Hamilton was sitting behind Buchanan, chatting happily to Ali Whitmore, one of the DCs whoâd been working on the Fletcher-Norman case
Melody Carlson
Fiona McGier
Lisa G. Brown
S. A. Archer, S. Ravynheart
Jonathan Moeller
Viola Rivard
Joanna Wilson
Dar Tomlinson
Kitty Hunter
Elana Johnson