I hope you aren’t slacking on this one, Peach.’ Superintendent Tucker jutted his jaw aggressively towards the industrial world outside the long window of his penthouse office. To his mind, a bright Thursday morning at the end of February was the ideal time to be letting his staff know who was in ...
“Never forget you have a life outside the job,” the young John Lambert’s first CID mentor had told him, and twenty years later the mature Lambert passed on the same idea to his juniors. Christine would have reminded him that he was past forty before he seemed to realise it. It was his obsession w...
Less than an hour before this time, she had identified that shattered head at the mortuary as belonging to her late spouse, James Albert Berridge. They had been prepared for extreme distress at the grisly sight. But the widow had apparently found the experience less disturbing than might have bee...
But she could be better employed elsewhere. Besides, he was going to a place designed for men and run by men; they might just feel it easier to be completely open with him if he didn’t have a sparky young woman at his side. Downton Hall, the place where he now presumed Joh...
He would be in control here, much less nervous than if he had been on their ground at Oldford police station, the alternative venue they had suggested. He told himself that repeatedly. They came precisely at half past ten, the time they had specified. A tall, watchful man with a slight stoop who ...
M. Gregson Copyright © J. M. Gregson 2014 The right of J. M Gregson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. First published in the UK by Diamond Books, an imprint of Harpe...
Peach stood on the steps of the high stone Victorian mansion, sniffed the air appreciatively, and surveyed the scene. There were students streaming in various directions, concluding their morning lectures and making for the refectory or bars, bustling like ants about their...
He went as soon as he received the phone call, while the shop was still quiet and before any of the catering staff were due on duty. A week ago, he wouldn’t have considered such discretion necessary. He threaded his way through the deserted kitchen area to the little private room and watched his ...
Something urgent and serious has just come up.’ The blonde-haired Deputy Head was as flustered today as she had been calm two days earlier. The strain of running the school without Peter Logan, of taking on his directorial role as well as maintaining her own myriad administrative duties as Deputy...
It was so near to what he had actually thought at the time that he stared hard at his wife. Probably she hadn’t meant the suggestion seriously. But these days he could never be sure what Alison was thinking. He took a sip of his wine, watching her surreptitiously as she ate. She picked her way ex...
Where the dustbin-men would once spot a rat and send for the rat-catcher, the refuse disposal operatives now report the matter to their senior deployment officer, who may, if the latest cuts have left such services unimpaired, sanction the utilisation of the council rodent operatives. ...
It was enough to refresh him, as it had always been. He had few words for his wife at the breakfast table, but that was not significant: he had never been an early-morning talker. ‘What time did you get in?’ Christine looked at him surreptitiously as she set two slices of ...
The week’s information had been logged on to the computers, cross-referenced in accordance with the latest practices. Local prostitutes had been interviewed about their clients. The clients themselves were varied but anonymous, but were in many cases being quizzed about their activities. Tom Boyd...
They seemed to him to happen with increasing frequency as he grew older. He tried the number again, with no great hope of success. But this time it was answered and a curt voice said, ‘Hilary James here. How can I help you?’ ‘And who is Hilary James?’ He tried to keep the tone light and the impat...
He had cut his teeth on documentaries, served three years as an assistant director on Coronation Street, directed a couple of moderately successful sitcoms, then confirmed his status and greatly increased his salary over the four series of Call Alec Dawson. Despite his proven talent, Joe was an u...
And you weren’t there.’ Superintendent Thomas Bulstrode Tucker made it into an accusation. ‘No, sir. Do you think the killer chose his moment? Waited until I was safely off the premises?’ ‘This is no time for frivolity, Peach. Murder is a very serious business.’ This was also no time for Percy to...
Agnes Blake enjoyed spoiling her Lucy, as she had done when she was a small child recovering from a minor illness. It was not yet eight o’clock on Sunday morning and most of the nation was planning a lie-in. But Agnes had already brewed the tea and put the hand-knitted cosy over the small china t...
That is normally a good thing, an admirable thing. In this case, it would eventually make things very difficult for the police. But no one was thinking about policemen at the time. Patrick Nayland was a model employer. Both his workforce and his customers seemed to think that. And this was the ki...