The Inspector Walter Darriteau Murder Mysteries - Books 1-4 David Carter (autobiographies to read txt) 📖

she inflicted on the seven unfortunates.

I still find it difficult to comprehend, but I know it is the truth.

You will too when you read the evidence.

Desiree’s file of terror is lodged at the offices of the Liverpool solicitor, Lambourn, Harcourt and Snapes, Sixth floor, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool.

The partner looking after the file is one Ms Bradbrook, though she likes to pronounce it Braybrook. For her to release the file, you will need to quote the password: Deliverance. 

WALTER SET THE DIARY down and picked up the phone and asked the operator to get the solicitor in Liverpool on the line.

The phone ran back a moment later, a sweet young girl boasting a slight Liverpool accent.

‘Good mornin’, Lambourn Harcourt and Snay-eeps.’

‘Is Ms Bradbrook there?’

‘Ms Braybrook, you mean?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘Joost a mo, I’ll put ya through.’

Karen knocked and came in. Walter beckoned her to sit. Musak played in his ear. He pulled the names off the pad, handed them to her, said, ‘Suspicious deaths, all at Eden Leys, see what you can dig up.’

Karen glanced at the seven names and tried to whistle through her teeth.

‘And organise a car.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Liverpool.’

‘Okey-doke.’

Elizabeth Bradbrook came on the line.

‘Braybrook,’ she said, as if she were busy and didn’t care to be disturbed.

‘Good morning, this is Inspector Darriteau, Chester Police.’

‘I’ve been expecting you.’

‘Really? You have something for me?’

‘I’m not sure I’d describe it quite like that. I have paperwork here I can release... on certain conditions.’

‘You have a file for me and I want it and I shall have it.’

‘We both know you would need a court order to do that, unless...’

‘I have the client’s password?’

‘Correct. And do you?’

‘Your late client was a mass murderer.’

‘Yet to be proven, I’d say.’

‘He tried to murder me!’

‘Oh dear. That was unfortunate. Do you have the password, Inspector?’

‘I do.’

‘Why didn’t you say?’

‘I’m trying to.’

‘What time do you want to come?’

‘Eleven.’

‘I can do that.’

‘I’ll see you later.’

KAREN DROVE AS SHE always did, too fast, zipping up the M53 in the unmarked jag, and on through the new Mersey tunnel that was no longer so new, before turning back toward the river and the Liver Building, the largest of the impressive structures known as The Three Graces, set facing the Pierhead overlooking the river. Karen found a metered parking space as Walter took a police badge from the glove compartment and set it in view. They stepped out into the windy sunshine, glanced at the grey river, back at the grey building, and the big clock at the top that said five to eleven.

Ms Braybrook didn’t keep them waiting. She was older than she sounded on the phone and came straight to the point.

‘The password is?’

Walter glanced at Karen.

‘Deliverance,’ she said.

‘Good. A little dramatic maybe, but there we are. Sam was always that way inclined.’

‘You can say that again,’ said Karen under her breath.

‘Sign here, please.’

Ms Braybrook pushed a document across the table with a pen. Walter picked it up, scanned the paper and signed it.

‘Good,’ she said, retrieving the authorisation docket. She opened her desk drawer, pulled out an orange card file, perhaps two inches thick, and slid it across the table. ‘I’m sure you’ll find it interesting reading.’

‘I am sure we shall,’ said Walter, as Karen stood and scooped up the file.

‘Have you made copies of the contents?’

‘Of course not! I am a solicitor.’

Walter sniffed and nodded and stood up.

Ms Braybrook frowned and stood and nodded too.

Three minutes later, and they were back in the car.

‘Look at that!’ he said, pointing at the window.

A green parking ticket in a plastic raincoat jammed under the wiper. Karen laughed and jumped out and retrieved it.

‘So what’s in the file?’

‘Proof of deaths at Eden Leys, if Sam’s diary is to be believed.’

‘Criminal deaths?’

‘Are there any other kind?’

‘Course there is; natural causes, accidents, deaths in war, for example.’

‘Those Alzheimers’ patients were not at war.’

‘Only with their own minds.’

‘Precisely.’

‘You’re determined to follow this up, aren’t you?’

‘As far as I can.’

‘Could be tricky.’

‘Life can be tricky, Karen, as we both discovered this past week.’

‘You can say that again,’ she said, and her hand returned to massaging her still sore neck.

‘Start the car, let’s get home.’

AS SHE DROVE HE SAID, ‘That night when Sam was at my place; what made you think I was in trouble?’

‘I figured he was determined to do seven. He thought I was the seventh, but when he discovered he hadn’t finished me off, that he hadn’t completed what he’d set out to do, I was convinced he was coming back, to try again. That’s why I asked Gibbons to come over to keep me company. But when the killer didn’t come, something told me he’d switched his attention to you, and when you didn’t answer either of your phones, alarm bells went off. I had to come and see for myself. I had to check.’

‘Good job you did.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘though if I hadn’t bothered I might have been promoted by now.’

He glanced at her grinning face.

‘Do you want my job that bad?’

‘Course I do.’

‘Do you think you’re ready for it?’

‘Yes, I do. Don’t you think so?’

Walter thought about that for a second. If he’d been asked the same question a week before he would have said a resounding no. But now he owed his very existence to her detection and reasoning skills, he knew she was ready. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her.

‘Maybe,’ he said.

‘That’s a huge improvement,’ she grinned. ‘Last time we discussed this you said I was nowhere near ready.’

Walter turned to his left and smiled at the green fields of the Wirral hurtling by. Glanced at the dash. 95mph. Geez!

‘Not so quick!’

‘Sorry, Guv.’

He didn’t say anything else for a while until she said, ‘So is that it then? The Sam serial murder case is over?’

Walter sniffed.

‘Pretty much, it’s now down to the coroner, though I should think it’s fairly straightforward. Six cold-blooded murders, he confessed them all to me, and the murderer dead too, attempting to