Kith and Kill Read Free Page B

home now. You’ve got your money.”
    “Yes, thanks, Mr Wingate,” the young women replied. “See you Thursday. Bye.”
    She picked up her handbag, put her hand through the shoulder strap and sauntered out through the front door. The landlord locked it behind her.
    “Is that everything?” Wingate asked, looking relieved that Kate had departed. “Only we’ve got a quick turnaround before we open tonight at 5-30 and we’d like to have half an hour with our feet up and a cup of tea.”
    Amos nodded.
    “We’ve got plenty to get through ourselves before today is out,” he remarked drily.
    He and DC Smith exited through the rear entrance to the car park and heard the bolts on the back door slam across behind them.
    “We’ll have a quiet word with that Kate on her own. I think it’s unlikely there is anything significant in the lone woman drinker – it does happen in this day and age – but we’d better check. In the meantime I’d like to talk to as many family members as possible before they’ve time to coordinate their stories.”
     
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
    Luke’s house was the most convenient to call at on the way back towards Lincoln, as he lived on the south side of the city. There was no particular reason to take the siblings in order of seniority and James had said that he had contacted this uncle so they would not have to break the news.
    His was a fairly modest terrace house among rows of similar red-brick, solid but unpretentious homes.
    Beth, Luke’s wife, opened the door. She accepted the arrival of the two detectives with weary resignation and invited them in.
    “This is Enid, our daughter,” she said introducing a young woman in the house. “She came back from uni for the funeral. You were very fond of your granddad, weren’t you love?”
    Enid grunted assent without enthusiasm.
    “He was very proud of her,” Beth Wilson added. “But I suppose you want to talk to Luke. He’s just nipped down to the bookies. I hope he won’t be long.”
    Luke was, however, some considerable time. That did not bother Amos, though he wondered about the propriety of spending the evening at a bookmakers after a day in which he had buried his father and heard that his brother had died suddenly. He was likely to learn more from an unsuspecting Beth, who would be less reserved about discussing the family, of which she was only an in-law.
    “Big family you married into,” Amos remarked casual. “Did you get together much?”
    “Not really, these days,” Beth replied. She looked uncomfortable despite Amos’s efforts to put her at ease. “We used to see more of each other but none of us could stand Agnes, Mark’s wife. And Mary – she’s the youngest – got increasingly bitter. But I don’t think I should be discussing them. We should wait for Luke. He won’t be long.”
    The last remark was said without conviction.
    Amos decided to wait in silence, letting Beth Wilson become increasingly uncomfortable.
    “I can’t think what’s happened to him,” she finally said. “He’s not usually this long.”
    “Perhaps he just needed a bit of space,” Amos said. “After all, it’s been a tough day, burying his father and then losing his elder brother so suddenly and unexpectedly. Was he particularly close to Matthew?”
    “Yes, they were really close. It was a tightly-knit family really, despite them all being different individuals and not getting together as much as they use to. They did talk to each other on the phone quite a lot.”
    “Tell me about Matthew at the wake. Did he talk to everybody else there or did he spend more time with anyone in particular?”
    Beth Wilson looked at Amos suspiciously but, as the inspector hoped, she decided that answering his intrusive question was better than going back to the embarrassed silence.
    “He talked to most of us, I think,” she said. “He always has done when members of the Wilson family got together. I think he was conscious of his role as eldest