Shrine to Murder Read Free

rushing up to him and smiling.
    He didn’t return the smile.
    She was eye-catching, but looking at her, smiling, willing and so unquestionably attractive, irritated him. Her film star figure and face were wasted in the business of being a copper, indeed, could even be a distraction in the harsh business of solving murder cases. He briskly told her the bare facts of the findings and then said, ‘Now do the door to door.’
    ‘ When did the assault or murder take place, sir?’
    His eyes opened wide and he glared across at her. ‘I don’t know. That’s the point of the door to door. I’m hoping someone may have seen a ladder up there. Now get on with it.’
    Her mouth dropped open. She breathed in quickly. Her eyes moistened. She turned away and dashed off.
    He saw her face before she turned. He shook his head irritably and stamped into the house.
    The long hall floor and large staircase were covered with white plastic sheeting. The first door on the left was wide open.
    A woman in a summer dress and a lot of make-up was sitting in an easy chair looking at him. She jumped up.
    ‘ What’s happening?’ she said, her bright eyes glaring at him.
    Mrs Krill?’ Angel said.
    ‘ Of course,’ she said.
    ‘ Please sit down. I am Detective Inspector Angel. I am very sorry that-’
    ‘ Yes. Yes. Yes,’ she said. ‘What’s happening? Has my husband arrived?’
    Angel frowned. ‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘I have to ask you a few questions. I understand that you found your father’s body?’
    ‘ Yes,’ she said, her lip quivering. ‘I should never have left him.’
    ‘ Sit down, Mrs Krill. Please.’
    She sat down uneasily. He sat down opposite her.
    ‘ He should have been properly looked after…full time. He could have come and lived with us.’
    ‘ And what was your father’s full name?’
    ‘ Luke Lancelot Redman,’ she said. ‘There was plenty of room. But he wouldn’t move. So stubborn, you know. He expected me to move in here and look after him . But I couldn’t leave my husband - he’s a property developer and builder, you know. He would never have moved in here. My daughter’s at boarding school most of the time. We could have gone back to live in Sheffield at her holiday time, but Cyril wouldn’t hear of it. He needed to be near his business. The trouble is that men are so stubborn, Inspector Angel. Neither of them would compromise. Of course, they simply didn’t get on. They never had, that’s the truth of it. Both self-made men. You know…clash of personalities.’
    Angel smiled gently at her. ‘What is the name and address of the school where your daughter is a pupil, Mrs Krill?’
    ‘ Why do you want that? My daughter has nothing to do with this.’
    ‘ I am sure that what you say is absolutely correct, Mrs Krill. But we have to check everything, you know.’
    She glared at him before answering. There was a few seconds’ pause before she said, ‘Rosehill Academy, Weeton on the Water, Gloucestershire.’
    ‘ Thank you,’ Angel said as he noted it on the back of an envelope he pulled out of his inside pocket. Then he said, ‘So your father lived here on his own?’
    ‘ Didn’t I just say that? Yes, he lived in this massive four-bedroomed house for more than forty years. My mother died three years ago. I thought he would move then. I begged him to move to be near us…so that I could more easily keep an eye on him, but no. At one point, Cyril half agreed to build a bungalow on some land next to our house in Sheffield. So that Dad would have been in an independent unit virtually at the bottom of our garden. That would have been handy. I could have popped in each day. Of course, dad wouldn’t hear of it.’
    ‘ What brought you here this morning?’
    ‘ Isn’t it reasonable that I would want to see my own father, Inspector?’
    ‘ Of course it is, I simply wondered if he had called you or something like that?’
    ‘ No. He would never have called me. He was craftier than that. If he