The Eyes of the Accused: A dark disturbing mystery thriller (The Ben Whittle Investigation Series Book 2) Read Free

buggers right up until their wedding day.’
    Ben laughed. ‘You could be right there.’
    ‘Talking of soppy women, where’s mother?’
    ‘Aunt Mary’s. Coffee morning.’
    ‘Coffee morning, my eye. Gossiping about me, more like.’
    Ben smiled. Perhaps he needed to take a subtler approach concerning work matters. ‘About Maddie—’
    ‘The answer’s still no.’
    ‘Please. Just hear me out.’
    ‘It’s not that I don’t like her. She seems a very capable young lady. But her place is at the church, lighting candles and doing Mass.’
    ‘She’s not Catholic. It’s a Pentecostal church.’
    ‘Does it matter?’
    Ben didn’t want to get drawn into a discussion about faith. Especially with an agnostic like his father. ‘She’s not religious. She only helps out because it’s her father’s church.’
    ‘And what will her father do if she comes to work for Whittle Investigations?’
    ‘I told you: he’s got Rhonda and Bubba.’
    ‘Bubba’s mute. As I recall, that lunatic Ebb cut out his tongue.’
    ‘Tom’s teaching him sign language.’
    ‘Useful for making the sign of the cross, then?’
    ‘That’s not funny.’
    Geoff looked away. ‘I meant nothing by it. Bubba’s a good man.’
    After an awkward silence, Ben tried once again to argue Maddie’s case. ‘She really wants to work with us. She wants to do something useful, not just mark time at the church.’
    ‘Are you sweet on her?’
    Ben felt a blush creep onto his neck. ‘No.’
    ‘You fight her corner like someone who is.’
    ‘I like her, that’s all. She’s a good person.’
    ‘She’s put a glow on your chops.’
    Ben felt the blush turn radioactive. ‘Think what you like. She’s just a friend.’
    ‘No one gets that het up for a friend.’
    ‘I’m het up because you’re so damned rude.’
    ‘But you don’t need a partner.’
    ‘We’d work well together.’
    ‘I managed well enough on my own until Ebb and his cronies got hold of me.’
    ‘It might not have happened if you’d had a partner,’ Ben suggested. ‘Someone to watch your back.’
    ‘It wouldn’t have made a scrap of difference. There isn’t a damn thing you can do when some crazy sod has a gun. Not unless you’ve got one yourself, and we don’t want to go down that route, do we? It’ll only make the criminals more inclined to carry weapons. That’s why they don’t arm the police; and as an ex-copper, I reckon they’ve got the balance just about right.’
    ‘They do arm the police. What about that Brazilian bloke they shot on the railway station the other year?’
    ‘That was the Armed Response Unit. That’s something different altogether.’
    ‘Still murdered an innocent man.’
    ‘They were convinced he was a terrorist.’
    Ben thought it was a good idea that they didn’t arm the regular police if that’s what the so-called experts were capable of. ‘And that makes it all right?’
    ‘Don’t judge what you don’t do. Those guys have a split second to make a decision. Sometimes they get it wrong just like everybody else.’
    The phone rang on the desk. Geoff plucked it from its cradle. ‘Whittle Investigations. How may I help you?’
    Ben watched his father nod, tut and sympathise with the person on the other end of the line as he scribbled details onto a notepad.
    Geoff put the phone down and leaned back in his wheelchair. He stared at the ceiling.
    ‘Well?’
    Geoff ignored him.
    ‘Is it a new case?’
    ‘Some girl’s gone missing. That was her mother. But she must have got the wrong number.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘She thought this was a private investigation business.’
    Ben was momentarily confused. ‘It is.’
    ‘Really? And how are we meant to investigate without any investigators?’
    ‘Now you’re being childish.’
    ‘Not from where I’m standing. Or sitting, to be exact. As I recall, you said you didn’t want to work for me anymore.’
    Ben tried not to rise to the bait. ‘So what did she say?’
    Geoff