Death Dues Read Online Free PDF Page A

that side of the street?’
    ‘Adults and mid-teens, it’s thirteen, sir,’ replied Constable Claire Allen, the newest member of the team, after she had done a swift tally up.
    There was that number again, thought Rafferty, his superstitious side giving him goose bumps. He hoped it wasn’t going to turn out to be as unlucky for him as it had been for Jaws Harrison.
    ‘How many of the thirteen look possibles?’
    ‘Ten, sir. One of the thirteen is a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy and two are elderly and look rather frail.’
    ‘Appearances can be deceptive. If you’ve desperate enough you’ll find reserves of strength from somewhere. I reckon some of these people must have been beyond desperate if they owed Malcolm Forbes money they were unable to pay and with the dead man making threats.’
    Rafferty sent the pair on their way as he spotted Sam Dally’s car draw up beyond the cordon. He hurried to speak to him. According to Dally, when he’d cursed at the weather, the rain making his sparse hair look even thinner, and had finally wriggled his rotund body into his protective gear and checked out the body, told Rafferty that the hypostasis evidence on  the body pointed to the man having died where he was found.
    ‘Right-handed assailant, as the majority of the blows are to that side of the skull. I’d say it was likely to be a hammer that did it. Certainly something with metal rather than wood at the end as I can’t see any splinters in the wounds, though I will, of course, do a thorough check during the post mortem. I suppose you also want a time of death?’
    ‘If you can.’
    ‘Certainly within the last three, three and a half hours, erring more towards two to two and a half I would think. Will that do you?’
    ‘It’ll do me very nicely, Sam. Much obliged.’
    ‘That’s what I’m here for.’ His rain-spattered half-moon glasses glinted as the sun came out for a few seconds, saw the weather and went back to its cloudy bed. ‘And don’t order your underlings to chase me up in future. You know how I hate to be rushed.’
    Rafferty almost grinned as he thought of Llewellyn’s likely reaction to this description. ‘Sorry and all that, Sam.’ Dally by name and dally by nature, that was Sam. Not that he didn’t do a thorough job, which was why he put up with the Scotsman’s irascibility.
     ‘Got an ID yet?’
    ‘We believe so. A collector for a local loan shark named Malcolm Forbes. So we’ve got a motive likely to apply to a number of our street residents.’
    ‘Och. There’ll not be too many loose tongues, then. Not talking to the police, anyway. Though they’ll doubtless be happy to curry favour with your man Forbes if they know anything. Likely there’ll be some willing to tell tall tales to get in well with him. Could be an opportunity for one or two to settle old scores.’
    ‘That’s what I’m afraid of. An early post mortem would be good, Sam.’
    ‘Would it, now? Always in a rush, Rafferty, that’s your trouble. You’ve got enough to be going on with, I’d say. Leave the timing of the post mortem to them as knows what else is awaiting attention. I’ll get back to you.’ With that, Dally picked up his bag of tricks and fought his rotund way back down the alley.
    Now he had a likely weapon, Rafferty set some of the team to checking the sheds and outhouses for missing hammers and other metal headed tools. The search of the alley had turned up nothing but the usual rubbish of discarded cigarette and crisp packets and condoms; the quantity of the latter indicated that this was some sort of neighbourhood Lovers’ Lane.
    After having a quick word with Adrian Appleby, head of the SOCO team, Rafferty, relieved to get out of the reach of the weather again, picked up a loitering Llewellyn and drove back to the station. On the way, they discussed the case.
    'I'm worried this might be something more than a routine mugging gone wrong,' Rafferty confided as he overtook a