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something special, Farmer? That might have some bearing on all this.’
    ‘She kept a good bit to herself, until she knew she’d got all the facts. Worked a lot on instinct.’
    ‘So what was the last case that she was working on?’ Peterson said as they went down again in the lift, leaving the forensic team to check for blood and DNA around the flat.
    ‘There was a suspicious death on the East Hill; a woman, Geraldine Temple, killed herself. Just before you came, ma’am. She cut her wrists in the bathwater; pretty gruesome.’
    ‘Sounds like it.’
    ‘Yeah - you can ask Calder about that. He went with Handley to sort it. No suicide note was found. Handley told me later that she sussed out from the woman’s sister-in-law that Geraldine Temple had been Erik Kaufman’s long standing girlfriend at one time. That made Linda take note of it more than usual.’
    ‘The Kaufman’s again.’ Peterson frowned. Her mobile jangled in her jacket pocket. ‘Yes?’
    ‘We found the weapon that did the damage to Handley, ma’am. Close by the death scene near the rocks. The killer thought that the water would soon submerge it; a chunk of jagged bloodstained rock. Quite heavy too. Would have taken some considerable physical strength to handle it. We found it submerged in one of the rocky pools; luckily it was found in time before the tide came in. Testing it now for blood and prints.’
    ‘So the killer decided to leave it to the sea to get rid of the evidence,’ Peterson said. ‘Cocky, isn’t he? He could have left her here in the apartment. Why go to all the trouble of putting her on the beach? He surely didn’t think that the sea would cover up his crime.’
    ‘If it was the Kaufman’s responsible for Linda’s death then there could have been more than one of them in on it.’

     
    Nine
     
    ‘So - was it down to you, Erik?’
    Erik Kaufman halted cross-pollinating the mauve and gold speckled lavender orchid blooms to ask, ‘Was what down to me, honey?’
    ‘The death of the police woman last night - she was found lying on the beach by the pier early this morning.’
    Erik Kaufman snatched his heavy lidded slate blue eyes from the beautiful flower to Jude Van Hoet; her figure as slender as the flower’s stem, as she swayed towards him on her high purple stilettos down the tiled length of the large domed glass Orchid house.
    ‘So... what of it?’ The warmth of the place was steaming up his glasses. He took them off to wipe them with his handkerchief, the heavy rings on his thick hands shining like the two gold teeth in his smile which was twisted by a facial scar snarling up the left side corner of his mouth. ‘Was it anyone that we should know?’
    Her ark brown eyes narrowed slightly. ‘It was. It was the woman police officer DS Handley.’
    He nodded. ‘Ah - that sassy blonde bitch. Pretty, but too bloody nosy. She came with that other police officer to snoop around the Orchid Club the other week. I heard she was taking an interest in one of Freddie’s girls she brought to the station to interview.’
    Jude swayed seductively in front of him. He reached out his hand to touch hers.
    ‘Seen Freddie at all today, honey?’
    ‘Not so far. Do you think he had something to do with her death?’
    Jude knew she might be pushing things to o far. She tried to keep out of the Kaufman’s business as much as possible. And if Erik knew anything at all about his brother Freddie being responsible for Linda Handley’s death, he wasn’t likely to share it with her, just as Jude was careful to keep a part of her life secret from Erik.
    ‘Freddie wouldn’t let on if he did,’ Erik said shortly.
    Jude was lost in her thoughts. If it was his brother Freddie who had had Linda Handley killed there would be difficulty in proving it. He’d get one of his boys to do it. But where was the motive? As far as Jude knew there had been no clash recently between the dead officer and Freddie Kaufman, other than the alternation over