The Arsenic Labyrinth Read Online Free PDF

Jeremy, went to see Emma just beforeshe disappeared. His story was that he had back trouble and she’d offered to help.’
    A sardonic chuckle. ‘Spot of massage?’
    ‘We found no evidence of any affair. To all appearances the Erskines were happily married.’
    Les’s face made it clear that happy marriages were as common as fairies at the bottom of the garden. Come to think of it, would Mrs Bryant be content for him to stay on this side of the Pennines for another twelve months?
    ‘How about her friends?’
    ‘Vanessa Goddard seemed cut up about her disappearance, but she was Emma’s only close friend. Emma wasn’t interested in men and although she’d had an affair with Alexandra Clough while she worked at the museum, that came to an end months earlier. No hard feelings, according to Ms Clough.’
    ‘Did you believe her?’
    ‘Do me a favour. How many relationships end with no hard feelings? But there was no evidence to link Alex Clough – or anyone else – with Emma’s disappearance. Every avenue turned out to be a dead end.’
    ‘So over the years nobody has bothered too much about her.’
    ‘Until Tony Di Venuto.’
    ‘And then, someone rings him up and implies that Emma is dead.’
    ‘All he said was that Emma wouldn’t be coming back. Which leaves us no wiser.’
    ‘You think Di Venuto made it up?’
    ‘Perish the thought that a journalist might tell porkies.’ He burped and patted his belly. ‘So what was your take on the case? What did you think happened to Emma?’
    Hannah sucked in her cheeks. ‘You have to remember, I was wet behind the ears.’
    ‘Even so.’
    ‘The SIO was Sid Thornicroft. Decent detective, but he was coming up for retirement and he was more focused on collecting his pension than clues. The investigation ran out of steam as soon as he decided that Emma had done a runner. I didn’t agree, but so what?’
    ‘You thought she was dead?’
    She nodded. ‘Like Di Venuto. My hunch was that she’d been murdered. But without evidence …’
    ‘Lauren will want us to delve. Make sure we’re on the right side of the Press.’
    ‘Christ, Les, don’t tell me you’re becoming media-savvy in your old age.’
    He propped his elbows on the table and cupped his chin in his hands. ‘It’s you I’m thinking of. Cold case work is a cul-de-sac, ideal for boring old farts like me. You were shunted into it after you screwed up on a trial, but soon you’ll be ready to get back in the swim. Which means giving the ACC an occasional stroke, even if you’d sooner shove her statistics up her bum.’
    Hannah wanted to argue, but if she said she was happy to paddle in a backwater forever, he wouldn’t believe her.
    ‘All right. We start at nine tomorrow.’
    She made it sound as if she didn’t care, but herheart was beating faster. This wasn’t about keeping Lauren sweet. Hannah had never been able to forget the photograph of Emma Bestwick in the old file, the same picture that accompanied Di Venuto’s article. Her looks would never stop traffic. The face was round and pleasant, but flabby at the jaw-line, and instantly forgettable. Yet the puzzled frown and parted lips had stuck in Hannah’s mind. She imagined Emma searching for something just beyond the horizon, could almost hear her murmuring what’s it all about ?
    How had she come to vanish in an instant? If Hannah understood the woman, she might understand her fate. Emma seemed so ordinary, but she’d proved elusive in more ways than one. Hannah had never managed to wriggle inside her head.
    A sense of failure had nagged at her over the years like an arthritic joint, yet to devote precious resources to a hopeless case would have seemed self-indulgent. Hannah didn’t care for Tony Di Venuto, but he deserved her thanks. He’d given her a second chance to do right by the woman everyone else preferred to forget.
     
    Guy’s landlady made a conspicuous effort with the dinner. Sarah Welsby might not specialise in exotic