The Hidden: A British Police Procedural Set in 1970's England (DCI Monica Paniatowski Mysteries, 10, Band 12) - Hardcover

Spencer, Sally

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0727887076 ISBN 13: 9780727887078

Verlag: Severn House Publishers Ltd, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

"Spencer’s skillful writing, clever plotting, and colorful characters, combined with her insights into what makes humans—and especially cops—tick, make this a crime novel to savor" - Booklist Starred Review

Monika Paniatowski knows exactly who the killer is – but there’s no way she can tell anyone else!

DCI Paniatowski’s team are increasingly convinced that the girl found dead in the woods is the victim of a ritual killing, carried out by a secret society which has been established in the very heart of Whitebridge. Their problem is that without Paniatowski there to back them up, they find it impossible to persuade the ambitious DCI ‘Rhino’ Dixon that treating it as a mere domestic murder will get them nowhere. And so Meadows, Crane and Beresford find themselves out on a limb - cutting corners, ignoring procedure, and running the very real risk that their careers could be brought to an abrupt and dramatic end.

Meanwhile, Monika herself knows not only who the killer is, but also that he is stalking Louisa, her beloved daughter. But as she is one of the killer’s victims too, and is lying in a coma – hearing everything, but unable to move or speak – there is nothing she can do about it!

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sally Spencer worked as a teacher both in England and Iran - where she witnessed the fall of the Shah. She now lives in Spain and writes full-time. She is an almost fanatical mah jong player.

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The Hidden

A Monika Paniatowski Mystery

By Sally Spencer

Severn House Publishers Limited

Copyright © 2017 Lanna Rustage
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7278-8707-8

CHAPTER 1

The west gate of Stamford Hall was (like the gates in the centres of the other three boundary walls), an impressive piece of work. Constructed by skilled ironworkers over two centuries earlier, it served as both a formidable barrier and a fine example of early industrial art. It was possible to open both sides of the gate – indeed, the grand carriages of the past had required it – but to make it easier to filter and check the traffic as it left the park, the uniformed sergeant and his team had only opened the left side, and when the big black Wolseley arrived, there was already a queue of twenty-five or thirty vehicles waiting to leave.

The sergeant opened the right-hand gate, and though he could not see the man in the back of the Wolseley through the darkened glass, he saluted smartly. Once the big black car was inside – and much to the annoyance of all those waiting to leave – he closed the right-hand gate again.

Chief Constable Ronald Pickering, sitting in the back of the Wolseley, had been far too distracted to notice the sergeant's show of respect.

Things didn't look good, he told himself, as his driver turned left and followed the boundary road which led to the Backend Woods picnic area – they didn't look good at all.

The problem was, he was only acting chief constable (and likely to remain so until George Baxter either went mad enough to be certified or grew sane enough to resign), and acting chief constables were perpetually auditioning for the job they were already doing. So every new crisis was a test – a yardstick against which he could be measured – and it was more than possible that losing one of his senior officers might be regarded by those people who mattered as being rather careless.

A roadblock had been set up about a mile and a half from the gate, and it was beyond the roadblock that there was evidence that a serious criminal investigation was already underway.

The acting chief constable quickly scanned the scene.

There were half a dozen patrol cars there, and the men who'd arrived in them were employed in taping off the whole area.

There was an ambulance there, too, and the Land Rover which belonged to Dr Shastri, the police surgeon, so it was a safe bet that Monika Paniatowski hadn't been moved yet.

'Stop right here, constable!' Pickering told his driver, and the driver brought the Wolseley to a halt close to where a square-built muscular man in his thirties was standing.

Pickering got out of the car and walked over to the man.

'Bloody terrible thing to have happened, Colin,' he said, placing a comforting hand on DI Beresford's shoulder.

Beresford – clearly red-eyed – only nodded, as if putting what he was feeling into words would have been just too much.

'Have you any idea what Monika was doing in the woods?' Pickering asked. 'Was it part of an ongoing investigation, do you know?'

And then a new thought occurred to him – one so ghastly that he almost fainted.

'She ... she didn't have any of her children with her, did she?' he said tremulously.

Because if her kids – her bloody infant twins – had gone missing, there'd be such a stink that he might as well hand in his resignation then and there!

'No, the children weren't with her,' Beresford replied. 'The twins are at home with Elena, the housekeeper, and Louisa has gone over to Yorkshire with her school, to play in a hockey match.'

'Thank God,' Pickering said. 'Now what we need to do is find out why DCI Paniatowski was —'

'She's still breathing,' Beresford interrupted him cuttingly, and with an edge of contempt just discernible in his voice. 'She can't say anything, and I'm not even sure she knows where she is, but she's still breathing – and that's something.'

'Yes, I suppose —'

'I'd have been with her myself, but I didn't want to get in the way of the doc and the paramedics.' Beresford paused. 'Anyway, I thought you might like to know that,' he continued, most of his anger now dissipated.

'Yes ... yes, of course,' Pickering said awkwardly. 'That should have been the first thing I asked, shouldn't it?'

'Well, it certainly was the first thing I asked,' Beresford admitted.

'At any rate, while I'm sure we're all praying she makes a full recovery, we're not medical men, are we, and the only thing we can do for Monika ourselves is to try our damnedest to catch the bastard who attacked her!' Pickering said briskly. He looked Beresford straight in the eye. 'I'm right about that, aren't I, Colin?' he challenged.

'Yes, sir, you are right,' Beresford agreed, though any feeling that they might be comrades-in-arms was undercut by the deadpan voice in which he delivered the words.

'So what have you done – in practical detecting terms – so far?' Pickering asked.

'As you can see, we've almost finished sectioning off this area,' Beresford said.

'Yes, yes, but what about the rest of the grounds – the funfair and the zoo? I saw a stream of cars leaving as I arrived. I assume everyone in them has already been questioned, have they?'

'No, sir,' Beresford replied. 'Most of them probably don't even know there's been an attack, but I've made sure the officers on the gate are taking their names and addresses, and —'

'Why didn't you question them first?' Pickering demanded.

'We don't have the manpower.'

'Then you should have waited until sufficient manpower arrived, for God's sake!'

'The gatekeeper tells me he's sold over eight hundred car tickets today,' Beresford said. 'If there were, on average, four people in each car, we're talking about over three thousand folk who need to be interviewed. Add to that the people who arrived on the courtesy buses from the railway station, and we're up to maybe three thousand six hundred. Then there are the ones who came on charter coaches. Even if we'd had the whole force on duty, which, this being a Sunday at the start of the summer leave season —'

'All right, all right, I get the point,' Pickering said. 'Christ, what a mess.' He looked around him, as if searching for inspiration. 'I want you to hold the fort until DCI Dixon gets here,' he said finally.

'Yes, sir.'

'Are the rest of DCI Paniatowski's team here?' he asked.

'Yes, sir.'

Of course they bloody were! Paniatowski's team had a reputation for being so thick with one another that it was said around police headquarters that if you kicked one of them, they all limped.

'Right, you have my permission to stay here as well – for the moment – but the second DCI Dixon arrives with his team, I want you all out of here.'

'We'd prefer to stay, sir,' Beresford said.

'Yes, I'm sure you would, Colin,' Pickering agreed. 'I'm sure you would. But you see, I simply can't allow that. You're far too close to this particular investigation to play any continued active part in it.'

'With respect, sir, it's because we're close to DCI Paniatowski – because we know the way she thinks and what motivates her – that we're essential to the investigation.'

'Your comments have been noted, but the decision has been taken,' Pickering said.

'If we can't investigate it as police officers, then we'll investigate as private citizens,' Beresford said firmly.

'Come on, Colin, be realistic...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Severn House Publishers Ltd
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0727887076
• ISBN 13: 9780727887078
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 192
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar