Read Online Nothing but Trouble by Roberta Kray - Free Book Online Page B

lot, even after all these years.’ She paused. ‘I think about it too, of course I do, but for Lynda it was
     like a great dark shadow that was always hanging over her.’
    ‘And that’s all she said, that she had to talk to you?’
    ‘No, there was more. She said that it was important, that it
changed things.
I think those were her words. I didn’t keep the message. I was going to ring her back, so I deleted it.’ Her face twisted,
     her eyes becoming bright with tears. ‘I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve got this feeling that whatever it was might
     have been the final straw, the thing that pushed her over the edge.’
    ‘You don’t believe it was an accident?’
    ‘I don’t know what to believe. She’d been depressed, I mean
really
depressed, and back then I thought she might have … I know what the police thought, and what the coroner said, but …’
    ‘You suspected suicide?’
    She bowed her head before slowly lifting it again. ‘No … yes … Christ, I don’t know. Yes, I suppose I did. She’d been drinking
     heavily, that’s what they said at the inquest, so I thought she might have decided to end it all. And she might have wanted
     to make it look like an accident so her family wouldn’t feel so guilty. I mean, people always do feel guilty, don’t they?
     How can they feel anything else? But now, with these threats and everything, I’m starting to wonder if it was something else,
     if someone might have …’
    Harry could see where she was going without her having to spell it out. Not an accident, not suicide, but murder.
    Sam gazed at him pleadingly. ‘Please help me, Mr Lind. You probably don’t think I’m in any real danger, but I can’t think
     straight with all this going on. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I’m always looking over my shoulder, wondering what’s going to
     happen next. I have to find out who’s doing this. I have to make them stop.’
    Harry, although he didn’t entirely buy into the murder theory, could see how upset she was. Lynda’s death must have knocked
     her for six, and now she was the target of a malicious campaign. He didn’t have the heart to refuse, even though he still
     had reservations. If he started digging around in the Minnie Bright case, he was likely to upset the Kellston police, and
     that was hardly smart when Mackenzie, Lind had only just moved into the area. On the other hand, the wrath of the local constabulary
     was nothing compared to the grief Jessica Vaughan would inflict on him if he refused to help. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I’ll make
     some enquiries, see what I can find out.’
    Relief instantly spread across Sam Kendall’s face. ‘You will? Thank you. Thank you
so
much.’ She rose to her feet and shook his hand again. ‘I’m so grateful. I really am.’
    After she’d gone, Harry wondered if he’d made the right decision. It was all very well doing favours for a friend, but this
     one could land him in a heap of trouble. Lynda’s death, no matter how it had happened, was inextricably linked to the murder
     of Minnie Bright. He swivelled the chair round and gazed dolefully out of the window. The sun was out, the sky was blue and
     everything seemed peaceful. A good omen, or simply the calm before the storm?

7
    The plane touched down at twelve thirty, and within half an hour he had gone through passport control, retrieved his suitcase
     and strolled through customs without so much as a second glance from the uniformed officials who were standing there. He’d
     expected nothing less. In all his travels through Europe
–
and they’d been wide and varied
–
he had never once been stopped. In the early years he had viewed this as a sign from above, a symbol of his strength and his
     invulnerability, but now he wondered if that had simply been the arrogance of youth. A more likely explanation perhaps was
     that he’d had the good fortune to be born with the kind of face that did not invite suspicion.
    As he