Unlikely Graves (Detective Inspector Paul Amos Mystery series)
Page 16
“This is Ray Jones. Please leave a message stating your name, your number and when you rang. This computer occasionally crashes, wiping out voice messages, so if I don’t respond please ring again tomorrow.”
“Ray, it’s Sarah. Where on earth are you? It’s not like you to miss evensong. I’m worried sick about you. Ring me whatever time you get back.”
But Jones did not ring back that evening. Miles tried again at 9 pm and again at 2 am, when she woke from her fitful sleep. Each time she left a similar but increasingly frantic message in vain.
She awoke with a start. It was 9.30 am. She would normally have been awake for the past two hours. She rang Jones’s office. No, he had not been in yet but that was nothing unusual. He would call in during the day and they would let him know that she had rung.
Miles left another message on the answering machine installed in the computer in Jones’s flat. Perhaps the wretched machine had crashed and he had not got her messages. That afternoon there was still no sign of Jones.
Finally Miles rang Jones’s housekeeper.
“I’m due in tomorrow morning,” she responded. “I’ll be there at ten o’clock.” No, she wasn’t prepared to go round that evening.
Miles begged, pleaded, cajoled. Frantically she began to threaten the unyielding housekeeper, who finally realised there was to be no reasoning with the infatuated women and put down the phone.
Miles rang the police. No, they were not going to break in. Their method of discouraging persistent callers was to leave the phone lying on the desk while they got on with their paperwork until the sound of the voice at the other end abruptly ceased.
That was why the body of Raymond Jones, businessman, entrepreneur, finger-in-every-pie man and staunch churchgoer, was not found until Tuesday morning.
If you enjoyed Unlikely Graves check out Rodney Hobson’s other books here: Endeavour Press - the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.
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Why not read Book Three in the Detective Inspector Paul Amos Mystery series next?
Holy Murder
Also in the Detective Inspector Paul Amos Mystery series:
Dead Money
Unlikely Graves
Holy Murder
Kith and Kill
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