shook her head. Val Maddingly was in the USA now and showed no signs of ever returning. “I’m married to the job.” She said, though that did sound rather weak.
“Do I get to ask if you’re investigating anything interesting?” Louise said. “More to the point, do you get to tell me if I ask?”
The waitress came over. Hazel went for the duck in plum sauce, with a side order of rice. Louise picked out lamb chops with winter vegetables. Sometimes Hazel thought it was always winter in this town.
“Shooting in a hotel.” Hazel said.
“That was on the news.” Louise said, “Man shot dead in a hotel room. There wasn’t much else though.”
“There’s very little else we know.” Hazel said. Which was true. In any case, the press had most of the details, plus one or two they had either found or made up after talking to the staff and guests at the hotel. “I can tell you we’re going to appeal for help in finding a woman who was seen nearby at the time.” By now Superintendent Church would be giving the press conference and displaying the computer generated image of the woman Hazel had seen.
“A woman? Crime of passion?”
“Well he was a ladies man.” Hazel said. “I don’t know, she’s just someone we want to speak to. She’s not a suspect.” Church would be pushing that line. Though it was doubtful if anyone remotely connected with the incident believed it.
“Are guns easy to come by here?” Louise said, “I didn’t think we had a big incidence of gun crime.”
“We don’t.” Hazel said, “It’s certainly a lot better than it used to be.” However, guns were leaking into town from somewhere. The Crime Squad had been trying to find out from where for several years.
“So this woman would have to know where to get a gun.” Louise said.
“If a woman killed him.” Hazel said.
“If she did then that poses some questions about her, doesn’t it?”
“Does it?” Hazel said. “I carry a gun, you have access to guns.”
“How many people have you shot?”
“None.” Hazel said.
“I’ve not shot anyone either.” Louise said. “But if we assume a woman shot this man then she’d have a reason to shoot him and would know how to lay her hands on a gun.”
“Do we assume she shot him?”
Louse smiled, “I know, you have to be discreet about this because you’re the investigating officer. But I’m just an interested observer. If I assume someone other than this woman shot him then I don’t have anything.” She paused, “You do know the press will assume she did it?”
The tabloid press certainly would. Hazel nodded.
“Why would someone use a gun?” Louise said.
“It’s effective.” Hazel said.
“Not if you don’t know anything about them.” Louise said. “I’ve seen raw recruits miss a target that’s right in front of them. Shooting a gun accurately isn’t as easy as it looks on TV…..we’re talking about a handgun of some sort, aren’t we?”
Hazel nodded, “Yes.” For now the ballistic details were kept secret.
“So you have a woman who knows where to get a gun and how to shoot it correctly. Is that a fair assessment?”
Hazel had been thinking along similar lines. “It makes sense.” She conceded. “Where does it take you?”
“Police officer, soldier….member of the gun club?” Louise said, “If you could take a weapon out of the armory, use it to kill a man, clean it, unload it, and put it back, would it be easy to trace?”
“A police pistol would be.” Hazel said, “We have ballistic information on file just in case of a shooting incident.” She paused, “In any case it wasn’t a police pistol that was used.”
“Yes, but you don’t just have your official weapon, do you?”
“What makes you say that?” Hazel said.
“Two reasons, first, I’ve asked around about you. I asked around after you first made contact. I happen to know you’re a member of the Skeggs Field gun club and have been for twenty years. Second…well…..secondly….I also have my own firearms. I assumed you would too.”
Hazel nodded, smiling, she liked the way her newly found half-sister thought.
“So...a woman with access to a firearm, either bought illegally or personally owned….or readily available at her job. How many police officers are female?”
“About thirty per cent…maybe slightly more.” Hazel said. “How about in the army?”
“Roughly the same.” Louise said. “Though it’s unlikely the woman is either of those.”
“Why?” Hazel said, “Beyond the fact that neither of us would like the idea.”
“There is that.” Louise said, “If she was a police officer she’d be found out, fairly quickly. I’m guessing that eliminating your own is something you’d be hot on with this kind of thing.”
“And the army?”
“I wouldn’t like to think someone in my regiment would do something like this. All that training just to knock off a man she thought did her wrong or something. I’d hope we train our people better.”
“We all hope that.” Hazel said.
“In any case I’ll have a look around tomorrow.” Louise said. “Just to eliminate the possibility.” She paused, “Also, it’s useful to assume this woman was neither a police officer nor a soldier. Which opens the field up a bit more.”
“She wasn’t tall enough to be a police officer.” Hazel said. “I’ve no idea who she was or where she came from. Speculation only gets you so far. Then you have to start looking for evidence.”
“DNA…Fingerprints?”
Hazel nodded, “All the things we don’t have.” The forensic report wasn’t in yet but from what Hazel knew of hotel rooms they would be a mass of finger prints and it didn’t look as if the woman had hung around long enough to leave DNA conveniently on a surface. Annoyingly there had been no CCTV images either.
“Someone might recognize the woman.” Hazel said. “But the way forward is to look at the victim. He was a ladies man so that might give us something.”
“I don’t envy you.” Louise said.
“No,” Hazel said, “To be truthful, I don’t envy me either.”
* *
“She’s not much to look at is she?” Police Constable Jonathan
