A Deadly Imperfection: Calladine & Bayliss 3 Read Online Free Page B

cringed over the steering wheel waiting for his angry reaction, but there wasn’t one.
     

Chapter 3
 
    After an irritating five minutes of silence, crawling around the hospital car park Ruth eventually found a space.  He’d said nothing and that wasn’t good.  He was most likely seething inside because of what she’d done, and any second she’d get a right tongue lashing.
    ‘So,’ he shrugged finally.  ‘What did you find out?’
    His voice was surprisingly even, and his expression had hardly changed either.
    ‘You’re not angry then?’  She asked incredulously, as she locked the car.  ‘I’ve been dreading telling you, but I was too curious not to do something.’
    ‘Too bloody nosey, you mean.  I can’t pretend, Ruth, I might not show it but I’m damned annoyed.’
    ‘I don’t see why – she’s your mother for goodness sake.  You’re just not brave enough to do anything about it yourself.’
    ‘I wanted it leaving for a reason,’ he ran his hand through his short hair. He looked even greyer than usual and his face had gone ashen.  ‘This whole thing will cause too much upset.  I was even considering just letting it lie, doing nothing – ever.’
    ‘Don’t be such a wimp,’ she retorted.  ‘That idea is just ludicrous. You need to do this, find her, speak to her and get her side of things.  Don’t you want to know why she gave you up, what’s she like?’
    ‘No, not really, and she gave me away because she didn’t want me.  My dad will have made it easy for her.  So she jumped at the chance to get her life back.’
    ‘Bollocks!  It’ll be nothing like that.  You’re scared, Tom Calladine, and I’m disappointed in you.’
    Ruth Bayliss swung her bag over her shoulder and walked off towards the main entrance of the hospital.
    ‘Wait up, I’ve been injured, remember?’
    ‘Coward!’  She threw back at him.
    ‘Mind your cheek, Sergeant,’ he pulled her up.  ‘I’m still your boss, remember that.’
    Ruth flashed him one of her unimpressed looks, tossed back her hair and carried on with him lagging behind her.
    He was left watching her shapely form striding off without him.  God she was becoming a right harridan.
    ‘Okay – I give in.  You’re going to tell me – so later.  We’ll get a coffee and you can give me the lowdown,’ he decided once he’d caught her up.  No good arguing – she was going to get her way – so why fight it.
    Ruth had known she’d win him round.  He couldn’t kid her – deep down he was every bit as curious about Eve Walker as she was.  How could he not be – he was a detective and she was his mother.
    Ruth gave him a conspiratorial smile then presented her badge to the woman in the reception area and asked to see Dr. Ahmed’s secretary.
    Celia Downs was middle aged, wore her hair in tight bun on the top of her head and had round framed glasses perched on the bridge of her nose.  She looked older than she probably was, and she didn’t smile much either.
    ‘DI Calladine and DS Bayliss from Leesworth CID,’ he introduced themselves.  ‘I’m not sure if you are aware but Doctor Ahmed was found dead earlier today – murdered in his own home.’
    Her distinctly pinched expression didn’t change - she simply moved her eyes from one of them to the other.
    ‘Yes I know – it’s been on the news,’ she enlightened them.  ‘So what are you doing about it?’
    Calladine knew that there’d been no press release yet, so how had they got hold of the story so fast. 
    ‘We’re investigating, Mrs Downs, that’s what we’re doing.  First we need to get a feel for what the Doctor was like.  I need to know about his family, his friends, if there was anybody giving him a hard time.  In short, as much as you can tell me about him.’
    ‘It’s Ms,’ she corrected him.
    Now why didn’t that surprise him?
    ‘He didn’t have any family.  He never married, no children and he was an only child, I believe.  He used to