Murder on the Village Green: A Diane Dimbleby Cozy Mystery Read Online Free Page B

I’m going to be the next victim…
    Diane quietly gulps. She tries to remember some of the moves she had learned at a self-defence class she had taken right after David was killed back in London. But that had been nearly 30 years ago.
    Was there a backwards kick or elbow move she had practiced? There is no time to think. Diane instead decides she better hop as far ahead as she can and then break into a run. She bends and springs her knees, frog-like, and leaps one metre forward. Not bad!
    But her curiosity prevents her from continuing her escape. She turns around, hoping to get a good look of the potential suspect.
    She turns around quickly and is surprised to see Inspector Darrell Crothers crouching, just like she had been, beside the tree.
    “What are you doing here?!?” they both yell at the same time.
    Diane quickly hides the item she had dug up behind her back.

Chapter 3
     
     
    Darrell hadn’t slept well last night.
    After reading Jeremy and Chloe their stories and tucking them into bed, he told Claire he was just going to do some case research—“just for a half hour”—before tucking himself into bed next to her. Thirty minutes turned to surfing on the Internet until the wee hours of the morning.
    An increased demand in people waiting for organ transplant, a decreased supply of donors desperate to earn cash or fooled into having a “necessary operation” and their organs are unknowingly removed or victims kidnapped and coerced to part with a body part.
    Darrell read through a series of these traumatic cases, like that of the British student found in a flat in Belgrade. At first Serbian authorities deemed the cause of death to be a heroin overdose, but it was later found out that his heart and pancreas had been extracted.
    Darrell also learned that the World Health Organization had estimated that around the world, every hour more than one illegal kidney operation takes place. More than one an hour! But surely this was more a problem in India, Pakistan, China, Brazil… not in England!
    Yet Darrell had read about how in 2012, it was revealed that a British crime firm had cunningly lured a woman to the UK to harvest her organs. Although it is not clear whether organs were stolen, it was allegedly the first case of human trafficking for the purpose of illegal organ harvesting ever reported in the UK.
    And now here is Paul Tucker, discovered in Darrell’s policing area, apparently robbed of his kidneys and liver. Had he been captured or duped? Or had he even willingly agreed to be a living donor, perhaps agreeing to give away just one of his kidneys in exchange for a hefty sum, but then exploited for more than he had consented to?
    Desperate financial times called for desperate measures. Likewise, greed could propagate horrific acts.
    When Darrell finally went to bed and cycled into REM sleep, he had some horrifically strange dreams. He could only recall snapshots: a corroded scalpel… a bloody sheet… a victim waking up during “surgery”… an innocent child coaxed to follow a stranger…
    So when Darrell woke up this morning, he was zonked. And when Darrell is exhausted, he can be quite giddy, or silly really, no matter the reason for being so tired. 
    Thus upon discovering Diane crouched beside the oak tree in Apple Mews’ green, Darrell’s first reaction is not of dismay, but of whimsy. He decides to crouch behind her to see how long it takes this sweet, older, but still spry woman to notice his presence.
    When Diane lunges forward and turns to face him, Darrell cracks up laughing with, surprisingly frolicsome enthusiasm. His laughter is so amusing that Diane cannot remain irritated from being so startled. She stands up laughing too, shaking her head in amusement.
    Again, they ask at the same time, “What are you doing here!?!”
    “It’s obvious why I’m here, isn’t it?” says Darrell, still chuckling. “I’m investigating a…”
    Darrell realizes he has almost said too