Whispering Trees , livre ebook

Diamond Crime Books Ltd - Jacqueline Harrett

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138 pages

English

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Description

The unidentified body of a young man is found in Nant Fawr woods, Cardiff, giving DI Mandy Wilde and her team a big problem. There's only one clue - his expensive handmade shoes. But where is he from? Why has no one come forward to identify him? Then... a local boy disappears; a rash of burglaries breaks out and the pressure is on. Yet again, DI Wilde is fighting on all fronts. Not just the criminals and her boss, but even her fly-by-night twin sister. She needs every ounce of her famous off-beat thinking to create order from the chaos.

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Thriller

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Publié par	Diamond Crime Books Ltd
Date de parution	04 novembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781915649195
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Originally from Northern Ireland, Jacqueline Harrett has lived in Cardiff with her husband for over thirty years. Her two grown-up children also live in the capital city.

A multi-genre author, Jacqui has published non-fiction; Exciting Writing, (Sage), Tell me Another… (UKLA); children’s stories; and short stories in anthologies. She has co-authored a novel with Janet Laugharne, What Lies Between Them , (Dixi, 2022) as well as flash fiction and blog at www.jlharland.co.uk.

The Whispering Trees is the second novel in her DI Mandy Wilde detective series.

Jacqui has already started work on With Grave Consequences , the third Mandy Wilde book .
Published in Great Britain in 2022
By Diamond Crime

ISBN 978-1-915649-19-5

Copyright © 2022 Jacqueline Harrett

The right of Jacqueline Harrett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Diamond Crime is an imprint of Diamond Books Ltd.

Thanks to…
Steve, Phil and Jeff whose patience, hard work and good humour is much appreciated. Also, to the Diamond Crime team of authors.
Members of the Criminal Fairies: Linda, Gwyneth, Duncan and Jan for reading a very rough first draft and giving me constructive criticism.

Writers Enjoying Words for constant encouragement and interesting conversations.

The Welsh crime collective Crime Cymru who are an amazing group of friendly and supportive writers. I am delighted to be a member.

For all the lovely readers who left reviews for The Nesting Place ; a special thank you. Reviews are like gold for writers, more important than readers realise. I hope you enjoy Mandy’s latest adventure in The Whispering Trees .

Cover photo: Ebba Thoresson
https://ebbathoresson.se

Book cover design:
jacksonbone.co.uk

Also by Jacqueline Harrett:
The Nesting Place

And coming soon:
With Grave Consequences
The third D.I. Mandy Wilde Novel
To be published by

For information about Diamond Crime authors and their books, visit:
www.diamondbooks.co.uk

For Doug, Douglas and Felicity

The
Whispering
Trees

A D.I. Mandy Wilde Novel

JACQUELINE HARRETT

Chapter ONE

WEDNESDAY – CARDIFF CENTRAL POLICE STATION
DI Mandy Wilde sighed. She picked through the files on her desk. Tedium. What she needed was a good homicide. Her eyelids felt heavy and her throat dry. The summer in Cardiff had been a series of burglaries, drugs, domestic violence, mixed with a bit of fraud. Plenty to do but all routine. Nothing interesting. September had dragged and now it was the first week in October and the year was turning around. As if he’d read her thoughts, Superintendent Withers appeared, glowering.
“Wilde, get moving. Body found in Nant Fawr. Male. SOCOs have beaten you to it.”
“On my way, sir.” With a nod to DS Josh Jones, she grabbed her coat.
“Nant Fawr. What do we know?” Josh threw a nicotine mint into his mouth as they piled into Mandy’s Juke.
“Nothing much yet. Death in the woods though. Bodies beat burglaries any day.” Mandy started the car.
“You been told you’re weird?”
“All the time, especially by Withers.”
Josh smiled. “If you will nick his friends...”
“How did I know the bloody guy was a golfing chum? Fair play, Withering sticks with the law regardless. Besides the idiot deserved what he got. The poor woman was shit scared.” She grinned at him as they sped past Roath Park Lake. “Which end of the Nant Fawr corridor?”
Josh checked the map on his phone. “I think if you park along Rhydypennau Road we can walk from there. Nice little coffee shop close by too. We can pick up lunch after.”
Mandy glanced at him. “Do you ever think of anything other than food? Maybe a dead body will put you off. Depends how long it’s been there.”
“Not long, I wouldn’t think. Popular area. Bet you a fiver it’s a dog-walker found the body.”
“Ha, no way. It’s either a bloody dog-walker or a runner.”
There was nowhere to park near the entrance to the woods. “Shit. How many vans do they need for one body? I’m going up on the pavement. Stick a sign in the window in case we get a ticket. Withers would love that.” Mandy laughed. “It’ll be muddy there. Glad I invested in a new pair of wellies.” She reached round behind the driver’s seat and pulled out pillar box red wellington boots.
“Paddington Bear.” Josh snorted.
“Well, at least I won’t have to get my nice suede shoes dirty, will I?”
Josh glanced down at his feet and groaned. “They’ll be for the knacker’s yard by the time we get finished here. Lisa will kill me. I only had them last week.”
They pushed their way through a small crowd gathered on the pavement. At almost six feet, Mandy had the advantage of being able to see over the heads of most of the rubberneckers. A uniformed officer, arms crossed, stood blocking the way into the wooded area. Mandy waved her badge at him.
“Which way?”
“Straight ahead, Ma’am. Over the bridge. You’ll soon see them.”
The trees were showing the first hints of autumn. Crimson, ochre, cinnamon and paprika leaves peppered the branches and the ground underneath. The wind whispered through the branches, rustling as it picked up speed. A storm was coming. The crunching of acorns disturbed a squirrel which scrambled up a tree and peered down at them, wary and suspicious. As they moved away from the pathway the ground became spongey underfoot. The smell was damp, rotten, ominous. The sky darkened and the rain started, drops pattering at first and then more persistent, drumming into the stream which bubbled away in the background. Mandy pulled her hood up. Her hair was frizzy enough without getting it wet. Josh yanked at his collar and shivered as a sudden gust of wind whipped around his neck.
They approached the SOCOs behind the cordoned off area. “Who found him?”
An officer pointed to a group of three lads clustered together a little way from the scene. Another uniformed officer was standing with them.
Mandy looked at Josh. “I should have taken your bet. It looks as though we were both wrong. Sneaking out of school for a quick fag and they find a stiff. Serves them right.”
The body could be seen, chest downwards, sprawled across the undergrowth. Dark hair and skin the colour of bleached wood. His face was turned to the side, eyes and mouth open. The left arm was pinned underneath the body while the other stretched out above the head. Rishi, the pathologist, was there.
“Nice start to a Wednesday, Rishi. Got to keep you busy.”
Rishi nodded.
“What you think? First impressions.” A hint of impatience.
He glanced over at her, taking in the bright red wellies, almost smiled, held the look just long enough. “Male. Twenties. No sign of attack. Let’s turn him over.” One of the SOCOs helped and Rishi continued with his examination. He gestured for Mandy and Josh to approach. Putting on protective foot covers they moved closer. Not close enough to contaminate the scene but where they were able to view the body more clearly.
“I won’t know what killed him until I do the post-mortem. Nothing to suggest what happened. There’s a bruise here on his forehead. It seems consistent with him hitting the ground. No marks on the back of the head, no stab wounds, defence wounds or anything else.”
“ID? Do we know who he is?”
Rishi checked the pockets. “Well, you can rule out robbery.” He handed over a roll of notes tied with an elastic band. “Looks like a lot there. Nothing else on the body.”
“You’re right. I reckon at least a grand, could be more. Pity it’s evidence as it would give the missus a nice treat, eh?” She winked at him. “Or send the mother-in-law away for a week’s holiday.”
“Indeed. Somewhere far away with no telephone. I have constant earache from her.”
“She doesn’t appreciate your talents like we do, Rishi.” Mandy glanced around the area. “Not much evidence of a scuffle either. A few footprints. I suppose those belong to the lads who found him. He’s not far from the stream here. Josh, go and ask them to widen the search. See if anything was dropped. Mobile phone, wallet. Maybe he was chased, fell and hit his head. And tell those lads we’ll want a word.”
Mandy studied the body. The victim looked young, late twenties as Rishi said, and well-dressed in a rust-coloured woollen overcoat, smart trousers in dark grey and brown brogues. The soles were barely worn. New perhaps. How the hell had he ended up dead and, more to the point, who was he?
Josh returned. “They’ve cordoned off this part of the woods. We’ll need a bigger team to comb the area.”
“And we’ll want a door to door on those houses,” she pointed to a row of houses whose gardens overlooked the woods, “plus any close to the entrances. We’ll get a photo of the victim. Send it over to the tech boys. They can tidy it up. Remove the bruise and stuff.” She bit her lip. “Get a team out here. Find out if anyone recognises him, or if they’ve seen or heard anything suspicious. And a couple of uniforms out in the morning asking any regular users the same questions. And keep the bloody press away. We don’t need them tramping over stuff and making wild assumptions.”
“Good point.”
“Right. Let’s see what see no, hear no, and speak no have to say for themselves.” She indicated the boys with a nod of her head.

Chapter TWO

The three lads were standing, out