Three Little Maids(61)

‘You can’t keep a good thing to yourself, sir. How about letting us females have a look in?’

‘I’m surprised at you, Sherwood. You wouldn’t appreciate it.’ Kent held up his hand and the noise ceased. ‘The strong overwhelming motive there is her sex life. A nymphomaniac in the making. She had more men sniffing around her probably than we are aware of as yet. Till we shake them out of the woodwork.

‘We know that Maureen made a strong play for Tom Berkley and his son Michael too. The kid wasn’t having any. He’d got more common than his old man. Roger Welbeck didn’t want his missus to know that Maureen tried it on with him.

‘But she did. Maureen made sure of that. He had good reason for not wanting to lose her. A brave, lovely, woman well worth hanging onto. And he still feels guilty for causing the accident which crippled her. He wouldn’t want to bust up his marriage for a little trollop like Maureen. He might have been good and mad, angry enough to killing in a fit of temper. If pressed too hard.

‘So then there’s Aiden Ludlam. Let’s try putting him into the frame, shall we? He admits to cheating on his wife only when his car got pinched from a place it shouldn’t be. Outside Miss Frances’s Leach’s house. And his lady friend can give him an alibi for all three killings.’

‘Raymond Perkins, guv. He’s been associated with all three girls. Has he got alibis for all three killings?’

‘He was in the Nag’s Head before the first two took place,’ Turner said. ‘We have only his say so that he walked around the town in a moody when Maureen was killed. They’d been an item till she said she was seeing someone else. And the same goes for Saturday when Yvette met the same fate. He flirted with her over the bar counter. She did with all the men. I can’t see her going out with Raymond. She gave him the bum’s rush. He’s got no money for a start. And she was too keen on cashing in on Berkley. He could have been jealous.’

‘So what about Jodie, guv?’ Sherwood asked from the back of the room. ‘How well did he actually know her?’

‘She was a friend of a couple of days standing. He was actually with Jodie most of the evening before she was done away with. They were seen together at the firework show then he had a call of nature. She was nervous and according to him she just ‘buggered off.’

‘And as for transport we have discovered that according to Susan Flitch, Raymond used the Carey’s old van from the Funeral parlour to take Maureen out in. Carey allowed Raymond the use of it occasionally. I had a word with Jack Stewart, driver of the hearse, over a pint in the Nag’s Head. Carey has a soft spot for the boy,’ Turner chipped in. ‘Raymond has quite a presence at funeral with those pale soulful looks of his. And he had a talent for making the dear departed look good for their loved ones. So it seems Carey was encouraging and grooming the lad up the ladder in the funeral business.

‘So he could have been making use of the van on the nights Yvette and Jodie were killed. He could have strangled them in the back and then dumped them afterwards.’

‘Thank you, Turner.’

‘What about Carey, the undertaker?’

‘What about him, DC Gearing?’

‘Well, I’ve met him. He strikes me as a grim dour person. Maybe…’ The red-haired young detective looked earnestly around at the interested faces now turned towards her. ‘He might have been abusing his daughter. Maureen was very sexually aware, wasn’t she? He might have introduced her to sex from an early age. And she could have threatened to expose him. How about that? It would have been curtains for him in this small town. For his business and his marriage.’

Murmurs around the room didn’t disagree and with this encouragement she carried on. ‘So he could have picked out the other two victims to cover his tracks and his motive. He could have known about Berkley’s assignations and blackmail by Yvette, and Jodie’s homeless problems from Mrs Perkins, his wife’s cleaner. She picks up tit-bits of information like she does her varied health problems. She could well have gossiped about the girl and the need for a bed at the hostel. Perhaps he thought they were expendable.’

‘Thank you, Gearing. But I think you will find that his wife can give him an alibi for the night that Maureen was killed. And more than likely for the other nights too.’

‘His wife. Exactly! She would want to protect and cover up for him,’ Gearing retorted and sat with her arms folded.

‘Could be a sexual pervert getting his kicks at the seaside, away from town. Away from his usual haunts. He might have done something like this up North. And buggered off by now. And checking on single men on the razzle-dazzle down here is an impossibility with no DNA to go on. And like I said, he could have left by now,’ Detective Lilly said cheerfully accompanied by agonized groans around him.