Deadly Chains

By Sheila Kendall

Two bodies, both discovered under the same motorway bridge. Did they jump, or were they pushed—and why?

Sally Jenkins enjoys a quiet life, keeping well out of all the office drama at Millers. But the discovery of a body under a footbridge on the ring road drops her world into chaos, as Detective Inspector Brian Simpson and Detective Sergeant Mike Bell come calling.

As the bodies start to mount up, Sally can’t help but wonder if there’s something more to this mystery, and if the killer is as close to home as she fears.

Can the police connect the deadly chains of events, sparked by a selfless act at Millers twenty-three years ago, before the killer strikes again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786451293

Sheila Kendall

I was born and bred in Yorkshire, close to the Dales, and now live in Leeds. I am married and have two sons and a soon-to-be daughter-in-law.I’ve been writing for most of my life. It’s what keeps me sane, although I have to admit it isn’t always easy, helped as I invariably am by our two gangster cats, aptly named Bonnie and Clyde.Most of my inspiration comes from life, although not necessarily mine. I’m well past the heroine stage now! Like many other writers, one of my favourite pastimes is people watching, so, if you ever see a strange woman sitting scribbling in a café, beware! It could be me...

Book preview

Chapter One

Gloria Jennings hadn’t got to where she was in her career by not keeping firm control of her working life, and as trading manager, she didn’t miss much where her staff were concerned. Consequently, it came as no surprise to Sally Jenkins when she saw Gloria approaching at her usual brisk, no-nonsense pace to enquire where Claire Soames was on that fateful morning when life changed forever at Millers.

Sally, like everyone in the office, knew there was no love lost between Gloria and Claire. Both women spent their days bending over backwards for Peter Sykes’ attention, but Gloria, as trading manager, would always have the upper hand over Claire in that particular power struggle. After all, Claire was only his admin assistant, whereas Gloria was his boss. Sally had little time or patience for either of them. She’d worked for Peter briefly in the past and knew exactly what he was like; there was no way she’d have allowed herself to be manipulated into taking the blame for all his mistakes. But, then again, she was happily married with her own family, not single and lonely like Claire.

It hadn’t taken Peter long to work his charms, such as they were, on Claire, convincing her that he was in love with her—that he would leave his wife and children for her—and Claire sadly believed every word of it. Sally had shaken her head when the woman had told her, and pointed out that he was probably making exactly the same promises to Gloria, but Claire was adamant. Peter loved her. He was only keeping on the right side of Gloria for the sake of his job; there was nothing going on there. It was a volatile situation that Sally wanted no part of. And yet, this morning, she was about to be pulled into the battle between the two women once again. It was becoming an all too familiar situation.

Where’s Claire? Gloria asked sharply.

Sally shrugged. I’ve no idea. I don’t think she’s in yet.

Has she rung in?

Not that I know of. Peter isn’t here yet either, so she’d have had to ring you, wouldn’t she? Sally replied innocently.

Gloria’s face darkened, and Sally hid a little smile of triumph. She knew full well that the trading manager would think the worst—that Peter was with her perceived love rival somewhere—and it was an undeniably satisfying feeling to knock her nose out of joint sometimes.

Tell her I want to see her when she deigns to come in, she snapped, walking away without waiting for an answer, legs and cleavage suitably displayed, no doubt for the sadly absent Peter’s benefit, to say nothing of the other men in the office.

Sally sat and shook her head. Not for the first time, she was grateful that she’d managed to move away from Peter fairly quickly after he arrived. He needed someone to support him take the rap for all his mistakes, and she, for one, was totally immune to his charms; she found his attempts at flirtation obnoxious. He might have been tall, and even reasonably good looking, but that did nothing for her. Not while she had her Simon at home.

***

Peter drummed his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as he sat in the stationary traffic on the ring road. It was ridiculous. Surely the police could get the traffic moving again, even if it was a bad accident that had closed the road. It was rush hour; they must have known they couldn’t cordon an entire road off at that time of day. Irritably, he turned the radio on and, sure enough, the traffic news told him there’d been a police incident on the ring road and alternative routes should be used. Muttering that he already knew that, he manoeuvred the car into a U-turn and resigned himself to a trip round the houses to get to work.

Inconsiderate, that’s what it was—especially if someone else had decided to jump off the notorious footbridge that crossed the road. Wasn’t that what they usually meant by a police incident, rather than an accident? Why did people have to commit suicide anyway? Nothing was ever bad enough to warrant that in his opinion.

By the time he walked into the office, he was thoroughly fed up and certainly wasn’t prepared for Gloria’s snapped request that he join her in her office before he could even take his coat off.

Where’s your admin assistant? she asked.

At her desk, I hope, seeing as I’m a bit late, thanks to traffic problems, he replied as calmly as he could manage.

So she wasn’t with you then?

Why would she be with me, Gloria? he mocked with a smug smile. Not getting a bit insecure, are you?

Of course not. But I won’t stand for this, Peter. She hasn’t rung in, and there’s no sign of her. When she does arrive she’ll be on a final warning…

All right, calm down. Do you want me to tell her that?

No. Send her in to see me when she eventually puts in an appearance.

He nodded, knowing how much Gloria was going to enjoy putting Claire on that final warning. He briefly felt some sympathy for her then pushed it away. Claire had served her purpose; he was quite safe now, thanks to Gloria. It wouldn’t bother him in the slightest if Claire was fired; if anything, it would make life easier for him. He could do without her always wittering at him, making cow eyes, asking when they were going to be together, when he was going to abandon his family for her. Something which he had no intention whatsoever of doing.

***

Brian Simpson sighed. He stood with his detective sergeant and surveyed the chaos this latest suicide had caused on the ring road. He was getting too old for this. He felt every one of his fifty-six years as he stood and looked at the body of a woman who hadn’t felt able, for whatever reason, to carry on with her life. She had been allowed to slip through the system with no help from anybody, no support to help rid her of whatever demons had troubled her. It was such a flaming waste.

Pity they can’t do this in the middle of the night, when the road’s quiet, Mike Bell, his colleague, opined.

Don’t be flippant, lad. It’s someone’s life we’re dealing with here. Someone who just couldn’t carry on anymore. I doubt she was thinking about not causing any inconvenience for people when she did this.

Mike shrugged but didn’t apologise.

He was used to Brian’s feelings by now, but he wasn’t going to silence his own thoughts just because Brian was his superior. That wasn’t the sort of relationship the two men had.

Right, then. What have we got? Brian asked Henry Jones—the pathologist—pushing his own feelings aside.

Woman, mid to late forties. No ID, no rings; so far as I can tell no trauma other than that caused when she hit the tarmac. Open and shut case, I reckon.

Except we need to know who she is and why she did this, Brian added sharply.

That’s not my job, I’m afraid. I’ll have a full report for you by the end of the day.

Thanks, Henry. Come on, Mike, let’s take a look up on the footbridge.

They knew exactly what they were searching for up there. They hadn’t had a case yet without some sort of lead as to where someone had come from, a clue they’d left to point the investigators in the direction of who or what had led them to do it; nobody took their own life without having a reason, no matter how flimsy it appeared to others.

Brian sighed again and shook his head as he surveyed the detritus on the footbridge. How the hell were they going to find anything up there amongst the McDonalds cartons, cans and rather more suspicious looking objects that he had no intention of grovelling through?

We need gloves for this, Sir, Mike pointed out and Brian nodded absently, walking towards the railings at the side, unhooking the lanyard which had a name badge hanging from it.

Does this look like our victim to you? Brian asked.

Mike looked at the picture on the pass and nodded. Close as we’re going to get.

Bit deliberate the way it had been left for us to find, Brian mused. I reckon our answers lie somewhere at Millers, don’t you?

They’re the big supermarket chain, aren’t they?

Mm. And their head office, where this comes from, isn’t far from here. Come on, let’s leave uniform to clear this lot up. We need to pay a visit to Millers.

***

There was a slight stir of interest behind the reception desk as Brian and Mike showed their IDs and asked to speak to someone in the HR department. The receptionist would have loved to ask them what it was about but she didn’t dare, with her supervisor hovering behind her, when she had already received a warning about not being professional enough where visitors were concerned.

Is it to do with a member of staff? she asked instead, thinking she could at least get away with that, and Brian looked at her levelly.

It’s just a general enquiry at this stage. If you could ask someone to come and see us, please.

He obviously wasn’t going to say any more and she picked the phone up, looking slightly disgruntled.

If you would like to take a seat, gentlemen, someone will be out to see you shortly, her supervisor said with a smooth smile.

Do you have a meeting room? I’d rather speak to that someone in private, if you don’t mind.

Of course. I’ll sort that out for you.

They’re all booked out, the girl protested immediately.

"Then we’ll have to shuffle things around, won’t we,