Lost Cause (A Daisy Dunlop Mystery ~ Book 1)

Chapter Forty

Daisy had showered half a dozen times, but she wasn't sure her skin would ever feel clean. Even the sharp disinfectant scent of the hospital corridor couldn't remove the tang of piss from her nostrils. She took a deep breath and stopped outside Solomon's room. She'd been grilled for hours before the police decided she had no involvement with the whole sick scheme. No one had told her what was going on, or thanked her for solving what was potentially a huge case. Dan had persuaded the bigwigs from London to forget about the gun, although it had been confiscated.

She shoved the door to Solomon's hospital room open and stepped inside. He grimaced. "Have you come to shoot me in the other arse cheek?"

She crossed the room, leaned her hip against his hospital bed, and smiled. "I guess you and Paul are even now. Besides, you deserved it after throwing piss all over me."

One corner of Solomon's mouth turned up in a smile and then he became serious. "Where is Paul?"

"Still at my mam's. I decided not to tell him about our little adventure yet."

"Why the feck not? It'll be in all the evening papers."

"It would ruin Sherman's trip to the football. Besides, I need to get it all clear in my head."

"What's to get clear? The charity was a front to launder money, but when the funds coming in slowed down Maroni came up with an idea to earn more income."

"How do you know all that?"

"Dan came to see me. He tells me you found the bodies in the freezer." Solomon reached out and took her hand in his.

She tugged it free. "Poor bastards. They thought they were getting involved in a scam to cover their gambling debts to Maroni and give money to charity. Instead of pretending to be dead, they were offed by Maroni. Why didn't they just kill them in the first place?"

"Maybe the dead guys started to have second thoughts. Wanted to turn themselves in."

Daisy frowned. "If their bodies are stuffed in the freezer who died in their place to begin with?"

"Apparently the bodies of the homeless men had something to do with it."

Daisy walked across the room and looked out the window. "The charity owns a property and yacht in the Canary Islands. I guess it would be easy enough to get homeless men to say yes to a free holiday and then make it look like they were someone else when they were killed. Doesn't explain why they were dumping bodies around here though."

"They were all set to become decoys for other potential victims. They started killing them off and dumping them when the scheme started to unravel. John wasn't involved, but he started to get suspicious when so many of the policies he'd sold resulted in large claims soon after they were signed up. If Jason had any sense he would have used more than one insurance company, but he thought John wouldn't do anything because they'd been at school together. Adrian Maroni is singing like a canary, terrified to go to jail, and terrified to stay out and face the wrath of his father. He figured if the dead men were ever identified no one would care as they were homeless. He was the one who put the arm in your car."

"Why?"

"A message for me. He knew the insurance company was investigating."

"And the explosion?"

"Jason, worried about us wanting to talk to Maureen. Toby found the tracking device and accused Jason of keeping tabs on him. Jason figured it was me. He saw me at the pub when he met Zut, apparently."

Daisy turned and looked at him. "The whole thing is horrible. I'm not sure Maureen will ever get over her uncle being murdered by her manager, or that her fiancé turned out to be an undercover cop and a missing lord."