A Well-deserved Murder (Trevor Joseph Detective series) by Katherine John Page A

on it. How dare you! Isn’t it bad enough that she’s been murdered in cold blood without someone murdering her reputation as well? This is worse than having an axe in her head. It strikes at the very core of her being – the way people will remember her …’
    ‘God protects the innocent,’ Mr Jenkins chanted the phrase automatically and Trevor sensed that he hadn’t considered the meaning of what he’d said in relation to his daughter’s murder.
    ‘God didn’t protect Kacy from whoever murdered her.’ Even angry and bitter, Mrs Jenkins’s voice was soft. Trevor marked her as a mild-mannered woman who had been taught subservience at an early age and never thought to question it.
    ‘There’s more to heaven and earth than we know. This life is short, the after-life is for all eternity …’
    ‘Please,’ Mrs Jenkins begged, ‘No bible quotes. Not today. Our daughter is dead. Do you know what that means, Dad? Kacy is dead. We’ll never see her again. Never ever …’Mrs Jenkins gulped in air before succumbing to hysteria. Her husband slipped his arms around her shoulders.
    ‘Of course we’ll see her again, Mum. And when we do she will be cleansed of sin and cloaked in glory.’
    George Howells rose to his feet. ‘Inspector, Sergeant. Please leave.’
    Trevor retrieved the magazine and returned the photographs of the sex aids to his folder. He hadn’t had time to show them to Kacy’s parents.
    ‘I told you not to give that magazine to Kacy’s parents,’ George reproached them as he escorted Trevor and Peter to the front door.
    ‘Would you like us to stop investigating your wife’s murder, Mr Howells?’ Peter challenged.
    George flushed. ‘No.’
    ‘Then, help us to do our job. Investigating a murder means investigating the victim’s life.’ Trevor stood back while George opened the front door.
    ‘That magazine has nothing to do with Kacy’s life,’ George insisted.
    ‘That advertisement has everything to do with Kacy’s life.’ Trevor followed Peter out into what passed for a garden. ‘Someone placed that advert, Mr Howells. Someone with access to a computer, Kacy’s photograph, and a current credit card in her name. Whoever it was – and we haven’t discounted the possibility that it was your wife – they had enough acumen to make it look as though the advert was e-mailed from abroad. If that someone wasn’t Kacy Howells we need to find out who they are and why they targeted her. If our methods distress you, please try to remember our priority is the apprehension of a murderer before he strikes again.’
    ‘If you need me or my parents-in-law, we will be here for the next week or two, Inspector.’ George closed the front door on them.
    ‘Even allowing for his wife’s murder, that bloke’s got an attitude problem. And that was a waste of a morning, Joseph,’ Peter complained.
    ‘Not entirely,’ Trevor countered. ‘We now know that Kacy Howells didn’t like her family visiting her in her leafy suburban paradise, probably because, as her brother believed, she was a snob who was ashamed of her origins. We also know her parents made excuses for her attitude towards them. And, my instinct tells me that we need to thoroughly check out her father’s alibi.’
    ‘Not much of a family man if he prefers chapel elders’ meetings and painting the chapel hall to an outing with his grandchildren.’
    ‘You noticed he didn’t comment on Kacy’s photograph in the magazine?’ Trevor questioned.
    ‘I did.’
    ‘He couldn’t take his eyes off it but he didn’t look shocked.’
    ‘Almost as if he had seen it before,’ Peter agreed. ‘I’ve never trusted people who call themselves “Mum” and “Dad” once they have kids. Or tell me that the next time they’re going to see their murdered loved ones they will be “cleansed of sin and covered in glory”.’
    ‘It was cloaked in glory and you’re suspicious of all religion.’
    ‘Too damned right, I am. And religious nuts