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

of any denomination.’
    ‘Try and set religion and republicanism aside for the duration of this case,’ Trevor pleaded.
    ‘And look at what we’ve got? Family ties? Kacy’s “Mum” and “Dad” made excuses for her and wooden George’s snobbery towards them. And Mark Jenkins hated her with something more than your usual brotherly animosity.’ Peter glanced across the wasteland of scrap metal to next-door’s garden which was even more rubbish-strewn than the one they were standing in. A car was propped up on jacks and Mark Jenkins was fighting to remove the wheel-nuts.

CHAPTER NINE
     
    Trevor walked down the path and out through where there might have once been a gate, given the evidence of rusting posts. There weren’t even remnants of posts separating the jungle of weeds and rusting islands of metal that was Mark Jenkins’s garden from the pavement.
    Mark didn’t look up when Trevor approached but he inclined his head towards his parents’ house. ‘I suppose he’s staying on there.’
    ‘If you’re referring to your brother-in-law, George Howells, he did say we could contact him there for the next week or two,’ Trevor answered.
    ‘He’s got a home all bought and paid for with his mum and dad’s graft, not his, and from the way Kacy and him used to talk about it, you’d think it was a bloody mansion, so why doesn’t he go there?’
    ‘Because we are still working there. Our forensic teams,’ Trevor explained in answer to Mark’s quizzical look.
    ‘He’s always boasting about how much money he’s got. Why doesn’t he go to a hotel?’
    ‘Perhaps he thinks the children will be better off with your mother for a while.’
    ‘Kacy’s kids are better off around Mum. Kacy never wanted either of them. God knows why she didn’t abort them; she didn’t have a single maternal bone in her body. As for George, he’ll do anything to live life on the cheap. Christ knows how much he earns but I’m betting he won’t give Mum a pound coin to help her feed him and those kids while they stay with her.’
    Trevor opened the file he was carrying and removed the magazine. ‘I’d like you to look at this Mr Jenkins. I showed it to George and your parents. It upset them, but given that the magazine was published in paper and internet form three days before your sister was killed, it’s one of the leads we are following.’
    George turned his head and looked at it but made no attempt to take it from Trevor. ‘Big sister finally showed her true colours.’
    ‘True colours?’ Peter repeated.
    ‘She always played the Sunday School girl around Mum and Dad. Even went to Dad’s Bible-thumping chapel with them twice every Sunday until she left home. But I knew what she was really like. Couldn’t escape it. I used to get teased about her mercilessly. Knickerless Kacy they used to call her when she was in the sixth form. In the civil service it was No knickers Kacy. Into all sorts by all accounts, but I only know what people told me in the pub. It wasn’t the sort of thing she would discuss with me or my Missus.’
    ‘Do you understand the reference to “Cheese on Toast”?’ Trevor asked.
    ‘Course. But I never heard that Kacy and George were into wife-swapping. I wouldn’t put it past her, but George?’ Mark turned back to his wheel nuts. ‘Face it; I can’t imagine any woman being thrilled with the thought of swapping her old man for him.’
    ‘You don’t like him?’
    ‘I don’t like his stinginess with money, his sponging off my parents, the way he and Kacy used to dump the kids on Mum whenever it suited them, but most of all I hate the way he echoed everything Kacy said. First time I met him I thought he was gay and wet. I couldn’t make out what he thought about anything, then I realised that before he hooked up with Kacy he was a blank slate. He didn’t have a personality. After they married he adopted hers. Kacy always was into exhibitionism, but I couldn’t tell you if George