慛either of those things is exactly suspicious,?says Nelson. Tanya is tempted to disagree. She thinks churches and libraries are both rather creepy.
慦hat about the locked room??says Nelson. 慉ny theories about that??
Tanya decides it抯 time she spoke. 慣he cleaner, Tina Prentice, said that the door was locked from the outside,?she says, 憈hough she did say that, afterwards, she wondered if she抎 been mistaken. It was one of those old-fashioned keys. It抯 possible Avril could have manipulated it from the inside.?
慦e抣l see what SOCO have to say,?says Nelson. 慉t the least they抣l be able to tell us if anyone other than Avril and the cleaner touched the door. We should talk to the libraries and the churches. See if the women had any acquaintances in common. Judy, you抮e in charge but keep it low key. The other cases might well be suicide, but Avril Flowers is different. If the room was locked from the outside that points to homicide.?
慖t抯 a locked room mystery,?says Tony. 慙ike in the books.?
慛othing,?says Nelson, 慽s like it is in the books.?
Chapter 12
The post-mortem results show that that Avril Flowers, like Samantha Wilson, died from 憆espiratory failure due to chemical overdose? The scene-of-crime report comes in the next day. The most interesting finding, as far as the team is concerned, is the presence of a third set of fingerprints ?besides Avril抯 and Tina抯 ?on the handle and key of Avril抯 bedroom door.
慡o someone did lock her in,?says Tony. He seems fascinated by the case. Judy is finding it rather trying although she tells herself that being keen is not a crime. She was the keen youngster herself once.
慣here was no sign of a struggle,?says Judy, scrolling through the report on her laptop. 慉vril was lying peacefully on her bed.?
慖t抯 a bungalow,?says Tanya. 慉vril could have locked the door and climbed in through the window. It would have been easy with the veranda running all the way round the house.?
Tanya really is obsessed with that veranda, thinks Judy.
慦hy would she do that??she says. 慖f Avril was going to commit suicide, why bother to make it look suspicious? And who did the third set of prints belong to??
慣hey don抰 belong to anyone on our database,?says Nelson. 慣hat抯 all we know. We need to talk to more of Avril抯 friends and acquaintances. Judy, did you say she worked part time in the local library??
慪es,?says Judy. 慖抳e got an appointment to see the librarian this morning. Avril was a regular churchgoer too. I抦 seeing the vicar this afternoon.?
慓ood work,?says Nelson. 慣ake young Tony with you as he seems to like locked room mysteries so much. Tanya, can you organise some door-to-door? Someone might have seen a stranger hanging around. It抯 a nice area. There might even be CCTV.?
慣he average house price is ?75,000,?says Tanya.
Hunstanton Library is a low, modern building in a residential area. It抯 nothing like the solid Carnegie-built library in King抯 Lynn that Judy remembers from her school days. It looks more like a doctor抯 surgery or a primary school.
慖 used to love visiting the library when I was a kid,?says Tony. 慚y mum took us after school on a Thursday. I remember, when you were ten, you got a green library card which meant you could get six books instead of just three. It seemed the most exciting thing ever.?
Tony always keeps up a steady flow of chat, unless specifically requested to shut up. It抯 like wading in his stream of consciousness. Judy knows that Tony was brought up in London and came to Norfolk to attend university. His parents are first-generation Chinese immigrants and he has a brother, Mike, who抯 a junior doctor. Tony once told her that he had a sister who died of meningitis as a child, but Lily rarely features in the reminiscences.
慚y parents weren抰 big readers,?says Judy. 慖 can抰 remember them ever taking us to the library. I went with the school though.?
慚y parents read in Chinese,?says Tony. 慦e used to go to Charing Cross Library on Saturday mornings because they had a big Chinese books collection. Sometimes we抎 go to the cinema afterwards.?