Dead Level (The DI Nick Dixon Crime Series Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

turned to look at Dixon and sighed.
    ‘Tom Perry’s pregnant wife.’

Chapter Three
    I t was still dark when Jane turned into the staff car park at Express Park in her brand new red VW Golf. The insurance company had been surprisingly generous with the settlement on her old one and a loan had topped it up. Still, she could afford it, or at least she would be able to now that she had found a tenant for her flat.
    She waved her pass in front of the sensor and looked up at the station while she waited for the huge steel gates to open. All concrete and glass, Nick had said, and he was right. Lights were on everywhere and most of the workstations on the first floor, visible through the vast windows, were occupied. She recognised Detective Constables Dave Harding and Mark Pearce sitting at computers. And the unmistakeable figure of Detective Sergeant Harry Unwin, standing with his back to the windows, a mug of coffee in his hand .
    She remembered Dixon pinning Harry by the throat to the vending machine in the CID Room at the old Bridgwater Police Station only a few short weeks ago. Harry was not to be trusted, if Dixon was right. And he usually was.
    Jane closed her eyes.
    Please don’t let me be teamed up with Harry.
    The open plan CID area was all but deserted by the time Jane arrived on the first floor. She spotted a bald head behind a computer screen on the far side of the workstations.
    ‘Where is everyone?’
    ‘Meeting room two.’
    Jane sighed. Gone were the days of crowding around the whiteboard in the CID Room.
    Nick will hate it .
    She opened the door, crept in and sat down on an empty chair between Dave Harding and newly appointed DI Janice Courtenay.
    ‘Glad you could make it, Jane,’ said DCI Lewis.
    ‘Thank you, Sir.’
    Jane glanced across at Janice. They had worked together some years before when they had both been detective constables, Janice having been more aggressive in her pursuit of promotion since then . Their paths had crossed again more recently, when Janice had shared an office with Dixon at the old Bridgwater Police Station.
    It would be her first murder as senior investigating officer and Janice looked nervous. Not a good start. Jane looked around the table and wondered whether anyone else had spotted it.
    ‘Elizabeth Perry. Multiple stab wounds. Found by the milkman just before six this morning. That’s about as far as we’d got. All right?’ said DCI Lewis.
    ‘Yes, Sir,’ replied Jane, trying to shrug off all thoughts of deep ends and sinking or swimming.
    ‘Scientific Services are on scene,’ continued Lewis. ‘Did someone get the pathologist out of bed?’
    ‘Roger Poland is on his way over there now, Sir,’ said Janice.
    ‘Good.’
    ‘What about the husband?’ asked Dave Harding.
    ‘Thomas Perry. He’s the parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party and, as we know, we’re right in the middle of a by-election .’
    ‘Surely that’ll be called off now?’
    ‘I doubt it. Nominations haven’t closed yet. He may stand down, in which case the Tories will have to select another candidate, but the election will go ahead.’
    ‘Seems a bit harsh,’ said Pearce.
    ‘And having your wife murdered isn’t, I suppose,’ said Janice.
    ‘No, I meant . . .’
    ‘We know what you meant, Mark,’ said Lewis. ‘The fact is that’s incidental as far as we’re concerned.’
    ‘Yes, Sir.’
    ‘Unless it becomes relevant to the investigation, of course. And keep your politics to yourselves. A woman’s been murdered and no one’s interested in how you vote. All right?’
    ‘Where is he?’ asked Janice.
    ‘London. He was working yesterday and driving down this morning, apparently. I’ve been on to the Met and someone from family liaison is with him now. He’ll be brought straight here later today. As soon as he’s fit to travel, that is.’
    ‘Was he on his own last night?’ asked Harding.
    ‘To be confirmed,’ replied Lewis. ‘I know where you’re going with