No Questions Asked Read Online Free Page B

to why I’m actually here, Angela’ said Martha, sternly. ‘We’re both busy women after all’.
     
    ‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you for coming’ said Jeff as he opened the press conference. ‘First of all I’d like to introduce my colleagues. On my left is Chief Superintendent Geraldine Chambers, on my right is Detective Inspector Rebecca Stockton and on her left is WPC Gemma Fletcher who’s been appointed as family liaison officer to Lucy Thompson, mother of the murder victim. May I ask you to listen to my briefing and then I’ll take questions’.
    The room was filled out with representatives of the local and national media covering print, television, and online news organizations. Jeff recognized some of the faces but many of the others were new to him. Whenever a police officer had to investigate a crime against someone he was familiar with it was always tough and it had been an emotional couple of days since Bradley Thompson’s body had been found in the woods near Jeff’s house. His son Toby was still in a distressed state after having found the body and Jeff was keeping him off school for as long as it took for him to settle again. At only six years old Jeff didn’t let Toby go out on his own anyway but everyone in the neighbourhood was being especially vigilant when it came to their children’s safety. At least Bradley had not been sexually assaulted according to the pathologist June Hawkins. That had been some comfort to his mother.
    Jeff’s live-in Nanny and housekeeper Brendan was taking good care of Toby and Jeff’s sister Annabel was there for him too. Annabel was also spending a lot of time with Bradley’s mother Lucy whom she’d befriended at the barbecue before the devastating news had broken. The poor woman had been ostracized by the rest of the neighbours who hadn’t exactly been overflowing with wishes of condolence and promises of help. She never had been accepted into the ‘in’ circle before this happened but Jeff had thought that they might relent given the circumstances and try and reach out to her. Sadly that wasn’t to be and he’d been disappointed by the callousness shown by people who he thought would be bigger than that.
    ‘Bradley Thompson was eleven years old’ Jeff went on. ‘He was an average student at the local comprehensive school but he was a popular boy and had his whole future ahead of him. He could’ve done anything or gone anywhere but all those dreams have now been cruelly taken away from him. Our pathologist June Hawkins has confirmed that Bradley was strangled. It didn’t appear like anything such as a scarf was used in the strangulation. It’s more or less certain that the killer used their glove covered hands. His body was found only a short distance from the main road, just inside Mile End Woods which is used extensively by the local community as a short cut from Mile End Park through to the residential area where Bradley lived. Bradley’s body was found just after two o’clock on Sunday afternoon, by my six year-old son I might add who was a mate of Bradley’s, but we know that he left the home of his friend Luke Brown, just two miles away, to catch the bus home at midday. Luke’s father couldn’t give him the usual lift home because his car had broken down. Luke’s mother saw Bradley onto the bus and never thought he’d come to any harm’.
    Rebecca stood up and stepped over to where a map of the local area had been pinned to a mobile notice board on the left hand side of the room. As Jeff spoke she followed the route he was describing with her hand. 
    ‘The CCTV camera on the bus shows him getting off at the stop at the end of Central Lane at 12.14’ Jeff went on. ‘It was a five minute walk through Mile End Woods from there to his home on Fairview Drive number sixteen. Now within that small area, that short distance, a killer or killers were able to bring Bradley’s short life to a horrible end. There must’ve been