The Lipstick Killers

telephone if you find anything out today?’
    ‘Of course.’
    She showed him to the front door, and then went back to Sharon and hugged her tightly. She could only imagine what Mahoney’s information would have done to her sister.

19
     
     
     
    ‘We need to talk,’ Margaret said to Sharon.
    ‘I can’t. Not now. I’m all confused. Monty was a good man. Who would do such a thing? Who would hurt our family like this?’ her sister wailed.
    ‘I know he was, love. And that’s why it’s so important we find out what happened.’ said Margaret.
    ‘Leave that to the police.’
    ‘I am police. Well, you know what I mean.’
    ‘No Mags. You’ll get into trouble.’
    ‘I already am, sis.’
    ‘This is tiring me out, I can’t think straight. I’m going upstairs to the kids. Try and get some sleep. I think I better take a pill.’
    ‘Good idea,’ said Margaret.
    Sharon walked out of the room, shoulders slumped, and Margaret felt such a wave of pity as she looked at her inconsolable sister that she almost cried herself. Pull yourself together, she said to herself. No need for you to break down too. But instead she went out to her car and found a book of maps in the boot. Almost redundant now that the Boxster was fitted with Sat-Nav. She looked up Lovedean in the map and found it just off the A3 near the coast. She nodded, dumped the book back and went looking for Frankie and Roxie. ‘Sharon’s upstairs with the kids,’ she said. ‘The news has knocked her right back. She’s going to try and sleep. Take a pill.’
    ‘I still don’t get it,’ said Frankie, her face a mask.
    ‘Me neither,’ said Margaret. ‘But I’ve got a clue.’
    ‘What have you found?’ said Roxie.
    ‘I found a card in Monty’s jacket for a hotel down south. Could be where he was that night.’
    ‘So I don’t get it?’ came Roxie again.
    ‘I’d like to know who he was with that night, and why? Because if he did have his car tampered with, that means our beloved brother-in-law was into some seriously dodgy shit and I intend to find out what it was.’
    ‘Did you tell that copper about the business card?’ Roxie asked.
    Margaret shook her head.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because he treated me like some twat without a brain. And because I wanted to do a little digging of my own first.’
    ‘But he’s old bill. I thought you lot stuck together.’
    ‘Strictly speaking I’m not one of “you lot” at the moment. Anyway, I’m going to take a run down there. Shouldn’t take more than an hour.’
    ‘Less, if I drive,’ said Roxie.
    ‘You want to come?’
    ‘Try and stop me. It’s a nice day. Get the roof down and away we go.’
    ‘Frankie?’ said Margaret.
    ‘No. I’ll stay here with Sharon. I’m too old for adventures. Anyway, if she takes a pill someone should be here if the kids wake up.’
    ‘Course,’ said Roxie. ‘Never thought of that.’
    ‘Just being an auntie,’ came the smug reply.
    ‘I’m one too.’
    ‘And you’ll have plenty of time to practise I hope. You two go. I think you’re mad, and it will end in tears, but I know I can’t stop you,’ said Frankie warningly.
    ‘It already has,’ said Margaret. ‘Come on Rox, if you’re coming. No time to waste.’

20
     
     
     
    Margaret went upstairs and got her jacket, and quickly popped her head in to check on Sharon and the children. All three were fast asleep in the double bed, and she crept away and down the stairs.
    Roxie meanwhile was wearing a sheepskin jacket that she’d found hanging in the hall. ‘She won’t mind me borrowing this I’m sure,’ she said as she slipped it on and admired herself in the mirror by the door. ‘They didn’t stint, did they,’ she said. This is five hundred quid’s worth if it’s a penny.’
    ‘Monty did well.’
    ‘Maybe he was doing too well,’ said Roxie. ‘If what you said was right.’
    Margaret just nodded in reply. She had her own ideas but didn’t want to share them just yet – not even with Roxie.
    They went out to Margaret’s car, and Roxie demanded the keys. ‘Are you sure?’ said Margaret.
    ‘Oh come on, you said I could,’ said Roxie, in the same cajoling tone that had always worked on the family when she was a little girl.
    Mags smiled to herself but said, ‘actually I didn’t, and you’re not insured.’
    ‘So we break a few laws. Where’s your sense of adventure girl?’
    ‘Sense of adventure or not, I’m still a copper.’
    ‘Who’s been suspended through no