Read Appeal Denied: A Cliff Hardy Novel for Free Online Page B

thanks. I’m a golf virgin and think I’ll stay that way. You looked good. What’s your handicap?’
    ‘Nine. Used to be four. Age adds the strokes. What’s on your mind, Cliff? Has to be Lily.’
    According to the signs, we were walking towards the first tee. I told him I was unsatisfied with the police investigation and was following up some lines of enquiry of my own. I said Lily had been working on some stories and I had drafts and notes and thought they might have a bearing on her murder.
    ‘Possibly,’ he said. ‘She was a goer. We both got death threats when we were working on an immigration scam story. How can I help you?’
    We reached the tee and sat down. A group of players were hitting and there were two other groups of four standing by. Arthur’s companions hadn’t yet arrived so I had time. A voice over the PA system told the next group to hit. I took my notebook from my pocket and showed him the list of initials that had been sprinkled through Lily’s notes.
    ‘Can you make any sense of these? Did Lily let you in on her codes when you were working together?’
    He nodded. ‘A bit. Let’s have a look.’
    I handed him the sheet and he scanned it. ‘Let’s see, yes—POW, that means police officer, don’t ask me why. BW stands for bureaucrat of some kind; SB means politician. I assume it stands for scumbag. I don’t recognise the others. Oh, yeah, VER indicates a clergyman.’
    ‘Rev, reversed.’
    ‘You got it.’
    The next group was called up. They completed their practice swings and lined up.
    ‘What about the initials, sometimes two, sometimes three or four. They have to be names, right?’
    ‘Yes, but she scrambled them just as it suited her. So that HJW could be John Winston Howard or William Henry Jones. She knew what she meant. That’s about as much as I can tell you.’
    I already knew about the scrambled name initials, but he was trying to be helpful and I thanked him.
    We sat in silence watching the next group hit off. Four players, two groans, two calls of ‘Great shot’ and they were away. I saw Arthur signal to a new arrival. I didn’t have him for much longer and I racked my brains to think if there was anything more to get from him.
    ‘I’m working on the theory that something Lily was currently working on led to her death,’ I said. ‘But you mentioned death threats in the past. Does anything strike you as a long-term possibility? Someone with a standing grievance?’
    ‘I’d have to think about that. We stepped on quite a few toes, Lily and I. A few people went to jail and there was at least one suicide. I’d have to get back to you after I refresh my memory at home.’
    He took a glove from his pocket, pulled it on and flexed his fingers. Another salute to a member of his group. I gave him my card with the mobile number and email address. He looked at it before putting it carefully in his shirt pocket.
    Arthur’s group was called up.
    ‘You lost your licence, didn’t you?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Thin ice.’
    ‘Don’t I know it.’
    He opened the seat on his buggy and took out a ball and other bits and pieces. I guessed this was what semi-retirement was all about—finding ways to fill in the days. For the first time I thought about Lily’s legacy in terms of the security it’d give me. I could probably retire, but, putting aside that I’d already been forcibly retired in theory, I didn’t fancy it. I didn’t play golf and I didn’t fish. You can only go to the gym so often, travel so much, read so many books, listen to so much music, see so many films.
    Arthur moved off and suddenly turned back. ‘Didn’t I see you talking to Lee Townsend at the wake?’
    I nodded.
    ‘What did you make of him?’
    ‘Hard to say.’
    ‘I wouldn’t trust that little prick as far as I could throw him, which would be a fair way in the right mood. I’ll be in touch.’

7
    T hat was a turn-up. I’d been thinking of taking my meagre evidence about Lily’s work to