Read Dead Money (A Detective Inspector Paul Amos Lincolnshire Mystery) for Free Online

pathologist picked up the thread, "he had had a couple of heart attacks, one major, one minor. If he was still wheeling and dealing he was pushing his luck."
    Amos was slightly alarmed. "He did die from the blows to the head?" the officer asked. "I don't want some smarty pants QC getting his client off on a technicality."
    "Fear not," came the response. "The heart attacks were history. Heads it is."
    Slater laughed heartily again. This was certainly a good day.
    “How hard were the blows?" Amos inquired.
    “A pretty fair smack," the pathologist replied. “It looks like a quick concentration of blows with one, presumably the last, heavier than the others. Whoever it was meant to be sure Jones was dead."
    "Would it have had to be a strong person?"
    "Not in the least," Slater responded without hesitation. "That pipe was quite solid. You could get a decent swing with it."
    "Thanks," said Amos. "You can put him away again now."
     

 
     
     
    Chapter 10
     
    Murder inquests are hardly worth the bother, Amos remarked to Swift as they made their way out of the back of the police headquarters to their waiting car.
    "Would it be impertinent, Sir, to ask, then, why you are so keen to go? It's only the opening. There'll be identification and cause of death, which we already know, and the whole thing will take three minutes maximum from opening to adjournment.
    "We won't even get 'murder by person or persons unknown' at this stage in the proceedings."
    "We are going, Sgt Swift," Amos replied with good humour, "because murder inquests, predictable though they are, have their own fatal fascination. I can never resist toddling along just to see if anyone unexpected turns up."
    This particular occasion would, however, have been one of life's little disappointments had a court official not pointed out the lone figure sitting in one corner as Simon Renshaw.
    "He's Jones's solicitor," the official disclosed confidentially.
    The only other people present, apart from the coroner, were Sarah Miles, who gave evidence of identification, and the pathologist.  The case was adjourned sine die.
    Amos introduced himself to the solicitor immediately. Renshaw, balding and greying, was nearing retirement age. His generally sedentary, well fed and wined life had inexorably added inches to his waistline.
    But if he had lost his figure and his youth, he had not surrendered his dress code. He wore an immaculate, well fitting pin stripe suit and he was picking his black bowler hat and rolled umbrella from the stand by the door as Amos approached him.
    "I have to say, Inspector," he replied to Amos's request for a few minutes of his time, "I don't greatly like discussing a client's private legal business with third parties, not even the police, but in view of the circumstances I'm prepared to help as far as professional etiquette allows.
    "My office is just two minutes' walk across the market square. I had set aside half an hour in case the hearing ran over unexpectedly."
    The office had the same old-fashioned, reassuring air of its owner, with leather furniture and leather-bound books. Renshaw, of Renshaw, Renshaw and Ogylvie,  had given up the quill and ink pot of his father but had declined to progress as far as a ball point pen.
    He laid his fountain pen on the desk in front of him ceremoniously.
    "I appreciate your concerns," Amos finally broke the silence, "but I do need to know who benefits in Mr Jones's will."
    Renshaw did not even have to get out the document.
    "Mr Jones made only two wills in his lifetime. The first was a few years after his marriage. He should have made one straight away but like the rest of us he did not wish to admit that he would ever die.
    "In that will he left everything to his wife. He made his second will a year ago."
    Amos was immediately aroused.
    "Did he make many changes?" he asked.
    "Not a great deal," came the response. "His wife remained the residual beneficiary but he made a few minor bequests. These were for Sarah