Ten Guilty Men (A DCI Morton Crime Novel Book 3) by Sean Campbell, Daniel Campbell

then?’
    ‘Eli. Paddy. Gabby... And Lord Culloden,’ Kal spat.
    ‘ Him ? He’s not even really a Lord! The police said so,’ Brianna said.
    Meredith looked gobsmacked. First the argument. Now an even more juicy rumour. Her ratings would be through the roof.
    ‘Who are we talking about?’ she asked.
    ‘Some friend of Eli’s who was at the party. He calls himself Lord Culloden, but apparently he’s been using a fake name all along.’
    Behind camera number four, Simon Keller was waving furiously. The conversation was skirting the bounds of defamation, and the producer knew he couldn’t get away with cutting to pre-recorded trailers again so soon. Meredith spotted his frantic attempts to curtail things and took control quickly.
    ‘There we go, ladies and gentleman. A famous face that fell from grace. An argument with a lover, and an allegation of fraud. Let’s take a look back at the life and work of Ellis DeLange in this video montage of her greatest work.’
    The camera cut away, and a video showing Eli’s photography began to play.

Chapter 13: Sources
    Morton hit pause. They’d watched the Wake Up Britain! video three times in quick succession. He was in the Incident Room with his laptop hooked up to a projector so that the rest of his team could watch. Bleary-eyed officers sat around a large table drinking enough coffee to wake someone from a coma.
    ‘She’s got to be the one leaking details to the press,’ Ayala said. ‘She could certainly use the money.’
    ‘Unfortunately, our wonderful courts have seen fit to protect journalistic sources. I don’t think mere curiosity counts as an overriding public interest, so The Impartial will never admit it and it doesn’t prove anything other than she’s got fewer scruples than the Prime Minister,’ Morton said.
    Ayala slouched in his seat. Shot down again.
    Morton saw his disappointment, and decided that team morale was worth letting Ayala waste an hour or two. ‘But see if her bank will release her statements. They’ll probably say no, and we don’t have enough for Kieran to force them to comply, but it won’t hurt to ask.’ Morton referred to his pet prosecutor, Kieran O’Connor.
    Ayala regained his enthusiasm almost instantly. ‘Will do! And what about this fight? He tells us it’s about money, then tells the world he can’t remember. What’s up with that?’
    ‘Not everything is a conspiracy. Perhaps he simply wanted to avoid tarring her memory. The dead cannot rebut accusations, so the living should refrain from making them. If he loved her, it doesn’t matter whether or not she spent his money.’
    ‘You’re buying the money bullshit? We found ten large in the safe!’
    ‘Which we have no reason to believe he had any knowledge of. Let’s assume he was telling the truth, just for a moment. He leaves when Culloden and Gabby burst into the kitchen where he’s drinking with Paddy Malone. At this point, our victim is upstairs fuming at her boyfriend. Again assuming no one else entered the house, what happens next?’
    ‘In that case, two options. Either Gabby and Malone leave together, and Culloden kills Ellis, or Culloden leaves and Ellis is murdered by both Gabby and Malone,’ Ayala ventured.
    ‘We’re assuming that they did stay together.’
    ‘CCTV proves it. At 02:17, they approached Richmond Station. On the tape it looked like they saw the shutters down over the ticket office and turned around. They then flagged a taxi down right in front of the station.’
    Morton stroked his chin thoughtfully. ‘They actually approached the ticket office? When did it shut?’
    Ayala fell silent, and avoided eye contact. The other junior officers around the table did likewise, as if they collectively found a sudden interest in studying their nails.
    After about a minute, Stuart Purcell, who was hovering near an evidence board near the back of the room and helping himself to the detectives’ coffee, spoke up: ‘Half past nine.’
    Morton