I apologize for forgetting about this tale for years… Now to it.

Chapter 11 – Motives

"It's like I was telling you Scribbs. The motive is either love or money, or both."

Scribbs nodded at Ash, saying, "Now we have to find our who."

Ash then recited, "I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who."

Scribbs sneered. "Something from your Hoity-Toity Upper-Crust School?"

"Kipling, Scribbs. Rudyard Kipling."

"Oh right, the DI who just retired," she laughed.

Ash shook her head. "Honestly, Detective Sergeant Scribbins. I am horrified at your lack of education. Kipling? The English author?"

Scribbs cracked her gum and then grinned. "Frankly, Kate it is sooo bloody easy to push your buttons! I was making a joke."

"Fine," Ash sighed. "Now we need to work on that who thing; and perhaps the why."

Scribbs leaned against the wall. "Is it always like this?"

Ash raised an eyebrow at her.

Scribbs tossed her head back towards Weatherall's morgue. "That."

Ash shrugged. "Not always."

"Hm. My first double set or victims."

"Sometimes a lot nastier."

"Lovely."

They went up to their offices to record what they knew and found the Guv standing in his office doorway. He waved to them to come inside.

"What have you found?" he asked them, as he perched on the edge of his desk. "I heard there are two bodies?"

Ash took a deep breath. "Jenny Browning goes missing ten days ago. Now we have found her body, dead by deadly stabbing, in a disused house lying next to the body of veterinary Dr. Michael Barnard. Said vet was supposed to be on holiday to Mallorca, and has also been gone for ten days. Barnard had been smashed over the head with a steel bar."

Sullivan sat up straighter. "My word. Ugly."

"You should have smelled it, Guv," Scribbs added with a shudder.

Sullivan crossed his arms after giving Ashurst a quick glance. "I am sure. Any guesses on a motive?"

"We found that Dr. Barnard and Mrs. Browning were seeing one another, or at least were seen in a together, in a pub," Ash told him.

Sullivan nodded. "The husband?"

"Barry Browning. A bit cold, we thought," Scribbs said. "He may have loved his money more than his wife, Boss. He claims they were trying to start a family. Go figure."

"That may or may not be true," Sullivan grunted. "But jealousy can a prime mover in these cases."

Ash said, "Boss, we found a chart where Mrs. Browning was recording her body temperature over three months. It was in her night table. You only do that if you are charting your fertility cycle. Trying to get pregnant."

Sullivan gave her a wide-eyed look as Ash squirmed under his gaze.

Scribbs cleared her throat. "I have a family member who's doing that very thing. Ahem, the temperature charting thing, as well as other… you know…" her voice trailed off.

Sullivan shook his head to clear it. Would one of his male officers found that bit of information and known what it meant, he wondered. Perhaps not. "Right. So, the husband may be the suspect."

Ash looked over at Scribbs, who shrugged at her. "Perhaps."

"The Press will be all over this," muttered Sullivan. "It will be a circus."

Ash bit her lip. "But what I don't understand is if Barry Browning and his wife were trying to start a family, why would he want her dead? If he did or does, that is."

"Or perhaps she was trying to have a child with the vet and not with her husband?" Scribbs asked.

Sullivan said, "Finding the bodies is key, of course. Now," he rubbed his hands together, "I shall take your report, summarize it, and submit them to the Press Officer for release." He stared at them. "Can I have them in fifteen minutes?"

"Half hour, Boss?" responded Ash. "We need to get… sorted. We just came up from seeing Weatherall."

The Boss emphatically looked at his watch. "Soon as you can. It seems that when young wives are missing and then show up deceased and are then found with a dead body not their husband, then the wheels, as they say, will begin to turn Upstairs." He pointed to the ceiling for emphasis.

"Right away, Boss," Scribbs said as she stood. "Come on DI Ashurst, a hot computer awaits us."

Ash rose to follow her partner.

"Oh, and good work, both of you," Sullivan added.

"We don't have the murderer yet," Scribbs replied as she cracked her gum, then she left the room.

Sullivan said softly to Ash, "Things seem to be, uhm, going well? You and DS Scribbins… seem to be… alright?"

She flashed him a bright smile. "Going swimmingly, Boss," she answered and meant it.