Thursday Murder Club, #1
The Thursday Murder Club
by Richard Osman
Contents
Chapter 17
Overview
DCI Chris Hudson digs into Tony Curran’s past and finds that Tony was once deeply involved in Fairhaven’s drug trade, including a suspected pub shooting from which Tony escaped prosecution after a witness vanished. The photograph left at Tony’s body gains new significance because it links Tony to Bobby Tanner and Jason Ritchie, while also implying an unseen fourth person behind the camera. Chris prepares to visit Coopers Chase, where a witness to Tony’s final argument is waiting.
Summary
DCI Chris Hudson reviews Tony Curran’s thick police file while working through snacks and Diet Coke. The file shows Tony’s long history with Kent Police, including assault, drugs, dangerous driving, an illegal weapon, and other offenses from before Chris’s time in Fairhaven.
Chris focuses on the most serious material: transcripts from interviews after a shooting at the Black Bridge pub, where a young drug dealer was killed. A taxi-driver witness identified Tony as the shooter, but the witness later disappeared, and Tony answered questions with “no comment” until he walked away without charge.
Chris notes that Tony’s record goes quiet after 2000, apart from a speeding ticket in 2009. Chris connects this lull to Tony’s move into apparently legitimate work with property developer Ian Ventham, suspecting that the Black Bridge case may have made Tony decide to stop risking his luck in organized crime.
Chris studies the photograph left beside Tony’s body. It shows Tony with Bobby Tanner, a local dealer and hired muscle whose current whereabouts are unknown, and Jason Ritchie, a former boxer. Chris wonders whether the image is a warning, a threat that Bobby or Jason might be next, or a deliberate misdirection.
As Chris prepares to visit Coopers Chase because a witness there insists on speaking to him personally about a row Tony had before his death, Chris realizes another important question remains unanswered: someone else must have taken the photograph of Tony, Bobby, and Jason.
Who Appears
- DCI Chris HudsonReviews Tony’s police file, studies the murder photo, and prepares to question a Coopers Chase witness.
- Tony CurranMurder victim whose past includes drugs, violence, and suspected involvement in a fatal pub shooting.
- Bobby TannerFormer local dealer and hired muscle pictured with Tony; currently missing and of police interest.
- Jason RitchieEx-boxer pictured with Tony and Bobby; Chris decides he will need to question him.
- Ian VenthamProperty developer whose work with Tony may have marked Tony’s move into legitimate business.