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"Easily I would do the same"
"Never ask me"
"Martha," Richard said now, as they stopped for a set of red lights, "would have asked for it, if she’d been able to I see that now"
"Martha?"
"As it was, your mother had to take the burden on herself At the tirief to the truth, which was that it was the right thing to do I was unable to think rationally--to see reason Your ed and a motorcyclist roared across their path as Richard accelerated He braked and swerved and the bike vanished into the darkness in a trail of exhaust sht They were on the country road Three miles or so fro men on motor bicycles?"
"I want you to stop I need you to tell me what you mean"
"No need to stop It was perfectly clear"
"No, it was not perfectly clear"
"Don’t shout at me, Catherine"
"I don’t understand what you just said About Mum and Martha You have to tell me"
She looked at him as he drove His narrow face was set in a neutral, calm expression as he watched the road I do not know this ht, but I do understand why Simon feels as he does
"I would probably never have told you But now you know Your ave Martha an injection of potassium She could not bear to see her existence continue in that way She toldto anyone else Until now I’ve kept that proain it seeree we should keep this between ourselves?"
Twenty-four
It was very late Judith sat in the Deerbons’ friendly kitchen and thought about the day her husband had died
She had been ht they would have to take into care There had been a cat then too, huge and grey with scarred ears Gasper, named by David Fifteen years before A scrap of pathetic fluff found in a puddle by her daily help and brought to the lives, Vivien in Edinburgh doing her vet training and Gasper was spreadeagled in a patch of late sunshine on the kitchen table beside her, one paw occasionally reaching out to scratch half-heartedly at her file Don had gone fishing, leaving at dawn He never woke her She had coone to his favourite stretch of the Test
The Deerbon cat, Mephisto, was on the chair opposite her, a tight, neat ball, paws tucked away
She re at the clock to work out when to put the casserole in, thinking about her case, worrying about it as she always did Taking a child from its parents was never easy, she never felt other than anxious about it, that hy she had been reading the case notes again
She remembered the child’s naht There had been the sound of the car a little after seven Good, she had thought, I can go for an early bath and Don can peel the potatoes after he’s sorted out his fish Assu there are fish
And then there had been the sound not of his key in the door but of the bell Ringing, ringing
He hadonto it, face down, as the pain of the coronary hit him, and had lain there half the day before a couple had co their Labradors
It had been her husband’s registrar, who had turned up one Sundayto drive her there and that perhaps she ht want to pick some flowers to take with her He had been the week before, he said, on a recce Knehere to go, found the spot He had been gentle and firely domed forehead, rimless spectacles When they reached the exact place on the riverbank, he had gone away and left her alone for about twenty one to eat a steak in a nearby pub He had sussed that out in advance too
Mephisto stirred and yawned and burrowed hts of the car swinging into the drive
But it was Si at her, glancing around then back at her again, and she saw that his initial surprise and disapproval had been quickly shuttered His expression blanked to nothing
"What happened?"
Seeing hiesture she recognised even in this short time, she felt intensely sorry for him She saw not a man of nearly forty and a senior police officer but a boy
"Simon, I’m sorry--first you find me in the kitchen at Hallam House and now here I knohat it looks like"
"Oh What does it look like?"
Children react like this, Judith thought, re how David had been the same The best as to carry on as normal and let them come round Or not She filled him in
"The children have been fine They’re all asleep now Can I ?"
"I’ll do it I’ll make coffee You?"
"Thanks Yes, I would like sorave;re, set the kettle to boil, all with his back to her She stayed on the sofa, stroking the cat Waiting There was no point in saying s worse He minded She had been in his mother’s place, and now she was here
"Are you on duty?" It seeht to ask
"Yes Everyone is on alert at the , yes Has there been another?"
"Yes One girl shot dead, another hurt And a false alarhs in a quiet street we get an e And shot For what? Dear God"
She watched hirounds There was so about the way he bent over, the set of his head, that ht to be seeing her She had every right to see him But that would not be the way it seee," he said, shifting Mephisto The cat turned, rearranged hi and the chair arain
I shouldn’t be here, Judith thought I am an unwelcome intruder She felt, as she had often felt as a , ill at ease and out of place in the midst of someone else’s family, another person’s hos
Twenty-five
There were six of them round the table The Chief Constable, Chief Superintendent Gilligan, Armed Response Gold Command, a DCS from Bevham and Serrailler with one of the DIs fro that ht without regaining consciousness The tea everyone who had been in and around the Seven Aces club, visiting the workplaces of thepolice hich rim-faced
"Simon, are you a hundred per cent sure there is no connection between these young wolanced at her papers "… Melanie Drew, murdered at her flat?"
"No Of course I’e the only connection we’ve made is that they were all at the Sir Eric Anderson school The nightclub girls were best friends Melanie Dreas older We’re still talking to people and we’re still checking everything--churches, sports places, societies they ht have joined, even pubs and restaurants they could all have frequented We’ve checked out Melanie’s husband and Claire Pescod’s fiancé but found no link at all"
"So it’s coincidence?"
"Coincidence happens, doesn’t it, uns He likes shooting Doesn’t care where or who"
Andy Gilligan shook his head "That sounds casual and careless, and he’s neither"
"Or she"
"Unlikely, but all right if you want to be correct The murder of Melanie Dreas carefully timed Not many people about, she was alone in the flat, itwas from a carefully prepared spot, probably froranary next door There is absolutely no trace of anything or anyone--forensics are still going over it but there isn’t even GSR Soetawayround Lafferton with a pistol; this is a clever, cunning psychopathic killer"
"Who will kill again"
"Almost certainly"
"But if there is no connection between his victiuess where he will be next?"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>