Black Hollow by Rachael Holyhead

Author:Rachael Holyhead
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blossom Spring Publishing

37

Newton

Newton slams his phone down so hard he thinks the screen has smashed. He has called Louise every morning since she left him and today was no exception. He misses the routine they had. It’s been two weeks now and a pattern has already formed in its place. He asks how she is and receives a one-word response. He asks after Georgie and gets pretty much the same. On the days he sees his son, (he refuses to use the term ‘access’), they arrange pick up and dropping off times. Nothing more. There is no small talk but at least she usually answers.

After sleeping off the worst, he had driven to the house Louise is renting. Despite the state he was in, he recalled Jean saying she’d gone out the night before. Parking a few doors down, he had sat there and seethed. It was a nice, compact semi. Dormer windows, newly painted drainpipes but you don’t just walk out of one house into another. It takes organisation, forethought. Exactly how long did she have this planned?

It was a pitiful stakeout. His head had been splitting and it was only by sheer force of will he hadn’t spewed his guts up in Louise’s new street. Seeing another car nose to nose with hers, he was ready to batter whoever it belonged to. When her hairdresser Natalie emerged, Newton had slunk home to bed.

He walks over to the filing cabinet at the far end of the office. Most stuff goes straight onto the computer these days but you can’t beat a proper filing system, in Newton’s opinion. What would happen in the event of a power cut or a fire, or if everything was erased by mistake? Stranger things have happened.

He pulls out a lever-arch file, standing ramrod straight as he does so. He read somewhere that JFK wore a back brace. He doesn’t like the sound of that but it’s reassuring to know he’s in good company. Or maybe not, come to think of it.

The file is soft and felted with age, North Derbyshire Violent Crime Archives, 1968 to 69 stamped across its cover. The Police National Computer wasn’t introduced until 74. Almost everything prior to that has been transferred online but some paper records remain, as well as newspaper cuttings and photographs. Newton spent most of his Sunday trawling through these records and feels a flicker of excitement at the rest but he’ll save that pleasure for later. With no real leads, maybe the past can shed some light onto Charlie Collins’s murder.

He has another file in his drawer, the contents of which were removed from Collins’s bedroom. Newton never dreamt there could be such a thing as playing card porn but evidently there is. He pulls out the file and studies the contents. A dominatrix type straddles an ace of spades, naked except for elbow-length gloves and fishnet stockings. He turns to the next one. A woman lies spreadeagled across a five-pointed star, her skin completely covered in red hearts.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.