Hope to Die by David Jackson

Author:David Jackson [Jackson, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2017-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

29

He’s missed something.

Cody stares at his computer screen. He flicks through report after report, statement after statement, but it’s not jumping out at him.

It would help if he had some idea as to where to focus his attention, but he doesn’t. He just knows that he has missed something. There is a set of neurons in his brain desperate to make a connection with another set, and yet he just cannot seem to stimulate the necessary spark of energy.

It’s Thursday now. The middle of December. Almost two weeks after the murder of Mary Cowper, and seemingly still no closer to catching the killer. The police computers are bulging with masses of information, but none of it seems to be telling them anything of worth.

He passes an eye over a few more documents. Hesitates when he gets to the transcript of the interview with Daley. He keeps coming back to this, and he’s not sure why. There’s a magnetic pull there that should be telling him something, but he has scrutinised every word of it several times and still not discovered any hidden depths.

It doesn’t help that his mind insists on wandering. Transporting him back to the phantom caller at his flat.

It makes him uneasy that he keeps being taken by surprise. The screaming over the phone was a surprise. The ‘time to play’ announcement was a surprise. And then the call at his door – Jesus Christ, that was a shocker!

So what will the next surprise be? He has no way of knowing, and therefore no way of preparing. And Cody doesn’t like the sensation of being unprepared.

He also wonders whether he’s handling this properly. He’s a copper, and he suspects that the people responsible for these pranks are the same people who were responsible for torturing him and killing his partner. So why isn’t he turning this over to the force? Why isn’t he asking them to investigate – to put all the vast resources at their disposal to good use in catching these scum? Why not ask them to trace the calls coming in? Wouldn’t that take the pressure off?

He knows the answers. Or at least he thinks he does.

This has become personal, on both sides. A private battle. His enemy wants to tease, to scare, to provoke, to entice. Any sign of a larger police involvement will cause the aggressors to lose interest and walk away. And Cody’s chances of confronting them will vanish.

At the same time, Cody isn’t convinced he wants to be shackled by the law and the conventions of police procedure. He needs the freedom to work in whatever way the situation requires. And that may mean doing things he would once never have dreamt of.

He has wrestled with this question a lot lately. What would he do if he came face to face with his enemy? What is he capable of?

What would he have done if he had managed to catch his mysterious caller the other night? Question him, certainly. But more than that? Beat him? Torture him? Kill him?

He doesn’t know the answers.

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.