MK02 - The Reckoning by Jane Casey

Author:Jane Casey [Casey, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: police, UK
ISBN: 9781446490303
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the Spider to the Fly,

‘’Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;

The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,

And I’ve many curious things to shew when you are there.’

‘Oh no, no,’ said the little Fly, ‘to ask me is in vain,

For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.’

Mary Howitt

Chapter Thirteen

Friday

MAEVE

I followed Godley through a gate that led into a bleak yard, hurrying to keep up, Derwent just behind me. The yard had been the car park and loading dock for the business that once occupied the warehouse. It was long gone, whatever it had been, and the painted markings on the ground had worn away, faded to ghosts. Weeds had taken hold where the concrete was cracked. They swayed in the light breeze that caught at the hem of my skirt and blew my hair across my mouth. I tucked a lock of it behind my ear and looked up at the warehouse building itself. It glowered back. The brickwork was stained and had split apart in several places, the mortar crumbling away like dust. Most of the windows were shattered, even those on the ground floor that were still protected by close-set iron bars. The loading bay’s shutter was so heavily rusted I doubted there was any need for the chain and padlock looped through the catch; it would never move again. There were other doors, though, other ways in, for us and for the pigeons that cooed and rustled on the high window ledges, and doubtless for the rats and spiders and beetles too.

In the shadow that fell across the far corner of the yard, a small knot of dark figures stood huddled together like mourners. Godley headed towards them and as we approached, they turned one by one to watch us. I might have felt self-conscious if I hadn’t known that everyone there was focused on the superintendent, not me or Derwent. He was still walking a pace or two behind me and I resisted the temptation to look around, to check out how he felt about the latest development. Neither he nor Godley had spoken in the car on the way over. It had felt like a long drive, though we had made good time.

There were four members of the team in the group in front of us, and they had collected together like oil coagulating in water. It was a tacit demonstration that they were with the others but not of them. The other five stood around exhibiting varying degrees of discomfort and hostility. Right in the middle, on her own, stood DCI Redmond, and my first thought was that in the two hours that had passed since I had seen her, she had aged years. Her face had fallen in on itself, the skin dragged down by disappointment and the slackening of tension that had in itself been almost unendurable.

‘Well?’ Godley’s tone was not reassuring and I saw her wince before she gathered herself to respond.

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.