One Last Breath by Stephen Booth

Author:Stephen Booth [Booth, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Police - England - Derbyshire, Police Procedural, Caves, Police, Serial Murders, Mystery & Detective, Derbyshire (England), Cooper; Ben (Fictitious Character), Policewomen, General, Mystery Fiction, Women Sleuths, Fry; Diane (Fictitious Character), Traditional British, Fiction, Fugitives From Justice
ISBN: 9780440242703
Google: J1Xpw0YcHL4C
Amazon: 0440242703
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2004-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Thorpe sneered. 'Do you?'

Cooper could see that Thorpe was gaining more confidence as he talked. But that wasn't a bad thing - at least he was talking. It was a sign that he felt on safe ground.

'So you parted ways with your friends in Derby?'

Thorpe hesitated. 'Yeah.'

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'Was there some kind of problem?'

'No.'

'It would be understandable if they were unhappy with your decision. Did they go ahead on the shop idea without you?'

'I don't know.'

'Mr Thorpe, we do have the address you gave in Derby at the time, so we can always go and ask them.'

Thorpe shook his head. 'I left, that was all. I got on a bus and came back here. I knew there'd be plenty of places I could sleep and not be worried about people getting up close to me like they did in the city.'

'OK. And then what?'

'And then nothing,' said Thorpe. 'That's pretty much my life. I'm just hanging around waiting for it to finish. I'll be glad when it's over, to be honest.'

'Where were you sleeping rough before Raymond Proctor let you use one of his caravans?'

'Bus shelters are a good place. No one uses them after the buses stop running at night. And around here, field barns. A lot of them are abandoned now.'

'But you did decide to look up other old friends, didn't you?' said Fry.

'What?'

'I'm sure that's what I would do, in the circumstances.'

Now Thorpe had started to look uncomfortable. 'What old friends?'

'There must be some that you'd like to tell us about.'

Thorpe could sense that they had reached dangerous ground. His eyes flickered to the door of the interview room.

Fry didn't need to look at her file for the next question.

'For example,' she said, 'in April you visited your old friend Mansell Quinn. Twice.'

'Oh.'

'Now, that might be something that you would forget about, Mr Thorpe, given the exciting and varied life that

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I you've led. But I imagine those two visits were very memorable indeed to your friend Quinn. After all, you were the first person to visit him in years.'

'That's what people do,' said Thorpe. 'Visit old friends. If you're really nice to me, I'll even visit you in prison, when you get sent down for harassing innocent citizens.'

'That's very kind of you. I'm sure it would make it all worthwhile. If I ever found an innocent citizen to harass.'

'Ha, ha.'

'Mansell Quinn,' said Cooper, 'what was the purpose of your visit to him in prison?'

'To say "hi". To see how he was keeping. To take him a birthday present. For God's sake, I hadn't seen the bloke for years.'

'OK,' said Fry. 'You went the first time to say "hi". You saw how he was. So what about the second visit? Was his birthday present the wrong size? Maybe he wanted you to change it for him?'

'Get lost.'

'You see, Mr Thorpe, we think that your friend Mansell Quinn asked you to do something for him.'

Thorpe began to cough, and suddenly looked weaker.

'And what if he did?'

'We think that you gave him some addresses.

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