Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham

Author:Mark Billingham [Billingham, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Crime, Mystery & Detective, General, Women Sleuths, Police Procedural, Thrillers, Hard-Boiled
ISBN: 9780751566994
Google: STR9DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07KW91G2B
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2019-05-01T23:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-SEVEN

Conrad sat in the car, parked two streets away from the house of a woman he had twice committed murder with. Or for … because in truth he was finding it increasingly hard to tell the difference. He stared out through the windscreen, rigid and unblinking, his breath slowing until it was shallow as a sniper’s and his eyes screwed shut. Struggling to remember a life before all of this, even if now that seemed like one lived by someone else entirely.

When Conrad was a different kind of criminal, a different kind of man.

Thinking about his past, though, would mean thinking about a different woman too. A different lover, a different kind of accomplice. Her insistence that their relationship was not over was making things horribly difficult, but even so, remembering how things had been back then might still … dull things a little, like laying a cold flannel across a burn.

Only temporary, he knew that, but some relief all the same.

A chance to try and regain some control.

A few minutes without Sarah in his head, without rocks and hammers and blood.

It was beyond stupid, what had happened, what he’d let happen, because he’d always been so good at becoming someone else whenever he chose to. A new name, a new look. A potted history neatly crafted and with just enough detail to be convincing. Lonely, divorced, bereaved. Serious and reserved if that’s what was needed, the life and soul if he had to be. Whatever it took to get close to some woman with more money than sense. It was a useful skill, he’d always thought so, and from the very first time the opposite sex had become interesting and interested, he’d found a way to make it pay. Slipping in and out of roles like an actor, playing several at the same time on a few occasions, when his targets overlapped and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Now, he was fighting to remember who he really was.

As if he’d ghosted himself …

It was hard enough to remember what he’d felt, those first few moments in that poncey coffee shop. His eyes meeting hers. Turning on the charm, ready to go to work, buzzing with it. Had it really been any different from his initial encounters with any number of other women? In supermarkets, in pubs, in queues at the post office …

Can I help you with that?

I wish I’d ordered what you’re having.

I couldn’t help overhearing …

Who did he think he was kidding?

It had been totally different, arse-about-face, because, whatever had been going through his head back then, whatever killer scheme he might have cooked up for her, there had not been a single moment from that morning on when he had been the one with the power.

How could he possibly regain control, when he had never had any?

It made no sense, because when it came to sniffing out danger, his instincts had never let him down before. Some inbuilt … warning system. He knew when a plan was going pear-shaped, when it was time to quickly cut his losses and walk away.

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