Why She Ran by Geraldine Hogan

Author:Geraldine Hogan [Hogan, Geraldine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786819116
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2019-12-18T22:00:00+00:00

It took Kit Marshall all of two minutes to arrive downstairs, looking as if he’d been roused from the deepest sleep, his hair a crow’s nest of silver and gold, his lips dry, his monogrammed smoking jacket thrown unevenly about him and firmly tied over matching pyjamas and slippers.

‘So,’ he said when he reached the bottom step. ‘You’ve found Eleanor?’ His words carried no sentiment, as if he’d always expected someone to turn up in the early hours and tell him she was dead.

‘No. Perhaps we can…’ Iris gestured towards the room they’d sat in last time they’d been here.

‘Of course, of course…’ He looked at Susan, who had joined him now, a little brighter, as if she’d taken time to douse her face in cold water; suddenly she looked more alert than anyone in the room. A mother surely knows, Iris thought as she looked at Susan sitting straight-backed in a huge winged chair.

‘I’m afraid it’s Karena we’ve come to tell you about.’

‘Karena?’ Kit looked as if he’d missed a thread in the conversation. ‘Should we call her down? Surely you don’t want to speak to her at this hour?’ The familiar disdain had once again returned to his voice.

‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible,’ Slattery said and looked across at Iris.

‘I’m sorry to tell you both that we were called out to an incident at Curlew Cross this evening. I’m afraid Karena was the victim of—’

‘That’s not right. She’s been here all evening, there’s been some mistake…’ Susan started, but her words petered out as she took in the grave expressions of both detectives. ‘No, she’s been here. She had a headache… I checked on her myself at nine o’clock, she was sleeping…’ She looked around the faces now, and in a tender soft voice whispered across at Kit, ‘In her room… she was…’ But the words ran out and it felt as if the air had been sucked from the room. Time stopped – suspended between all four of them – in that horrible moment before the worst is confirmed and nothing will ever be the same again.

‘So where is she now? Can we go and see her, ask what she was doing out at Curlew Cross?’ Kit asked, but maybe he already knew.

‘I’m sorry, but Karena died in the incident. She’s being taken to the regional hospital in a few hours, for now…’ The words hung like meaningless static between them for what seemed like a long moment and then the most awful sound Iris thought she’d ever heard seemed to usurp the silence. She looked across at Kit Marshall, his body seemed to have crumpled into a fraction of that proud man she had believed him to be.

‘Not Karena, please, no… not Karena…’ he whispered and in an instant, Susan was beside him, her arms wrapped tightly about him. They sat for a long time, a huddle of grief vibrating with soft, disconsolate sobs, almost unrecognisable from the people Iris had met that very first day.

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.