Joffe Books Murder Mystery & Suspense Short Story Collection by GRETTA MULROONEY & HELEN H. DURRANT & DAVID HODGES & BILL KITSON & JOY ELLIS & FAITH MARTIN

Author:GRETTA MULROONEY & HELEN H. DURRANT & DAVID HODGES & BILL KITSON & JOY ELLIS & FAITH MARTIN
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books Mystery and Thriller
Published: 2021-09-24T00:00:00+00:00

The Rev. James was distraught. Kate guided him back downstairs and poured him a brandy from an old-fashioned cocktail cabinet. When she returned to the bedroom, Hayden was already finishing his call to the police Control Room. He turned as she appeared, his expression grim.

‘Guv’nor and SOCO en route,’ he said, ‘and a broadcast is going out to all patrols as we speak. He won’t get far.’

‘Marcus obviously eavesdropped on our conversation downstairs and scarpered when he heard us coming up,’ Kate said. ‘He could be anywhere.’

He nodded and pointed at the press cuttings on the bed.

‘I took a look at these,’ he said. ‘They all appear to relate to investigations in which your name was mentioned. He was obviously obsessed by you. You might want to take a look at the laptop too.’

Kate got down on her knees and read the line of text Marcus had obviously been working on. She shivered.

Poor Kate, she tried so hard to win. But met her match with a rictus grin.

‘Seems you were to be his final victim,’ Hayden said.

‘I sort of gathered that,’ she snapped, getting back on her feet. ‘Quite the budding poet was our Marcus. Now I think it’s time to have further words with our holy man.’

The Rev. James was not in the sitting room when Kate went down, and the uniformed constable on duty at the front door said he thought he had gone over to the church. She made her way there as quickly as she could, kicking up shingle on the narrow path winding among the gravestones. She reached the church door and paused briefly to stare up at the scores of rooks wheeling above the tower, their harsh cries combined in a distinctly unholy chorus. Then she stepped through into semi-gloom.

James was in the chancel. It was likely that he had been offering a prayer in front of the altar, but he was no longer kneeling. Instead, he was face-down on the tiled floor in a pool of blood, with his skull caved in and a bloodstained brass candleholder lying beside him. Marcus! Kate thought.

From the severity of his injuries it was obvious that he was dead, but, still overcoming her shock, Kate bent down beside him to feel for a pulse in his neck. There wasn’t one.

Then she saw that the door to the tower was ajar and crept towards it. By rights she knew she should call for assistance. But she feared that using her phone in a stone building like this, which would be prone to echoes, would alert the youthful killer before anyone else got there. No, this was one job she would have to do herself. Maybe she could talk him down when she found him . . .

The door creaked slightly as she slipped through and started up the first of the worn steps. Above her she could hear the faint cawing of the rooks and, every so often, the squeak of leather-soled shoes.

The spiral staircase curling round the inside of the tower seemed to go on for ever.

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.