A Bleeding of Innocents Read Online Free PDF Page B

his butchered wife. Then a little life began creeping back into his mind and, with it, awareness of having to do something. He edged carefully out of the car. The night air struck his chest where his shirt was wet. He looked round fearfully but there was nothing to suggest that anyone else was there. Nor, on the wrong side of midnight, was there much chance of anyone coming. What help he needed he would have to find.
    Before she sent him home – to the flat in town, he would be handier there and the cottage would be knee-deep in police for a while yet – there were a few questions Liz wanted answering. Before they were finished there would be more questions, but a few would suffice for now.
    â€˜Kerry was driving the car. Why was that?’
    Page shrugged numbly. ‘No reason.’
    â€˜You drive it sometimes?’
    â€˜Of course.’
    â€˜But this evening Kerry drove. Did she keep the keys?’
    â€˜They were in the car. She got there first, she got in behind the wheel. We were only going a few miles.’
    â€˜So you’d have driven if you’d been going further.’
    â€˜Maybe. Sometimes. Does it matter?’ Page’s voice climbed, fluting and querulous.
    Liz changed the subject. ‘Was it a warm evening?’
    Page stared. ‘I’ve no idea.’
    â€˜You didn’t have a coat on.’
    â€˜Yes, I did.’
    Liz’s eyebrows arched. ‘Not when you picked a fight with Mr Bonnet’s lorry – all he saw of you was your shirt. When did you take it off?’
    Page shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’
    â€˜Before Kerry was shot or after?’
    â€˜I don’t remember. For God’s sake, my wife was in pieces beside me – you think I noticed the cold?’
    â€˜Could you have put it over the back of your seat?’
    His sky-blue eyes were mystified. ‘I suppose so.’
    â€˜This man. How close to the car was he when he fired?’
    â€˜Very close.’ A tremor caught up the edge of his voice. ‘He was at the bumper. The barrel of the gun was almost as long as the bonnet. The muzzle couldn’t have been’ – he held up two fingers, both visibly shaking – ‘from the glass.’
    â€˜Would you recognize him again?’
    â€˜The voice maybe. Not the face.’
    â€˜Why not? It was a bright night – bright enough to go walking by the river. He was only a metre from you.’
    â€˜He had the moon at his back. I never saw his face.’
    â€˜Could you see what he was wearing?’
    â€˜A hat of some kind, a coat. I think there was a scarf over his face.’
    â€˜So he didn’t think it was a warm evening.’
    Anger kindled in Page’s eyes. ‘You don’t think maybe he put all that on so no one would recognize him? You don’t think that maybe, since he was going out to shoot someone, he thought that might be a good idea?’
    Liz nodded calmly. ‘Yes, that’s probably the reason. Was there anything familiar about him – the voice, the way he moved? Could you have met him before?’
    As fast as it had surged Page’s temper subsided, leaving him frail and exhausted. ‘I’ve no idea.’
    â€˜Someone Kerry introduced you to, for instance.’
    â€˜I don’t know. I don’t know.’ Tears welled in his eyes. ‘She had a lot of friends. She had no enemies.’
    â€˜She had one,’ Liz said gently. But at the back of her mind another possibility was taking shape. She said nothing aloud but to herself she observed: Or else you did.

Chapter Four
    Liz went to the cottage but learned nothing except that Page had told the truth about the washing-up. It was still waiting piled in the sink for the couple to return from their drive. She was not sure when it would be done now.
    At the police station there was a message for her to see Shapiro.
    His office was like the man: lived-in almost but not quite to the