Bleed Like Me Read Online Free PDF Page A

behind the headlines. But getting the news out into the public domain, alerting people and enlisting their help in an effort to save further lives, was paramount. If there was any comeback, Janet knew it was Gill who would face the music and explain to the relatives the very sound reasoning for the publicity.
    The call centre was in a double industrial unit off the ring road. Janet showed her warrant card to the woman at the front office and asked for Lynn and whether there was anywhere private they could talk. The girl’s face went still with curiosity but she bit her tongue and showed Janet into a tiny meeting room the size of a lift, a bare round table, two chairs and a slim filing cabinet the only furniture. Presumably where staff were hired and fired.
    Lynn was rake thin, her face hollowed at the cheeks, her dark skin dry-looking. Janet wondered if she had been ill or lost weight or normally looked like that.
    ‘Hello,’ Lynn said, looking a little puzzled but waiting for enlightenment.
    ‘Please sit down,’ Janet said. ‘I’m DC Janet Scott from Manchester Metropolitan Police. You’re a friend of Pamela Cottam?’
    ‘Yes.’ Her smile faded. Her eyes, dark eyes, locked on to Janet’s.
    ‘I’m afraid I have some very bad news,’ Janet said. ‘We were called to Journeys Inn earlier today and found the bodies of three people. We believe them to be Pamela, her daughter Penny and Pamela’s brother Michael.’
    Lynn’s eyelids flickered and her mouth moved for a couple of seconds before she said, ‘Bodies?’
    ‘I’m very, very sorry,’ Janet said, talking slowly, for Lynn would need time to comprehend what was being said. ‘An investigation into the deaths is now under way.’ Important touse the word death. To make sure that there could be no misinterpretation.
    ‘I . . . I’m sorry.’ Lynn put her hand to her forehead. Her voice shook. ‘Pamela? And Penny and Michael?’
    ‘We think so. We have yet to complete the formal identification but we believe those are the victims.’
    ‘But how? Was there a fire?’
    Lynn had finally found some explanation that half made sense but before she could elaborate on it, let it take wing and find some comfort – a fluke, an accident, a tragedy – Janet said, ‘No, we’re treating these deaths as suspicious. I’m afraid all the indications are that the victims died as a result of knife wounds.’ She couldn’t say for definite until the post-mortem results were in, and even then they’d have to be very careful in the wording of such information. That was something that was drilled into them throughout training. It got so it became second nature, qualifying statements with phrases that, if held up in court, made it clear that the police had not made assumptions but had been punctilious about facts, only making categorical statements where they had the hard evidence to prove them.
    ‘A knife?’ Lynn said.
    ‘We believe so,’ Janet said quietly.
    Lynn sat for a full minute, her mouth slightly ajar. Then she spoke again. ‘The boys, Theo and Harry, they’re all right?’
    ‘They’re missing,’ Janet said. ‘So is Owen.’
    There was another pause. Lynn covered her eyes with her hands. Janet could hear her breathing. Then Lynn moved, her face wet with tears. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘Why would anyone do that? And then take Owen and the boys?’
    ‘We are still trying to establish what happened,’ Janet said, ‘but at this point there is nothing to suggest that an outside party was involved.’
    A fraction of a second, then the shock fell through Lynn’s face and she recoiled. ‘You think . . . Oh, God,’ she said. ‘Oh my God,’ hands pressed to her cheeks.
    ‘I am sorry,’ Janet said again. ‘If you feel able I’d like to ask you some questions. We’re trying to find Owen and the little ones.’
    ‘Right,’ Lynn said huskily.
    ‘Pamela texted you last night?’
    ‘Yes, about Tuesday.’
    ‘You were going