Body Line Read Online Free PDF

wide and staring. ‘I heard this gunshot.’
    ‘How did you know that’s what it was?’ Slider asked.
    ‘I dunno really. I just knew. I watch a lot of cop shows on the telly,’ she explained. ‘It was a gunshot. With a silencer.’
    ‘Just one shot?’
    She nodded. ‘And then a sort of thump, like someone falling down. I knew it was David. I knew someone’d shot him. I started shaking all over. I wanted to go downstairs to him, but when I got to the top of the stairs I see this sort of shadow move and I knew the killer was still there. And then I realized if he knew I was in the house he’d come after me next. So I ran back in the bedroom, and I see his mobile, where he’d left it on the bedside table, and I grabs it to ring 999, but then I hear the bannister creak and I know this man’s coming upstairs. God, I was scared! I was gonna hide in the bathroom but I realize he’ll come in there looking for me and I’d be trapped. I could lock the door but if he’s a big bloke he could kick it open. Then I think of the balcony. The door was open – he always opens it when he gets up, to air the room, he says. If I get out there I can climb over the railings and, like, let myself down by my arms and then drop the last bit. It’s not gonna be that far to drop, like six feet or something.’
    She gulped for air, her hands still now, but gripping the sheet so hard her knuckles were white. There was a sheen of sweat on her face.
    ‘I could hear his feet on the stairs so I get out on the balcony. There’s this stupid plant in a pot and I have to get past it. I climb over the railings at the side. I’m still crouching there, trying to sort me feet out when he comes into the bedroom.’
    ‘You saw him?’
    ‘Just, like, this shape in the doorway. He comes into the room. I could hear him opening drawers, looking for something. I hear him go in the bathroom and come out again. Then I think: if he comes to the balcony door he’ll see me. I thought I was going to die. I can’t tell you – it was like I could feel that bullet going into me. So I let myself down quick on my arms. God, it hurt, like having my arms pulled out. It looks easy when they do it in the films. And then he was at the balcony door and I sort of froze.’
    ‘Why didn’t you drop and make a run for it?’ Connolly asked.
    ‘I was too scared. All I could think was keep still, girl, keep quiet, maybe he won’t find you. If he’d come out on the balcony he’d have seen me, but he just stood at the door, and that stupid plant hid my hands, hanging on to the railings. And then this pigeon flew down on the railings, making this noise with its wings. I nearly screamed, it frit me so much. The pigeon sees him and flies off, and I hear this beep, like an alarm on a watch. And he goes. I’m gonna let go then and drop, but me hands have kind of frozen up, and I can’t make them let go. And I’m nearly crying with fright now because he’s come out of the front door, and if he looks up he’ll see me. But he walks off the other way, and when he turns the corner my hands give up on their own and I fell down into this bush.’
    She stopped abruptly, and tried to reach out for the glass of water on the cabinet beside her, but her hands were shaking too much. Connolly got up and did the honours, and gave her a tissue to wipe the sweat from her face.
    ‘You’re doing really well,’ Slider said. ‘Take a minute to catch your breath.’
    ‘You were really brave,’ Connolly cooed to her, proffering the water again. ‘Fantastic, really.’
    Cat turned her eyes up at her. ‘You think so?’ she whispered.
    ‘You were brilliant. I could never be that brave. I’d fall apart.’ Slider thought this an unwise thing for a police officer to say, but it seemed to do the trick, and Cat took a steadier breath and seem ready to go on.
    ‘So let me help you along for the last bit,’ Connolly said when she resumed her seat. ‘You knocked on next door’s