Coming, Ready or Not (D.S. Hunter Kerr Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

catch a killer on the last case. The murderer had got away but Hunter had tracked him down several days later and cornered him. He had used the knife again in an attempt to evade capture. On this occasion the killer had not been so fortunate and Hunter had exacted his own brand of justice during his arrest. The man was currently in prison awaiting trial.
    Continuing to note Mike’s confident strut Hunter realised he had made the right decision to give him last night’s job. Mike was ready. And it wasn’t just mentally, he thought to himself as he monitored him closely. Mike’s whole physical appearance had morphed during his period of rehabilitation. Three months earlier he had been considerably overweight, and now, although still on the beefy side, he was a shadow of his former self. His mode of dress had changed as well – no more ill-fitting suits. Today he was wearing a dark grey, two-piece suit, which looked new, and beneath that a white shirt, tucked neatly into his waistband, fronted with a deep red tie, which Hunter noted he could now knot at the collar. Mike had also grown his hair longer and he sported a goatee beard, but whereas three months ago his hair had been dark, now it was peppered liberally with grey. Nevertheless, Hunter had to admit, as he watched Mike preparing himself for his speech, that he looked a picture, both of health and of sartorial elegance.
    Mike Sampson picked up a hand remote device from a table by the side of the dry wipe incident board and smoothed a hand down the front of his tie as he faced his colleagues.
    ‘ I’ve had much of the footage, which SOCO and Forensics took yesterday, put together for a presentation. I know how you lot struggle with the intellectual technical jargon,’ he smiled.
    He certainly hadn ’t lost his sense of humour, Hunter told himself.
    Mike aimed the remote up towards the ceiling where a projector hung. Immediately a colour image of the front of 34 Manvers Terrace flashed onto the incident board. More pictures flashed onto the board, the alleyway at the side of the front door followed by the rear of the premises with its open kitchen door. Close-up shots of the broken lock and smashed glass panel quickly replaced the opening sequence of images.
    ‘ We can see that the rear door has definitely been forced. Several shoe prints have been lifted from the panels indicating it had been kicked in.’ He paused a few seconds and then introduced a wide shot of the kitchen. Gemma’s corpse dominated the picture, surrounded by blood. Its earlier crimson colour was now dirty brown. ‘The post-mortem has revealed a catalogue of injuries, both old and new, on Gemma’s body. Two of those were equally severe enough to have caused her death. The first was a six-inch long cut to her throat and the second was a penetrating stab wound to her chest. The knife was still embedded in her chest when uniform and paramedics got there.’ Gripping the remote even tighter in his right hand Mike tapped the open palm of his left. ‘Gemma had other stab wounds – two to the right side of her thigh and one to the stomach. She had defence wounds to both hands and arms. In fact, one of those injuries severed the tendons of her right hand. It looks as if she attempted to grab the knife away from her attacker.’
    That last sentence jarred Hunter ’s concentration. The bloodied handprint upon the fridge door momentarily flashed inside his head again and an involuntary shudder ran down his spine.
    Mike continued, ‘She also had bruising to her face. The pathologist has determined that three of the bruises were old ones and puts them in the region of being approximately one week old. Those are more than likely the injuries she received when she reported the assault carried out by Adam Fields. I’ve requested those photos she had taken when she reported the assault for comparison. There is a fresh bruise to her left cheek, just below her eye. That more than likely happened during