Cruel Minds Read Online Free PDF Page A

gruesome tales from the annals of history, particularly if they involved beheadings or burnings at the stake.
    “You can take the teacher out of the school but you can’t take the school out of the teacher,” Jerome said. He looked up at the tree canopies whipping past overhead.
    A twinge of anxiety broke through Emily’s excitement. She didn’t want to think about school or being a teacher. That part of her life was over and she had no business revisiting it.
    As they drove deeper into the forest, she refocused her attention on the surrounding greenery. Living in London had its merits but she still missed the unpolluted air of the countryside. The pace of life was so different as well. While London was in constant motion, a great machine where its millions of inhabitants were the cogs that kept it moving, the countryside was governed by nothing and no one. It was alive; a living, breathing entity that had existed long before people and was likely to continue existing long after they’d faded into the ether.
    The trees began to fall back, replaced by grassland and roadside cottages with thatched roofs. Minutes later, they came upon the ancient village of Lyndhurst, which had stood for at least a thousand years and was known as the New Forest’s capital. The high street was busy. Scores of tourists ambled along the pavements, cameras snapping pictures of the Tudor and medieval architecture. Others had their phones out, taking selfies next to the village’s other visitors—a small herd of cattle trotting along the road, snout to tail.
    Emily drove on, leaving the sights of Lyndhurst dwindling in the windscreen mirror. In the passenger seat, Jerome shook his head. They passed more cottages. Then, as the road passed by Emery Down, it narrowed into a single lane. Trees grew up again, immersing the car and its passengers in a shadowy expanse of greens and browns.
    “Do they at least have a TV at this place?” Jerome asked. They were the first words he’d spoken in fifteen minutes.
    Emily shrugged. A car was approaching from the opposite direction. She slowed, pulling over to let it pass. “You didn’t have to come along if you didn’t want to. I just thought it would be nice.”
    “I know. But look what happened the last time you were left alone.”
    “I don’t need a chaperone, thank you very much. I’m twenty-seven years old.”
    The forest grew thicker, the light darker. The coolness of the shade prickled Emily’s skin, distracting her from the irritation burning in her chest like indigestion. By the time she turned off the road minutes later, that irritation had given away to determination. She was going to have a relaxing weekend, even if it killed her. Although his current expression said otherwise, she was sure Jerome would too; just as soon as he’d rid himself of his hangover.
    Pulling into a small stretch of gravel that served as a car park, Emily wedged the Peugeot in between two other vehicles and killed the engine. In front of them was a large, flat meadow where families of fallow deer, many of them with unusual white coats, grazed on feed left by local park keepers. Jerome stared up at the large sign that stood at the car park entrance.
    “Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary? If I knew we were going hunting, I would have brought my trapper hat.”
    To the left of the parked vehicles, clusters of visitors stood watching on a purpose-built viewing platform. One young boy leant over the railings, shouting and jeering at the placid-looking creatures while his family clicked away on their phones and cameras. All around the deer sanctuary, the ancient oak trees of Bolderwood rolled out as far as the eye could see.
    “This doesn’t much look like a retreat to me,” Jerome said, wrinkling his face.
    Emily nodded. “It’s our meeting point. Meadow Pines is a little tricky to get to by car, so we’re getting picked up.”
    “Exactly where are you taking me?”
    Smiling, Emily pushed open the driver door.