DARK HOUSES a gripping detective thriller full of suspense Read Online Free PDF Page B

Better keep quiet for now. You haven’t told anyone else, have you?”
    “No. Only you. I trust you.”
    “Trust.” He pulled a face. “Dangerous that. You shouldn’t trust anyone.”
    “I want to do it again. The voice keeps telling me to. It never stops. It’s in here all the time.” Neville banged his head with the flat of his hand. “Will you sort it?” He smiled at the man. “You know about that too, don’t you? You know I can’t stop.”
    “What did you do to that girl, Neville?”
    “I hurt her. I hurt her bad and I . . . you know.” He sniggered. “She had no clothes on. I couldn’t help it.”
    “I said I’d give you a girl of your own. Stick with me. I keep my promises.” He clapped Neville on the back. “But you did more than hurt her. She’s dead, according to the papers.”
    “I didn’t want to kill her. Just her heart. The voice said she’d never love me. I had to do something. The voice wouldn’t let up. It kept on and on about how she’d leave me. How she’d go off with someone else. I couldn’t let her cheat on me. She’d make me unhappy. I had to do it.”
    “Kill a heart, you kill a person. That’s how it works, Neville.”
    “I didn’t know.”
    “What are you doing today?”
    “Are you going to take me out?”
    “No. I’ve got to work. You should stay here. Stay inside and don’t speak to anyone.”
    “Will they come and take me away?”
    “Not if you keep your head down.”
    “I want to see Edna. She makes me feel safe. Edna will know what to do.”
    “Bad idea.”
    “The voices say I must. She’ll know what to do. That’s what the voices say.”
    “Sod the voices! I’m telling you to stay in and lock the doors. If you don’t do as I say, I’ll shop you to the bloody police myself.”
    * * *
    “What’s with the boss taking Grace and not you?” DC Craig Merrick asked Speedy.
    “Don’t give a toss what he does. The less I have to do the better, mate, especially with him. I’m sick of the job to be honest.”
    Jed Quickenden had been at the briefing but he’d hardly heard a word. He had paid attention only to Grace. He’d been lusting after her for months, but she completely ignored him.
    “Come off it, Speedy, you don’t mean that. People will forget the Geegee business and things will settle down, you’ll see.”
    “If there’s one thing I know about the folk around here it’s that they’ve got long memories. No one is ever going to trust me again. I grew up in this town, now half of it avoids me.”
    “They don’t like me much either.” Merrick grinned.
    He knew that the younger man looked up to him for some reason. “That’s because you’re a copper, stupid,” said Quickenden, slapping the back of Merrick’s head. “They didn’t mind me because I used to be like them, a bad boy. Now I’ll be lucky to reach my next birthday.”
    “Don’t be daft. No one would dare do you any harm. Grady Gibbs wasn’t that powerful. He had his enemies too.”
    “Then there’s all the other people who were upset — the Hussains for a start. They won’t be best pleased now their lucrative little import business has been snatched away.”
    “You need to chill, get your head together. You’ve got time owing, take it. Get away somewhere hot.”
    “Greco will never allow that.”
    “Go above his head. Ask Green. Tell him how you feel.”
    “He’ll think I’ve gone soft.”
    “If you ask me, that’s exactly what’s happened,” Merrick said. They were pulling into the shopping centre car park in Oldston.
    “Don’t you go saying anything.” Speedy poked his arm. “I’ve got enough on my plate without Greco on my case.”
    “Harvey & Sons are over there.”
    “Better get this over with,” said Quickenden.
    Andrew Harvey, the owner, was a small, bald man wearing round glasses. He flitted about the office, tweaking pictures of houses and straightening piles of brochures while he talked.
    “I’ve had the owner in. Shocked he was.