Evil Turn (Nathan Hawk Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

that none of that had put me in a better frame of mind. He held up both hands to fend off the immediate future.
    “Nathan, if you don’t want it to happen, that’s an end...”
    “Why weren’t you straight with me, right from the start?!”
    He had an answer for that as well but I didn’t like it. There was a chance the current list of safe houses had been compromised. The situation here in Winchendon, quiet village, no through road, few callers, was perfect, but if at any point I’d said one of the kids was living here, or I was in a permanent relationship, he’d have called it off and I’d have been none the wiser. I translated that for him. He hadn’t wanted me to know that he was reeling me in.
    I screwed the top back on the whisky, took the glasses to the drainer, then moved the odd item of furniture out of harm’s way. He must have recognised the signs from the old days. Any second now I would reach for someone’s head and slam it down on a hard surface, and since he was the only person in the room...
    “I’d better go,” he said. He took his anorak from the back of the chair and stroked out non-existent creases.
    “Before you do, Tom, hear this. Your family might not give a toss if a bunch of Paddies break in and blow your brains out. Mine would. They’d be...” I pretended to search for the word. “...upset.”
    “It wouldn’t happen, Nathan. You’d have a top flight team here, armed, experienced...”
    “Christ Almighty, now it’s a house party! Listen, you may not figure much in your kids’ lives. Each to his own.” He was shaking his head now, avoiding my gaze. “I mean all you’ve said is that Georgina got married, and you didn’t seem too chuffed about that! What about the boy?”
    “Graham?”
    “Not a mention. I never knew a man who didn’t boast about his son, no matter how well or badly they got on...”
    “We lost him.”
    Even though I’d understood him completely I still asked, “What do you mean, you lost him?”
    “He was killed, just before Christmas. Big pile-up on the A34. Three cars. I just hope he died before they burst into flames. Strange thing to say, I know...”
    I didn’t want him to stop talking because it meant the next words would have to be mine. He spared me.
    “It’s difficult telling people. They’re sympathetic, of course, but most of them don’t know when to stop. For Karen it just relives the whole business. For me, I have to go right back to the first days, seeing her through it while grieving myself...”
    “Fucking hell, Tom,” I said.
    He smiled, faintly. “I knew you’d have the right words, Nathan.”
    I slumped into the chair at my end and watched as he put the anorak back on and zipped it up. He gestured for me to stay seated as he stretched out a hand.
    “Good to see you. You haven’t changed.”
    He went over to the door and as he reached it, grabbed the handle, a hundred voices in my head were begging me not to say what came out of my mouth next.
    “Hang on a second.”
    The handle snapped back and he turned to me.
    “This case is important to you, personally? Have you got drugs in the family?”
    “Not that I know of. You?”
    “Connor. He got a grip on it but it wasn’t easy. Sit down again.” He protested with a painful grimace. “Take your coat off, switch that bloody coffee maker off, pour us both some.”
    He did as I’d asked and came slowly back to the table with two mugs. “This may sound trite, but losing a child does so many things. Graham’s death made me consider the morality of what we do in our job sometimes. I think we fall short too often...”
    He broke off as if he’d said too much or maybe not enough. Either way, I could hardly challenge him.
    “How long would this Liam Kinsella be here?” I asked.
    “Four, five weeks at the most.”
    “How many people apart from him?”
    “Just two from Special Ops. Fewer the better, or at least that’s what I tell myself. Truth is, I haven’t got the