Falling Read Online Free PDF

ringing of his daughter’s mobile phone.
    And he knew then, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that nothing would ever be right again.
    Libby’s mobile lay on the floor, half hidden beneath the formica kitchen table.
    Funny how such a small thing can tell you everything that you need to know. When it’s your daughter, who you know inside and out, who you have cradled and fed and loved and watched as she grows into the most remarkable young woman you have ever seen. When you and her brother have teased her a hundred times for that mobile phone that she is never, ever without.
    “Look, mate, she’s a big girl. If it’d been a couple of days, well, okay, but a couple of hours…Sorry, but my hands are tied.” Sipping his coffee, because he could. This was nothing to him.
    “She didn’t show up to work. This morning.”
    He’d rung her sergeant. Nice kid, had worked under Jim in his last few years of service.
    “Ceri. It’s Jim Hanover.”
    “Hiya boss. How you doing?”
    “Ceri.” No time for small talk. “Sorry to bother you. I’m actually looking for Libby.” Quick false laugh, because then perhaps his heart will stop beating so hard. “Silly sod left her phone at home.”
    There was silence on the line, and Jim found himself praying for maybe the first time in twenty years. Because he knew what silences like that meant.
    Then, “Ah, boss, the um…look, thing is I’ve been trying to get hold of her myself. She never turned up for work this morning.”
    Had closed his eyes, and the world had swirled around him, opportunity for an easy answer dimming to an ember.
    Jim had hoped that Nate, the DI, would be there. He had blown into the station, Irene on the front desk who he’d known forever, who’d bought his kids Christmas presents, whose flat tyre he’d changed, buzzing him through, seeing the look on his face and asking no questions. If Nate had been there it would have been okay. Because Nate knew him, knew that there was no way Jim would be there if he didn’t have to be. That Jim Hanover didn’t piss about. Instead there was this child, with his unpolished shoes, the phone that never leaves his fingers. Looking up as Jim entered the CID office, a barely disguised sigh of impatience. Staring as Jim had stood there, spilling the story about his daughter’s empty house and the jacket and the phone and the blood, all the while this kid standing there, playing on his phone, the occasional “uh huh”, even though it’s obvious he’s not listening.
    The kid scratched his ear with a pencil. “Well, what about family? Friends? Anyone spoken to her?”
    Jim should have called his son, Ethan. Maybe he’d have heard from her. Although privately Jim doubted it, given what had just happened. Couldn’t see Libby confiding her deepest secrets in her elder brother. Not the way things were between them now.
    “No, I…Look, I just know that something’s wrong.” Could hear it, how vapid it sounded, could see how he must look to this kid with the world laid out at his feet, no wedding ring, no pictures of kids on his desk. A daft old git who can’t let go of the police force.
    “Tell you what, I’ll make a note. Anything comes up, I’ll give you a shout. But to be honest, mate, best bet is to head off home. She’ll show up.”
    “Look, kid, something’s happened. She’s a police officer, for god’s sake. She hasn’t shown up to work. That doesn’t mean anything?”
    “Sounds like an issue for professional standards to me.”
    “Oh for fuck’s… I did this job long enough. You really think I’d be here if I didn’t know there was an issue?”
    His face had flattened out. He was losing him.
    “Look, please…” The word tasted uncomfortable in his mouth. “Please. She is reliable. She is dedicated. She has never missed a day. She is never without her phone. And the blood…”
    Then there was a look on the detective’s face, the dawning realisation that he should have been listening, that