Gone to Ground Read Online Free PDF Page A

relationship between them. Not lovers necessarily, but, Will thought, two people who knew one another quite well and were at ease in one another's company.
    Despite his protestations, Mark McKusick could easily be made to fit either version of the story.
     
    Paul Irving was the family liaison officer attached to the case, and it was his responsibility to accompany McKusick to the viewing of Stephen Bryan's body. Irving was a slim, bespectacled man with light-brown hair and an unassuming expression that could easily be read as sympathetic. Looks aside, perhaps his greatest asset as liaison officer was a voice that was low and warm and, in other circumstances, could have been used to sell toilet paper or personal insurance.
    Will had made it clear that he wanted to be present, but if he had been expecting McKusick to break down and reveal something crucial, he was disappointed. Tears came readily to McKusick's eyes at the sight of his former lover's body, but that was all; although visibly shaken, there were no histrionics, there was no more self-flagellation. Instead, for several minutes, McKusick closed his eyes and his lips moved in what Will assumed was silent prayer. Then he turned and, head bowed, walked away.
    Irving raised an eyebrow questioningly in Will's direction and Will shrugged and shook his head. Later that day, Irving would be meeting Bryan's family at the railway station and escorting them to see what was barely recognizable as their son.
    "Well," Irving said, "he didn't exactly break down and confess."
    "That'll be the day when they do."
    "How is it going?"
    Will raised a smile. "Slowly?"
     
    House-to-house enquiries had so far yielded little: Stephen Bryan's neighbours were the type that kept to themselves, eyes glued to the screens of their home computers or, given the demographics of the area, whatever documentaries were being shown on BBG4. No one had noticed anything suspicious at or around the time of Bryan's murder; nobody had seen what Will wanted: Stephen Bryan entering the house with another man, McRusick or someone else, as yet unknown. Nor had they seen somebody other than Bryan leaving alone.
    Will and Helen, separately or together, had had initial conversations with Bryan's former colleagues in the Department of Communication Studies at the university: Bryan, though not yet all that well-known, had been generally liked and respected as someone who prepared his lectures assiduously and seemed to take his departmental responsibilities seriously. His students, by all accounts, had responded well to his manner and his teaching.
    "You ever feel," Will asked as they were driving back from the main campus, "no matter how far you go, you're not really getting anywhere?"
    Helen stared back at him scornfully, as if the question didn't deserve answering.
     
    "McKusick," Helen said. "That's where we're concentrating?"
    Unable to find a space in the station car park, they found one on the street close by.
    "Until someone can show me a better suspect," Will said, "yes."
    Helen lowered one of the windows and lit a cigarette. "The motive being rejection? Bryan calling a halt to the relationship?"
    "I think McKusick believed what he told us," Will said. "The break-up was only temporary, some kind of breathing space."
    "And Bryan thought otherwise?"
    "Who knows? He might even have had his reasons for allowing McKusick to think the door wasn't completely closed."
    "Letting him off lightly?"
    "Trying to."
    "But McKusick pushes him..."
    "Wants a decision..."
    "Urges Bryan to change his mind."
    "Pushes him too hard until what he finally hears from Bryan is the truth. It's over. Bryan's not going to change his mind at all." Will clicked forefinger against thumb. "McKusick finally snaps. Bingo."
    "While Bryan's in the shower?" Helen said. "They're arguing in the shower?"
    "No, the argument's over by then. As far as Bryan's concerned, anyway. Gould be he even takes a shower as a way of saying to McKusick, listen,