In the Light of Madness Read Online Free PDF Page B

blue tinged marks on his arms, too. They could see his jaw muscles twitching but at least the glare in his eyes was subsiding.
Wednesday turned her attention to Judith Wright who was sitting impassively at the chipped Formica table, hands trembling and the broken thread veins on her cheeks and nose glowing brightly.
“We’re doing everything we can to find your son,” said Wednesday, sitting down next to Judith. “You must be feeling very anxious.”
“She don’t feel nothing. Alcohol has dulled her senses,” interjected Des without a nuance of compassion. Judith looked up at him with her bloodshot eyes, but said nothing.
Lennox advised Des that he could either finish answering the questions there, or he could do it at the police station. He said it in such a way that Des knew he had no choice.
Wednesday noticed holes and dents in the walls and doors. If she was not mistaken, they were battle scars of domestic violence. She felt a rage brewing in her gut. “Would you like us to move to another room whilst they talk to your husband?”
“I ain’t got nothing to say to you. Just ’coz you have a posh suit and hair trussed up like a ballet dancer doesn’t mean you’re better than me.”
Wednesday was stunned by Judith’s ascorbic words whilst subconsciously touching the loose tendrils around her face; she wondered whether Judith was masking her fear of Des behind a barrage of insults. Before she had the chance to process her thoughts, Des began shouting again.
“There’s fucking four of you here. Who’s looking for Darren?”
Lennox tapped his fingers on the table and took a deep breath before addressing the irate man. “Mr Wright, I must ask you to stop swearing at us or you’ll be arrested. Now there’s a team out searching for Darren with sniffer dogs. He hasn’t been forgotten about.”
Des leant against the wall and stared out of the window, the redness in his face fading.
“Now so far, nothing has been found untoward on his laptop and I understand his mobile is switched off,” said Arlow, visibly more in control of his emotions. The dark circles of being a first-time father hung heavily below his eyes.
The detectives finished their interview, collating names, dates, and times relating to Darren. Judith Wright watched their every move with her bloodshot eyes.
 
Back at the station, the phones were incessantly ringing with people reporting sightings of Darren, all of which had to be sifted through by the indexers, Suzy Simmons and Audrey Smith. Thus far, none of the sightings had resulted in a positive outcome.
DCI Hunter was sitting in his office, rubbing the back of his neck when he saw Wednesday and Lennox return. He beckoned them into his office with a wave of his hand.
“Bring me up to speed,” he said, tension cramping his neck and shoulder muscles.
Wednesday took out her notebook. “Forensics’ preliminary report indicates that Tom Dolby was asphyxiated by smothering. They’ll give us fibre clues later. No signs of sexual assault.” She looked up to see that Hunter was still listening. “Tom’s mother is sedated and his father is distraught. No obvious evidence of foul play in the home . . .”
“That’s as may be, but we need to bear in mind that the victim often knows their killer. We must consider that someone placed an anonymous phone call and laid the body down with care,” interjected Hunter, drumming his fingers on his desk. “Someone close to him.”
Lennox ran his hand over his hedgehog-like hair. “We’ve just come from Darren Giles’s home. The stepdad was getting wound up by the journalists outside his house. He has a temper and fresh bruising on his neck, arms, and hands.”
“So why hasn’t he been brought in?” Hunter’s tone was not easy on the ear.
Wednesday could feel her neck going red and instinctively put her hand to her throat. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lennox remaining cool and collected in the face of adversity.
“There’s insufficient