Last Rites Read Online Free PDF

returned with two coffees. ‘No, I'm not,’ she said, and handed me one of the cups.
    I sat down, and I felt my knees rise up as I sank into a broken old couch.
    ‘You found Luke. That makes you part of it,’ I countered.
    She sat down on a chair opposite and thought for a moment. She pulled her legs onto the cushion and took a drink, watching me over the top of the cup. ‘So what do you want to know?’
    ‘The story,’ I replied.
    Katie drank her coffee for a while, and then said, ‘If you've read the papers you'll know most of it. Sarah's a teacher. She couldn't pay for the house without a lodger. She put a notice on the college notice-board. I saw it and got in touch.’
    I nodded and smiled, played at being the interested journalist: sympathetic glances; faked empathy. I noticed that her body language was less defensive, and that her voice was quieter now. ‘I presume I'm talking to Katie Gray,’ I said, more as a comment than a question.
    Katie paused, and then smiled properly for the first time, her eyes twinkling.
    ‘You have read the papers,’ she said.
    ‘It's my job,’ I replied, and then asked, ‘What do you study?’
    ‘History,’ she said, and blew into her coffee as she watched me, the cup cradled in both hands. She looked younger now, more vulnerable. ‘So if you've seen the papers, you already know the story,’ she said. ‘You must want something more.’
    ‘Sarah's parents just want me to find her,’ I said, shrugging. ‘They are convinced she had nothing to do with her boyfriend's death, but the only way to prove it is to get Sarah to come home.’
    Katie nodded as she listened.
    ‘I know how Luke died,’ I continued, ‘and I can guess what the police think, but I need to know more.’
    She put her cup down on the floor and leaned forward. I thought I saw something in her eyes. Sadness? Loneliness?
    ‘Where have you been so far?’ she asked.
    ‘I've started here.’
    ‘Where else are you going to look?’
    I looked at her carefully when she said that. Katie seemed interested in my movements and I wondered why.
    ‘Wherever the facts take me,’ I replied cautiously.
    ‘How are Sarah's parents?’ Katie asked.
    ‘How well do you know them?’
    ‘Not much at all really. I'm just the lodger.’
    I thought back to the meeting in Sam's office. ‘Somewhere between frantic and sad,’ I said.
    Katie looked back and ran her fingers through herhair. She smiled at me and then asked, ‘What do you need to know?’
    ‘Just tell me about Sarah,’ I said simply.
    Katie watched me for a few seconds and I felt myself shuffle in my seat. I looked away, tried to take in the room. The walls looked sparkling clean. No cobwebs around the light-fittings, and the tabletop gleamed so that the scuffs and scratches seemed to catch the light and shine it back. Katie still lived in the house. Maybe the house had been cleaned to wipe out the memories of what had happened there.
    ‘She was fun,’ Katie started, making me look back, her voice low, so I had to lean in to catch what she was saying. ‘She wasn't like a teacher. She was more fun than that. Her parents live close by, but she wanted her own place. She moved in, but she bought the house at the top of the boom and so needed me to help with the mortgage, and that's it.’ Katie smiled wistfully. ‘We got on. We went out together, met some men together, just normal stuff. She started seeing Luke, and the rest, well, you know how it ended.’
    ‘Who was Luke?’
    ‘He was a personal trainer at the Pendle Gym. I reckon Sarah was different to most of the women he met. He could have had anyone at the gym. You know, he had the body, the smile, but Sarah was cooler than that. She was a bit prim and proper on the outside, and I think he liked that.’
    ‘And on the inside?’
    Katie laughed, blushing slightly. ‘I used to hear them in the night. She wasn't always so reserved.’
    ‘So Sarah liked him,’ I said.
    ‘Oh, it was more than