Night Watcher Read Online Free PDF Page A

restlessly. ‘I’ll leave you to it then.’
    ‘Yes,’ Julie said.
    After the woman left, Julie sat in the ancient moquette armchair. This was where Dave sat, she thought, running her hand over the chair arm. A puff of dust flew upwards, tickling her nose, making her sneeze.
    She pushed herself out of the chair, raising another dust cloud. It would not take long to pack his belongings. He did not have much, only his clothes. He had never returned to collect all the other things he had left behind in Edinburgh, which was why she had always been so sure he would come home.
    Tears gathered in her eyes, forcing themselves past her eyelids to trickle down her cheeks. Why did he have to do something so stupid? Why didn’t he just come home? Things could have been sorted out.
    But it had been beyond sorting. She had known that for months.
    She remembered the parting. ‘Why do you have to go?’ she had shouted, unable to control her voice.
    ‘It’s no use,’ he’d said. ‘We can’t go on like this. It’s not honest.’
    ‘You’re the one who’s cheating.’
    He had just looked at her and walked away.
    ‘She’s not worth it,’ she had screamed after him, but he had not heard her. Now she could not even say, ‘I told you so.’
    Julie laid a suitcase on the unmade bed. She opened it and started to pack his clothes: two suits, four shirts, four ties, seven pairs of socks. He had always liked fresh socks, couldn’t bear to wear the same socks two days running. Two pairs of shoes, seven boxer shorts, he had never liked briefs. No pyjamas.
    He had always worn pyjamas with her, except for the honeymoon period. Tears gathered in her eyes. He must have still been in the honeymoon period when he’d had that last argument with Nicole.
    The photograph of Nicole lay, beside its smashed frame and shards of glass, on the table. Julie’s eyes kept flicking past it, willing it not to be there. She did not want to see it, but it would not go away.
    She snapped the locks of the suitcase shut then roamed the flat, checking the inventory, and making sure she had not left anything of Dave’s behind.
    But there was still the photograph.
    She sat on the edge of the bed and stared at it. Her hand reached out and picked it up, shaking the fragments of glass free. If it had not been for this woman, Dave would still be alive. The beginning of a plan started to formulate in her head. Nicole was not going to get away with stealing someone else’s husband and driving him to his death. Julie was going to make sure she paid.
    She slipped the photograph into her pocket. When it was all over, when she had done what she had to do, she would burn it.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Chief Inspector, Andy Turnbull toyed with a pencil. ‘You’re sure it was suicide?’
    ‘I’m as sure as anyone could be. It looked as if he’d tied the rope to the banister and then thrown himself over.’
    ‘Forensic results?’
    ‘Nothing suspicious there.’
    ‘What about the post-mortem?’
    ‘It just confirmed what I’d already surmised.’
    ‘And the Procurator Fiscal?’
    ‘He agrees. He’s not pursuing it any further.’
    Andy tapped the open file with his pencil. ‘Any joy trying to trace the mystery woman?’
    ‘No. Apparently they had a ding-dong of a row that all the neighbours heard. But he was still alive after she left. According to them he was swearing and kicking walls so they stayed out of the way.’
    ‘You sure none of the neighbours knew who she was?’
    Detective Sergeant Bill Murphy nodded his head. ‘The guy on the top floor said she was a classy piece of stuff, but that’s all we know. He had a wife in Edinburgh, though, so I got the local force to inform her.’
    Andy closed the brown cardboard file. ‘I guess that’s it then.’
    ***
    Adrian had learned never to open his front door without checking who was outside, but when he looked through the peephole it took him several moments to realize that the woman standing there was