No Mercy Read Online Free PDF

both of them had travelled down to the training mansion in remote Surrey. A younger head of training called Nick had taken over from the older Sarge, who had gone on holiday.
    'I'm going to kill you,' he had yelled at her as his first greeting.
    He hadn't been joking. She'd been hauled out of bed at seven, hustled along to the showers, allowed five minutes to get dressed and permitted ten minutes for breakfast. With a fresh training outfit he'd led her out to the acres of training area.
    'You have one hour to complete the course with me on your heels all the way,' Nick had announced. 'Now run a mile and then keep moving on the obstacle course.'
    It had been a diabolical experience but she'd returned to Park Crescent feeling much fitter. The extraordinary sequel to this event was Tweed, travelling down a week later, completing the same.
    No wonder he was hurtling up behind her. She looked down a steep slope, saw a wide stream at the bottom crossed by a three-span bridge built of large stone slabs perched on granite pillars. She paused as Tweed stood beside her.
    'What they call a clapper bridge,' he said. 'Constructed ages ago of enormous granite blocks.'
    Michael had walked swiftly across the bridge despite the fact that the slabs looked slippery in the moonlight. It did not fill her with confidence. She glanced to her right, pointed.
    'There's that aircraft again. It's still following us.'
    'I told you this part of the world is full of that type of plane.'
    'Tweed!' she snapped. 'I'm sure I saw the same plane cruising in the distance well before Exeter - and after we'd left that place behind.' She gripped Tweed's arm. 'My God! It's going to hit the huge rock perched on that ridge.'
    They paused, standing very still.
    'He's going to crash,' Paula whispered.
    'Looks rather dicey,' Tweed agreed. 'I hope the pilot isn't. . .'
    The plane flew on, disappeared behind the massive rock. He had obviously seen it from his height. Paula walked on, gazing at the clapper bridge. Don't like that, she was thinking. Gritting her teeth, she walked on to the first slab.
    She crossed the bridge, turned to watch Tweed, her heart in her mouth. He crossed it calmly. He talked as they followed Michael, who had slowed down.
    'Buchanan's flying down in a chopper with a technical team. He's bringing the pathologist Professor Saafeld with him. Said there's something he forgot to give me, so he's bringing that too.'
    'He's talking as though you're in charge of this case. And now it's murder.'
    'I'm becoming intrigued. And I suspect that's Abbey Grange.'
    He pointed into the near distance, where a final ridge was silhouetted in the moonlight. Perched on top of it, Paula could vaguely make out a large, long, two-storey house which was very old and had a mansard roof. Volkanian's retreat. Tweed pointed to their right.
    'Hook-Nose Tor. Eighteen hundred feet high. The view from the summit must be magnificent.'
    Well, you can climb that, Paula said to herself. She didn't like it. -Glancing round across the endless sweeps of moorland, rolling, dipping, then rising again, she shivered inwardly.
    The further they went, the more Dartmoor seemed to close round them. Nor could she get out of her mind the skeleton, the photo of the poor man at the edge of the track. She was pretty sure it was a man.
    Abbey Grange was built of granite, probably using some of the original monastery walls. Lights shone behind the leaded panes. A wide flight of steps led up to a terrace, which ran the length of the Grange. From what she could see, the mansion was well maintained and above them, at the top of the steps, tubs stood on either side, each containing a trim evergreen shrub shaped like an exclamation mark.
    Michael had run up the steps and was hammering an iron ring on the massive front door. Tweed hurried after him, Paula by his side. From below she had seen to the left of the mansion the silhouette of a tall church bell tower. The massive door opened inwards.
    Framed against