No Mercy Read Online Free PDF Page B

What voices are those?’
    ‘The voices of the spirits. All those dead people chattering away, trying to make themselves heard. Now, some folk can’t hear them, but to Eli, they’re as clear as a bell.’
    Maddie looked up at him, her eyes widening. ‘Jesus, tell me you’re kidding.’
    ‘Straight up.’
    ‘Don’t you find that a little worrying?’
    Rick laughed again. ‘Nah, he’s harmless enough. Anyway, who’s to say he’s wrong? Maybe he’s one of those psychics, able to tune in to the other world.’
    She kept her gaze on his face, wondering if he was actually being serious or if this was just another of his wind-ups. ‘For real, or are you having me on?’
    Rick put his hand on his heart. ‘Swear to God. He reckons he can hear them, and who am I to call him nuts?’
    Maddie gave a shudder as they approached the grave of Lucy Rivers. ‘Bizarre,’ she murmured.
    ‘And the voices are especially strong round these parts. So Eli reckons. Men, women, kids – all of them with something to say, and most of it none too pretty. Yeah, it’s real busy round here. Seems like the spirits aren’t resting too easy.’
    ‘You don’t really believe in that ghost stuff, do you?’
    Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks, his body becoming rigid. ‘What’s that?’
    Maddie started, her heart missing a beat. ‘What?’ she asked, her eyes darting frantically from side to side before finally coming to rest on his face again. He was grinning from ear to ear. ‘You bastard,’ she said, slapping him on the arm. ‘Cut it out. I don’t scare that easy.’
    ‘You just jumped three feet off the ground.’
    ‘Did not.’
    ‘Yes, you did.’
    Maddie gave a snort. ‘Anyone ever tell you how annoying you are?’
    ‘Frequently.’ He walked past the grave and on to the narrow, winding path that was so overgrown as to be almost invisible. There were tall stinging nettles, clumps of buttercups and wild briar roses. ‘This where you saw the geezer?’
    ‘Yes, in among the bushes there.’
    Maddie followed behind, her gaze shifting between the undergrowth and Rick’s tall, lean body. Today he was wearing faded jeans and a dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Through the thin cotton, she could see the contours of the muscles on his upper arms. His hair, usually the colour of wheat, had been bleached by the sun so that now it was streaked with a paler blond. She took all this in, aware that she was paying more attention to him than the job in hand. Well, she could look, couldn’t she? A girl deserved a few small pleasures in life.
    Rick veered off to the right, strolling round the old ivy-clad mausoleum of the Belvedere family. It was about seven feet square and built of a grey brick that had weathered to a silvery colour. There was a heavy arched door and he pressed against it with the palm of his hand. ‘Could have been someone checking out a place to kip.’
    She pulled a face. ‘Do people actually do that? I mean, isn’t it full of coffins?’
    ‘Gets cold at night, even in this weather. Beggars can’t be choosers.’
    ‘I guess,’ she said, wondering what it would be like to be so desperate that sleeping with the dead became a viable option. A thin shiver ran through her. The mausoleum had been built in the nineteenth century, and she read through the inscriptions, the list of six Belvederes interred in the tomb. Once, she thought, they must have been a prominent family, wealthy enough to afford the more ostentatious kind of burial place. Now, all of them were long gone, all of them forgotten.
    ‘Still locked,’ he said, moving away. ‘And there’s no sign of anyone trying to get in.’
    Maddie was pondering on the transient nature of life when she glanced at the ground near the foot of the door and saw a couple of cigarette stubs partly crushed into the earth. She crouched down and picked one up with her fingertips. ‘Look at this,’ she said, straightening up again and holding it out.
    Rick