No Other Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page B

is exactly the kind of freak who’d buy a house close to where he buried bodies years ago.’
    Marnie was silent for a second. Then she said, ‘Okay. I’ll look into that.’ She made it sound like a dead end. ‘Maybe someone will remember the bunker being built.’
    Welland sniffed again. ‘And find the bastard who put houses over it. We’ll hit him with a planning violation, if nothing else.’
    Noah said, ‘There’s a housing estate a couple of streets away, built in the sixties by the look of it. Someone there should remember any building that went on.’
    Marnie nodded. ‘We could use some extra hands,’ she told Welland.
    ‘Let’s hear how loud the press yelp first. That usually gets us attention in high places.’
    ‘You don’t want to try for a pre-emptive strike?’
    ‘On this budget? The only thing I’m pre-empting is an overdraft. You’ve got a good team.’ He nodded at Noah. ‘Stretch it.’
    Movement at the upstairs window of number 14 made him frown in that direction.
    ‘Who’s the ghoul?’
    Same curtain as before. It fell back into place when they looked up.
    ‘Clancy Brand,’ Marnie said. ‘The Doyles are fostering him.’
    ‘How old?’
    ‘Fourteen.’
    ‘Terrific.’ Welland wiped his nose with his fingers. ‘Try and keep his teenage hormones clear of our crime scene.’
     • • • 
    After Welland had left in his car, Marnie and Noah walked up to number 8.
    Douglas Cole’s house was a mid-terrace with the same unsmiling face as number 14. Marnie knocked on the door and they waited, but there was no answer. No car parked in the resident’s space. Empty bins outside; Noah checked.
    ‘Bin day,’ Marnie said. ‘I asked the Doyles. He’s probably on his way home. Come on.’
    They headed back to her car.
    ‘Did you speak with Clancy?’ she asked Noah. ‘When you saw him at the house?’
    ‘Not really. I asked if he was okay and he grunted at me. I’d say he’s a typical teenage boy. Not that I’m an expert on typical teenage boys . . .’
    ‘You’ve got a younger brother,’ she remembered.
    ‘Sol.’ Noah nodded. ‘He’s more typical than me, I guess.’
    ‘Typical is overrated . . . So you asked Clancy if he was okay.’
    ‘I tried to. He wasn’t exactly communicative. I’d say he’s not a fan of the police.’
    ‘You think he’s been in trouble with us?’
    ‘Possibly. Could just be an authority thing. You said he was off school.’
    ‘Beth says he’s sick, but I wonder if he’s been excluded.’
    Marnie put the wellingtons into a forensic bag in the boot of the car. ‘There’s something going on with him, something they didn’t want to talk to me about.’
    ‘I’ll check,’ Noah said again. ‘Clancy Brand, right?’
    ‘Yes.’ Marnie worked a crick from her neck with the heel of her hand, smelling the bunker in her clothes. ‘I met Carmen, their three-year-old. She looks like hard work. Tommy’s a toddler, and Beth’s pregnant again. We’ll need to be careful.’
    They got into the car.
    ‘Four kids . . . That’s not a family,’ Noah objected as he fastened his seat belt, ‘it’s a recruitment drive.’
    ‘You don’t believe in too much love?’
    ‘Not without a lot of alcohol involved. But what do I know?’
    ‘The Doyles must be doing something right for the system to let them foster.’ Marnie pulled out into the traffic headed back into town. ‘I like them, him especially. He was kind about the kids, didn’t want to leave them alone down there . . .’
    ‘Someone did,’ Noah said. ‘Otherwise how did it happen?’ He looked grim.
    Marnie knew he was trying hard to treat this case like any other. Knew, too, how impossible that was. Dead children changed everything.
    ‘Do you think they’re brothers?’ Noah asked.
    ‘Perhaps . . .’
    Hard to detect any physical resemblance between thechildren. Nearly impossible to detect any resemblance to anyone who’d once lived or laughed, or kicked a ball