Scaredy Cat Read Online Free PDF Page A

was here in my room, talking to me. I knew his voice straight away. But it was also a voice I recognised from after it happened. My brain has gone to mush. He sat by my bed and squeezed my hand and tried to tel me why he'd done it. But I didn't real y understand. He was tel ing me how SLEEPYHEAD 31
    I should be happy. That voice had told me to enjoy myself as he handed me the champagne bottle and I took a swig.
    I must have invited him in. I must have. Isuppose the police know that. I wonder if they've told Tim?
    Now that dreams are the closest thing I have to sensation, they've become so vivid. It would be fantastic if you could press a button and choose what you were going to dream about.
    Obviously someone would have to press the button for me, but a selection of family and friends with a healthy degree of filth thrown in would be nice.
    Mind you, once you've been fucked to this degree, a shag is neither here nor there, real y, is it?
    THREE
    Thorne had been wrong about the summer: after a fortnight's holiday of its own, it had returned with a sticky vengeance, and the siren cal of the launderette could no longer be ignored.
    He was horribly aware of the smel coming off him as he sat sweltering in Frank Keable's office. They were talking about lists.
    'We're concentrating on doctors currently on rotation in inner London, sir.'
    Frank Keable was only a year or two older than Thorne but looked fifty. This was more due to some genetic glitch than any kind of stress. The lads reckoned he must have started receding at about the same time he hit puberty, judging by the proximity of his hairline to the nape of his neck Whatever hormones he had left that stimulated hair growth had somehow been mistakenly rerouted to his eyebrows, which hovered above his bright blue eyes like great grey caterpil ars. The eyebrows were highly expressive and gave him an air of wisdom that was, to put it kindly, fortunate. Nobody begrudged him this bit of luck - it was the least you could hope for when you looked like an overfed owl with alopecia.
    Keable put one of his caterpil ars to good use, raising it questioningly. 'It might be best to look a bit further afield, SLEEPYHEAD 33
    Tom. We'd be covering our bases, should the worst happen. We're not short of manpower.'

    Thorne looked sceptical but Keable sounded confident.
    'It's a big case, Tom, you know that. If you need the bodies to widen things out a bit, I can swing it.'
    'Let's have them anyway, sir, it's an enormous list. But
    I'm sure he's local.'
    'The note?'
    Thorne felt again the heavy drops of rain that had crawled inside his shirt col ar and trickled down between his shoulder-blades. He could stil sense the polythene between his fingers and thumbs, as he'd read the kil er's words while the water ran down into his eyes, like tears coming home.
    The kil er had known where Alison was being treated. He was obviously fol owing the case closely. Theirs as wel as hers.
    'Yes, the note. And the locations. I think he'd want to be
    around to keep an eye on things.'
    To monitor his work.
    'Is it worth putting a watch on the hospital?'
    'With respect, sir, the place is crawling with doctors... I can't see the point at the minute.' His eyes drifted to the calendar on the dirty yeltow wal - views of the West Country. Keable was original y from Bristol... The heat was making it hard to concentrate. Thorne undid another button on his shirt. Polyester. Not clever. 'Is there any chance of moving that fan round a bit?'
    'Oh, sorry, Tom.'
    Keable flicked a switch on his black desktop fan, which started to swing backwards and forwards, providing Thorne with a welcome blast of cold air every thirty 34 MARK BILLINGHAM
    seconds or so. Keable leaned back in his chair and puffed out his cheeks. 'You don't think we're going to crack this, do you, Tom?'
    Thorne closed his eyes as the fan swung back in his direction.
    'Tom, is this about the Calvert case?'
    Thorne looked at the calendar. Two weeks now since they'd