The English Assassin Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the river and was making it flood over the embankment. A few corpses were washed up and there was other, fouler, flotsam, too.
    Jerry went back to the skylight and put his feet on the scarred wooden steps. He was going inside. Coming, major?
    No, I’ll stop here for a while, old son. And keep your chin up, eh?
    Thanks, major. Same to you.
    Jerry climbed down into the ruined bedroom and stood staring at the dreadful corpse of the girl in the four-poster. The rats ignored him and went on eating. He aimed the gun but, after a minute or two, replaced it in his holster without shooting. Even the rats couldn’t last much longer.

     
THE ALTERNATIVE APOCALYPSE 2
    Smoothly, with mock apologetic smiles, they nailed him to the lowest yard of the mizzen. They were standing off the Kent coast, near Romney, out of sight of land. The three-masted schooner-rigged yacht rocked in the heavy sea. The sea tugged at the anchors, hurled its weight against the white sides. Waiting for the waters to subside, they paused in the hammering. Almost expectantly they looked up at him. The two women, who had nailed his hands, were Karen von Krupp and Mitzi Beesley. They were dressed in deck pyjamas and chic little sailormen’s hats. The man who had nailed his feet was his brother Frank. Frank wore grey flannels, a white open-necked shirt and a fairisle pullover. He was kneeling beside the mizzen, the hammer in both hands.
    Jerry spoke with great control. I made no claims.
    But many were made
for
you, said Bishop Beesley through a mouthful of beige fudge. He stood by the rail, his bottom wedged against it. You didn’t deny them.
    I deny nothing. Have I disagreed with your opinion?
    No. But, then, I’m not sure…
    We have that in common, at least.
    The sea grew calm. Bishop Beesley made an impatient gesture, withdrawing a Mars bar from under his surplice. The three resumed their hammering.
    Together with the nails in his palms there were ropes supporting his wrists so that the weight of his hanging body would not rip the impaled flesh too quickly, for they wanted him to die of asphyxiation, not of pain or loss of blood alone. He breathed hard. The sharp pressure increased in his chest. The last blows fell. The three stood back to inspect their work. The corpulent Bishop Beesley licked his lips, sniffed the odour of the stale sea.
    Dead fish, said the bishop. Dead fish.

     
LATE NEWS
    Alan Stuart, aged four, who sprayed his mouth with what is believed to have been a pressurised oven cleaner at his home in Benhillwood Road, Sutton, Surrey, has died in hospital.
    The Sun
, 28 September, 1971
    A boy aged 14 died after being stabbed in the chest in the playground of Wandsworth School, South London, yesterday. He died in Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, soon after the stabbing, which happened during the morning break at the boys’ comprehensive school. Last night another boy, also aged 14, was accused of the murder. He will appear at Southwark North juvenile court today.
    Guardian
, 19 November, 1971
    Shirley Wilkinson, aged 16, daughter of the train robber Jack Wilkinson, died last night in the South London hospital where she had been detained after being injured in a car crash.
    Guardian
, 20 November, 1971
    Scores of rush-hour cars flashed by as a 10-year-old girl fled naked and terrified from a sex maniac. But not one driver stopped. And motorists took no notice of the girl’s frantic cries for help as the man dragged her into his car. Later the man raped and strangled her. The body of little Jane Hanley was found at the weekend in a field outside Rochester, New York. “At least 100 people must have seen her,” said a policeman. “She had apparently been kidnapped but jumped from the man’s car and pleaded with passing motorists to help. The kidnapper grabbed her and drove off again.” Now rewards totalling £2,500 have been offered by newspapers and citizens’ organisations for information leading to the killer. Three drivers have now