The Kill Read Online Free PDF

second hand.’ Godley looked around at us, the light from the marquee throwing half of his face into shadow. ‘Does everyone have a way to get to the scene from here?’
    ‘I’m all right,’ Chris said, and Dave Kemp nodded too. Chris was divorced and Dave had come on his own, just like Derwent. I wondered if he’d had his eye on Beth too. Dave was young and good-looking in a boyish way. Blue eyes, fair hair and a ready smile would give him a shot with most girls. He hadn’t had a chance, once Derwent decided he wanted Beth. Dave was just too safe. I shivered as the breeze sighed across the garden, rustling leaves around us.
    ‘I’ll need a lift,’ Colin Vale said. ‘I’ll be in even worse trouble with the wife if I take the car.’
    ‘You can come with me,’ Godley said. ‘Maeve?’
    ‘Oh. I should probably get a lift too.’ I hadn’t even thought about how Rob was going to get back to London, but of course I wouldn’t be back before he needed to leave. He’d cancel the second night in the hotel. He was practical about these things. He wouldn’t mind as much as I did.
    ‘She can come with me,’ Derwent said, as if he was conferring a tremendous honour on me.
    ‘There’s room in my car,’ Godley said after a couple of seconds, and I realised everyone was staring at me. I should have said thank you immediately. I should have been more guarded about my expression.
    ‘No, that’s fine. Thank you, sir,’ I said to Derwent, who glowered back at me. He wasn’t placated. He didn’t know the meaning of the word.
    ‘All right. Drive carefully, everyone. It’s late and he’s already dead. They’re preserving the scene until we get there so I don’t want anyone to break the speed limit. And for God’s sake stop if you need to get coffee. It’s going to be a long night.’ Godley nodded to Colin and the two of them set off towards the sleek black Mercedes that was Godley’s pride and joy. I wished I was going with them. Chris and Dave followed, heads down, hands in their pockets. It wasn’t how any of us had wanted the night to end.
    ‘Do you need to say goodbye to your bloke?’ Derwent asked.
    ‘I should,’ I said.
    ‘Be quick.’ He was already walking away and I hurried to catch up. ‘You’ll need to get changed too.’
    ‘I was planning to.’
    ‘Can’t crawl around a crime scene looking like that.’
    ‘I’d already come to that conclusion myself.’
    ‘So hurry up.’ Derwent kept walking, away from the marquee, and I watched him go for a second before I remembered what I had to do.
    Rob was standing up when I went to find him. He’d sobered up somehow, and I could see from the other side of the dance floor that he was fully aware of what was going on.
    ‘Bad luck.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘There’s nothing I can do.’
    ‘I understand. Is it bad?’
    ‘Police officer.’
    He frowned. ‘On duty?’
    ‘He’d just come off late turn. He was on his way home.’ Which reminded me. ‘I’ll leave you the car, okay? Can you pack for me?’
    ‘No problem.’
    I leaned in and kissed him, but briefly. ‘I’ll see you back in London.’
    ‘Fine,’ Rob said, his mind obviously elsewhere. ‘Is Derwent driving you?’
    I wondered why he was asking. ‘Yes. He offered.’
    Rob picked up my hand and kissed the palm. ‘I’ll miss you. Be careful, Maeve, all right?’
    I couldn’t tell if it was my guilty conscience or his gift for mind-reading that made me think he wasn’t talking about road safety. Not that I needed telling. That moment with Derwent earlier had been like looking through a doorway into a dark room. Like every heroine in a horror film, I’d been tempted to go in. And every horror film I’d ever seen proved that that would have been a bad idea. At least, and thank God, he hadn’t actually been thinking that way about me. The awkwardness was all on my side, and if I could hide it well enough, no one need ever know.
    Travelling at that hour of the