The Night Hunter Read Online Free PDF

studying medicine. I stopped because the light was red. I got out because I thought I might be able to help. The woman was haemorrhaging internally, her pulse was weak and failing. She had a broken neck.’
    He nods, making a few more notes. I see David bending over, his hands on his knees, more retching. He straightens up and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand then starts pacing across the road again. As he turns our eyes meet, he looks lost. I give him a wan smile. Tough call.
    ‘You didn’t see him hit her.’ Grandpa Cop moves in front of me, blocking my line of vision. Maybe he’s not so daft after all.
    ‘He didn’t hit her.’
    ‘We are well aware what he’s saying …’ he says in that tone that cops use because they think their uniform means superiority.
    I take a step closer to him, invading his space. I’m tall and broad, not a pretty sight with my acne. He takes a step back. I speak right in his face. ‘I stated a fact, he did not hit her. Why would he say something so outrageous unless it was true? If he just ran into her, why not say so? But he said she fell out of the sky. You can tell by the lack of skid marks on the road that his vehicle was stationary at the time of impact. If he’d been moving when he hit her then she would have come sideways off the bonnet. If he’d been moving fast she would have gone over the top. But she dropped on top of him.’ I look down at the Prius. ‘It’s parked right at the sign that says
Wait here when the light is red
. So he was waiting …’ Grandpa Cop snorts so I carry on. ‘One look at the lack of damage on the front of his car says that she didn’t impact there; even a skinny woman like her would leave some kind of dent. So he is telling the truth.’
    He lifts his pen, hoping that I have stopped.
    I haven’t.
    ‘Look up there.’ I point up to the wire-caged cliff above us, its rocky teeth jagged and treacherous. ‘Imagine she was running over that hill, not realising she’s so close to the edge. She’s tired, she stumbles into the downward slope of the landslide. She drops off the edge like a stone. Your question should be why. And why naked?’ I realize that I am trying to make some kind of connection, the same connection between Lorna and Sophie that Avril had already made.
    Grandpa Cop throws me a look like I have crawled out from under a stone then his radio crackles, sounding loud in the dark night. The glen seems darker now with the metronome illumination of the blue lights. Lorna is still lying on the road, covered by a plastic sheet. I think how long she had been missing, three months longer than Sophie. I recall Avril shrugging, being non-committal. There were similarities; both went out running and neither came back. The police had mentioned another name at the time, another woman, missing for a much longer period. It is in the back of my brain, beginning with a G. Gillian. Gillian Porter. I can see her face in my mind’s eye. There is something else about her still hiding in my brain. It will come to me eventually, it always does. I might be slow but I am never, ever wrong. I try to recall it, thinking about the pictures Avril had placed in front of me. I remember Mum answering her questions, me shaking my head. I did not know this other woman. Of course, there should have been no connection as I believed then that Sophie had gone of her own free will. But now?
    Grandpa Cop has turned to look at me; his radio has told him something that he does not like. Then my mobile rings, the number displayed tells me it is Alex Parnell, my boss. The cop is on his radio, I am on my mobile. A brief look of fear flicks across his face. I realize that Alex Parnell, the millionaire builder, is someone in these parts. His child’s nanny has been involved in an incident. I can sense Grandpa Cop backtracking. Parnell does not do conversation; he issues instructions. ‘Elvie? Eric’s up at his croft, he’ll pick you up and bring you to Ardno.