The Outcast Dead Read Online Free PDF

Scarlet’s death that plunged her into this terrible world where children can be killed and horror is never far from the surface. Sometimes Ruth feels that she would give anything to go back to her pre-Scarlet life but she knows that this is impossible. Kate’s second name is Scarlet.
    ‘I didn’t know you were still in touch with Delilah,’ she says. After Scarlet died, Delilah and her family moved away from Norfolk.
    ‘We speak on the phone now and again,’ says Cathbad. ‘Maddie’s at university now. Leeds.’
    ‘Have you talked to Nelson?’ asks Ruth. ‘About Liz Donaldson?’
    ‘Oh, I’ve talked to him,’ says Cathbad. ‘I’ve told him that if he doesn’t stop hassling Liz he’ll be in for some serious karmic backlash.’
    ‘What did he say to that?’
    ‘He said he’d take his chances.’
    Ruth can just imagine the exchange. She has reached a narrow gravel spit with water on each side. Kate tugs at her hand, wanting to jump in the puddles. ‘No, Kate. You haven’t got your wellies on.’
    ‘Is that Hecate?’ Cathbad’s voice softens. ‘Give her my love.’
    ‘Her name’s Kate,’ says Ruth. But her voice too is soft.
    ‘Ruthie,’ says Cathbad. ‘I want you to talk to Nelson.’
    ‘Me?’
    ‘Yes. You’ve got a special bond with him. I want you to convince him that Liz is innocent.’
    Ruth is silent, walking along the path through the beautiful and dangerous marshland. Has she got a special bond with Nelson? He’s Kate’s father but she knows that he will never leave his wife. She has come to terms with that and, if it still hurts, she keeps the pain to herself. As a forensic archaeologist she has helped the police on several occasions and, whilst Nelson has always respected her professional opinion, she can just imagine his reaction if she tries to interfere on a case that has nothing to do with her.
    ‘He won’t listen to me,’ she says. ‘He’ll say it’s none of my business. And he’d be right.’
    ‘Ruthie …’
    ‘Don’t call me Ruthie.’ Only Erik was allowed to use that name.
    ‘Think about it,’ says Cathbad. ‘This woman has lost three babies. She’s been through the worst nightmare that you can imagine, the darkest places of the human heart. And now the police want to say that she killed her own children.’
    Maybe she did, thinks Ruth. But she knows there is no point saying this to Cathbad. He is on one of his crusades. She can hear it in his voice.
    ‘I’ll try,’ she says at last.
    ‘Thanks Ruthie.’

CHAPTER 5
    ‘Let me get this straight. Cathbad thinks she didn’t do it so I have to back off? Case closed?’
    It isn’t going well. It’s Sunday afternoon and Ruth, Nelson and Michelle have taken Kate to a horse rescue centre near Yarmouth. Ruth had thought that it would be hard to imagine a more innocent place for her to raise the subject of Liz Donaldson. Nelson and Ruth are watching Kate ride a donkey and the fields are full of adorable ponies saved from fates worse than death. But, whilst the setting may be idyllic, the situation isn’t entirely free from tension. Under an uneasy agreement brokered two years ago, Nelson sees his daughter maybe once every two weeks. Michelle knows about Kate’s parentage and often accompanies Nelson on these visits. It would be too much to say that she has forgiven Ruth but she is always scrupulously polite to her and is genuinely fond of Kate. The future, though, remains uncertain. Nelson’s role in Kate’s life has not been made public and even his own daughters do not know that they have a half sister. Ruth sees stormclouds ahead. Nelson has already shown signs of wanting to be involved in the choice of Kate’s school, for example. What happens when he wants to come to parents’ evenings? And when Kate is old enough to question the exact nature of her relationship with the man who takes her on day trips and buys her inappropriate gifts? She calls him ‘Dada’ but she calls all men Dada, even the