Violent Exposure Read Online Free PDF

the man again.
    He stared gloomily into his cup. ‘I knew you’d think it was me.’
    Ella said, ‘State your name, address, date of birth and occupation.’
    ‘Stewart James Bridges, 14 Loganlea Crescent, Stanmore, third of July, sixty-eight.I’m a freelance photographer.’
    ‘Who is in this photo?’ Ella held out the picture they’d taken from the Crawfords’ house.
    ‘That’s Suzanne and Connor.’
    ‘Does Connor have any identifying marks? Tattoos? Things like that?’
    ‘No tatts that I’m aware of, but he has this funny-shaped birthmark on his neck here.’ Bridges touched the left side of his neck, just under his collar. ‘You can see it if he’swearing a low-necked T-shirt.’
    ‘What sort of funny shape?’
    ‘Kind of two round things put together. Like a filled-in number eight.’
    ‘Is he taller than you?’
    ‘An inch or so.’
    That made him about a metre eighty-five. ‘Has he put on or lost weight since this photo? Grown a beard or cut his hair?’
    Bridges looked at the picture again. ‘No, he’s just the same. Not skinny but not fat. Just average.’

    ‘Wear glasses? Coloured contacts?’
    ‘No.’
    Ella said, ‘How did you come to be driving past their house tonight?’
    ‘I’d been out drinking in the city and went past on the way home.’
    ‘Where in the city?’
    ‘All over. The Cross, right in town. Everywhere.’
    ‘How does the drive from the city to Stanmore take in Potts Point?’
    ‘I never said it was a direct route,’ Bridges said.
    ‘So you just cruisedpast,’ Ella said. ‘Did you plan to knock on their door and visit for a while?’
    ‘Not necessarily.’
    ‘What then?’
    ‘I was looking to see if their lights were on,’ he said. ‘If I thought they were still up then maybe I would’ve knocked, yes.’
    ‘For what?’ Ella said. ‘Toilet stop? Cup of coffee?’
    ‘We’re friends. I was in the area.’
    Ella looked at Dennis. ‘You ever drop in to see your friends thatlate at night?’
    ‘Nope.’
    ‘Me neither.’ She looked back at Bridges. ‘So?’
    ‘It doesn’t matter why I was there,’ Bridges said. ‘I went past, I saw their door was open, I parked. I knocked on the open door and called out. I got no reply and I walked in and I saw poor Suzanne there in the kitchen.’
    Ella watched him blink back tears. Weasel . ‘Why did you say you knew we would think that it was you?’

    ‘On TV, cops always think the killer’s the person who found the body.’
    ‘Did you kill Suzanne?’
    ‘No!’
    ‘How did you see that their door was open?’
    ‘How do you mean? It was open, and I saw it. How else can you see something?’
    ‘You told the duty officer that the lights were off in the house.’
    ‘They were.’
    ‘So how could you see that the door was open if there were no lights on inside, no lightstreaming out?’
    He scratched the back of his head. ‘There was enough light on the street.’
    ‘The door’s set deep in that porch.’
    ‘There was enough.’
    ‘So why were you there?’ Ella said.
    ‘I told you, I just happened by.’
    ‘A moment ago you said the reason didn’t matter.’
    ‘It doesn’t! I just happened by, and it’s completely irrelevant in the scheme of things, and yet you’re spending all thistime trying to get me to explain it when somebody out there killed Suzanne.’ He wiped his eyes on his jacket sleeve. ‘It feels like you’re wasting time.’
    ‘So the door was open,’ Dennis said.
    ‘Yes. I just said that.’
    ‘And then what did you do?’
    ‘I told you. I called out and heard nothing. I was worried maybe something had happened. I turned on the lights. So if you find my fingerprints there,that’s why. But I was just worried about Connor and Suze.’
    Suze. ‘Go on,’ Ella said.
    ‘I walked down the hallway.’
    ‘Even though you thought something was wrong.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You didn’t think to stay out on the street and call us?’
    Another scratch of the back of his head. ‘I