Dead Man Walking. Paul Finch

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Dead Man Walking - Paul  Finch

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       PART 2

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       Copyright

      Published by Avon an imprint of

      HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      77–85 Fulham Palace Road

      Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2014

      Copyright © Paul Finch 2014

      Cover photographs © Shutterstock

      Cover design © Andrew Smith 2014

      Paul Finch asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780007551279

      Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780008116873

      Version: 2014-10-21

       Dedication

       For my children, Eleanor and Harry, with whom I shared many a chilling tale when they were tots, but whose enthusiasm is as strong now as it ever was

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

       Chapter 11

       Chapter 12

       Chapter 13

       About the Author

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

       Chapter 4

      ‘Gemma Piper,’ came the voice on the line. It was clipped, efficient. Time hadn’t softened that aspect of his ex-boss’s personality. Not that much ever did.

      Time, though. It had actually only been two and a half months since he and Gemma had had the mother of all fall-outs, yet in some ways, it seemed like a lifetime.

      ‘Ma’am,’ he said.

      ‘Heck?’ He couldn’t tell whether she was pleased to hear from him or not. The probability was she was more surprised. ‘Where are you calling from?’

      ‘Cragwood Keld nick, South Cumbria.’

      ‘Oh … right.’ Perhaps she’d fleetingly wondered if he was back down in London for some reason.

      ‘Currently buried in the muckiest November fog I’ve ever seen,’ Heck added. ‘The whole of the Lakes is in lockdown at present, ma’am. Nothing’s moving.’

      She’d sounded curious about his call, but her patience, as always, was wearing thin, especially now he’d got onto the weather. ‘What can I do for you, Heck?’

      ‘We’ve just had an attempted double homicide.’

      ‘I see. Local to your subdivision?’

      ‘Right on it.’

      ‘Good job they’ve got you there.’

      ‘Thing is, ma’am, I think this one may be of interest to you.’

      ‘You said two attempted homicides. Have you actually had any fatalities?’

      ‘Not sure.’

      ‘Doesn’t sound like an SCU job, Heck. Give it to South Cumbria Crime Command in the first instance. That’s what they’re there for …’

      ‘No … I think it may be of interest to you, as in you personally, rather than SCU.’

      ‘Okay …?’ Now she sounded cautious, not to say sceptical, but she knew Heck well enough to at least give him a hearing. ‘Go on …’

      ‘It was a blitz attack, seemingly without motive. Two girls hiking in the Langdale Pikes got themselves lost in the fog. The next thing they know, they’re being followed by someone who attacks them. The first one he beats down with a stone. The second one he shoots.’

      There was a lengthy pause. ‘This is news to me. When did it happen?’

      ‘Last night, around midnight.’

      ‘Nasty stuff, but I still don’t see …’

      ‘Two female hitchhikers alone on a dark night? Getting jumped by a single assailant, who takes one of them out ASAP with a lump of rock?’

      ‘That would be a common sense strategy for any random attacker attempting to overpower two people at

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