Silencing the Dead by Will Harker (ready to read books .TXT) 📗

I nodded. There was no point denying it.

“We don’t get many from your community joining up,” Tallis said. “It’s a shame, what happened. I was raised in a small seaside town, myself. My father owned an amusement arcade where I’d work for a few quid after school and at the weekends. Perhaps not a totally dissimilar upbringing?”

Much as I liked Tallis, this felt like a waste of time. “You don’t have to establish a rapport with me, Inspector. Shall we get on with it?”

He paid me the respect of closing his notebook. “What else would you like to tell me?”

“You were on alert for another of these, weren’t you?” I said. “So you tell me, did Genevieve Bell also receive a wax doll before she was killed? Were her hands taken? Was her body punctured with nails?”

He scratched his eyebrow again. “The details of that case haven’t been made public.”

“I know. You run a tight ship.”

“Then how did you connect the two?”

“It was hinted at in the press. The way you had to ID her—from stray hair follicles found on personal items at the house would be my guess. So her teeth and hands must have been taken, just like with Tilda. The crucial question is, were there others before Genevieve Bell?” Again the scratched brow—Tallis’ unconscious tell. “Then Tilda was his second. You have a serial killer targeting fortune tellers and psychics, Inspector, and unless we stop him, he will kill again.”

“Unless I stop him, Mr Jericho.”

Tallis rose to his feet. He was almost a head shorter than me and yet he held his ground with assurance.

“You’re out of jail, Scott, but you’re still not part of the game. I appreciate that the murder of your aunt will feel very personal and you’ll want to see whoever’s responsible punished. Believe me when I say, I won’t rest until that happens. But I also want you to know this…”

I’d followed him to the exit when he turned and laid a hand on my shoulder. Once more, I felt the tenderness from where Nick had struck me.

“If I discover that you’ve tried to rejoin the game, I’ll sweep you right off the board,” he promised. “And back behind bars.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I managed to control myself. Despite the vision of what I’d suffered behind the walls of HMP Hazelhurst rising up before me—the shower block with its bloodied tiles, the memory of that fire deep inside my gut as I lay shaking and weeping on the floor—I remained calm. Tallis couldn’t know of the assault I’d suffered while serving my sentence. Though he’d asked, I hadn’t even discussed it with Haz. Still, it was a lousy threat and I wondered if the inspector immediately regretted it. Stepping into the night together, his attitude appeared to soften.

“We’ll try to get all this cleared away by the morning,” he said, gesturing towards a huddle of Tyvek-suited SOCOs. “As long as your security remains tight, I’m happy if you want to open again tomorrow. I could spare you a few constables as well, just to keep up a presence.”

We spent a moment contemplating Tilda’s tent before I noticed his gaze stray beyond the fair to the bleak silhouette of the rectory.

“Do you know the reputation of this place?” I asked. “Those who seek to exploit it are often punished, apparently. Accidents, suicide, murder.”

He cast me a sceptical look. “I don’t believe in curses. I’m sure you don’t either.”

“What we believe is irrelevant, Inspector Tallis. It’s what the killer believes that’s important. Speaking of which, have you considered him as a potential victim?”

I pointed over to the darkened billboard where Darrel Everwood’s neon-white smile could still just about be made out. Tallis gave a non-committal shrug.

“You don’t need a licence to practice spiritualism, and so there’s no register of numbers,” he said. “But there must be thousands of clairvoyants and palmists and whatever else they call themselves operating in the UK. I assume you don’t know of any direct link between your aunt and Genevieve Bell?” I shook my head. “Nor of anything to connect Darrel Everwood to the case?”

I thought back to that phone conversation I’d overheard between Nick and Deepal Chandra. “The funny thing is, I reckon Darrel knew her too. He mentioned her name to me anyway.” And then Nick’s assertion that Everwood was afraid to come to Purley, “He told me that there’s something bad waiting for him here.” Had it been just a feeling or had Everwood also received a little wax doll? And if so, might he have spoken to Genevieve Bell about it? I told myself that it was a tenuous link at best. In any case, informing Tallis would lead to Nick being questioned, and almost inevitably, his past being exposed. He had, no doubt, faked his references to get the job with EverThorn Media. He was trying to go straight, to build a new life, and escape the clutches of mobsters like Mark Noonan. There may even be outstanding cases in which he was a suspect.

This was the noble side of my reason for keeping Nick’s secret. In truth, I also wanted a go at questioning Everwood before Tallis got to him. Despite the inspector’s threat, I was determined to play this game, and on my own terms.

“No connection I’m aware of,” I said.

Tallis fixed me with that steady gaze before digging into his pocket and pulling out my phone. “Glad to have met you, Scott Jericho,” he said, handing it over. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry things worked out the way they did. The force really can’t afford to lose good detectives.”

“I’m glad they still have a few.” I nodded, before turning away and heading into the shadows between the stalls.

Coming out into the corral of trailers, I checked my watch. It was long past eleven but there were lights in every window. Behind those glowing shades,