Bloodline-9 Read Free Page B

victim’s neck with his hands. Bruises on neck suggest he held it there with a great deal of force until the victim had stopped breathing . . .’
    Hol and was standing out on the patio at the rear of the house, watching half a dozen uniforms combing the flower beds. There were arc-lamps out here too, but this was only an initial sweep and more officers would be back at first light to conduct a fingertip search.
    ‘So, no forced entry then,’ Thorne said.
    ‘Which means she knew him.’
    ‘Possibly.’ Thorne could smel cigarettes on Hol and, wanted one himself for a second or two. ‘Or she answered the door and he produced a weapon, forced her back inside.’
    Hol and nodded. ‘Let’s see if we get lucky with the house to house. Looks like the kind of street where there’s plenty of curtain-twitching.’
    ‘What about the husband?’
    ‘I only had five minutes before they took him to a hotel up the road,’ Hol and said. ‘In pieces, much as you’d expect.’
    ‘Trying too hard, you reckon?’
    ‘How d’you mean?’
    ‘Sounds like he wanted everyone in the street to see just how upset he was. After he’d cal ed us.’
    ‘You heard the 999 tape?’
    ‘No.’ Thorne shrugged. ‘Just . . .’
    ‘Just wishful thinking?’ Hol and said. ‘Right?’
    ‘Yeah, maybe.’ It was getting a little chil ier. Thorne shoved his hands inside the plastic suit and down into the pockets of his leather jacket. ‘Be nice if it was . . . a simple one.’
    ‘I can’t see it,’ Hol and said.
    Nor could Thorne, if he were being honest. He knew only too wel how domestic violence could escalate; had seen the ways a jealous boyfriend or a domineering husband could lose it. He blinked, saw the flop of the arm as the body was turned. Spots of pil ar-box red against black-and-white squares. Not a simple one . . .
    ‘Maybe he was just that upset,’ Hol and said. ‘How many of these have we done?’
    Thorne puffed out his cheeks. There was no need to answer.
    ‘Right. And I stil can’t imagine what it must be like. Not even close.’
    Hol and was fifteen years younger than Thorne. He had been working alongside him for more than seven years and though the fresh-faced newbie was long gone, Thorne stil relished the glimpses of someone who hadn’t been total y reshaped by the Job. Hol and had looked up to him once, had seen him as the kind of copper he would like to become, Thorne knew that. He knew equal y that Hol and was not the same as he was . . . not where it mattered, and that he should be bloody grateful for it.
    ‘Especial y when it’s a woman,’ Hol and said. ‘You know? I see the husbands and boyfriends and fathers, how it hits them, and it doesn’t matter if they’re hysterical or furious or sitting there like zombies. I’ve got no bloody idea what’s happening inside their heads.’
    ‘Don’t knock it, Dave,’ Thorne said.
    They both looked across at laughter from further down the garden, where one of the officers had obviously stepped in something. Watched as he scraped the sole of his shoe across the edge of the lawn.
    ‘So, where were you skiving off to earlier, then?’ Hol and asked.
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘When al this kicked off.’
    Thorne cleared his throat.
    Louise had been fine about him taking the job on, when he’d popped into the hospital to drop off her stuff. She was already in bed, working her way through a copy of heat and trying to tune out the incessant chatter of a woman in the bed opposite. He’d asked if she was sure. She’d looked at him like he was being stupid and asked why she wouldn’t be. He’d told her to cal if she wanted anything, if she needed him. She’d told him not to worry and said that she could get a taxi back when it was al over, if she had to.
    ‘Dentist,’ Thorne said. ‘An hour with the Nazi hygienist. The woman’s like something out of Marathon Man .’
    Hol and laughed. Said, ‘Is it safe?’
    ‘I’m tel ing you.’
    ‘They remade that film, you