Beautiful Death by Fiona McIntosh Read Free Book Online Page A

Just breathe. I need you breathing.’
    ‘Are you going to hurt me?’
    ‘You won’t feel a thing,’ Schlimey promised.
    ‘When?’
    ‘When you die,’ he said.

4.
    Kate was thrilled to hear his voice. She didn’t flatter herself that he was calling for any social reason, although they’d stayed in touch — even if in the last year it had been via infrequent one-liner emails.
    ‘Jack! Much too long since we’ve spoken,’ she gushed into her mobile.
    ‘Where are you working, Kate?’ His tone was businesslike.
    ‘Operation Minstead for almost a year, based at Lewisham.’
    ‘Ah, the ghetto for all hot young DIs.’ Did she detect a glimmer of warmth?
    ‘You’re kidding, aren’t you?’
    ‘I’m not actually. I’m convinced it’s a rite of passage these days, but I’m sure you’re lending the perfect female touch. How are you getting on?’
    She paused. ‘Why? Are you about to make me an offer I can’t refuse?’
    ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘Then the answer’s yes!’

    ‘You don’t want to know what it is?’ She could hear the amusement in his voice and berated herself for still being so vulnerable and, yes, so obvious where DCI Hawksworth was concerned.
    ‘I presume it’s a job and we work well together, Jack,’ she said, trying hard to sound detached, professional. ‘And I know for you to be offering a job, means you’re heading up a case and that leads me to think it’s likely to be a juicy one, perhaps even a high-profile one. Yeah, I want in.’
    ‘Then welcome to the team. I’ve already asked your boss and he says you’ve done a fine job for Minstead but that I can second you to Operation Panther from today.’
    ‘Panther, eh? Finished with rivers, we’re onto the big cats.’
    ‘It’s a big operation, I think.’
    ‘What are we working on?’
    She heard him sigh. ‘A series of deaths. Grisly. I’ll tell you all when the team gathers tomorrow bright and early over at Victoria Street. Top floor again.’
    ‘Excellent. Thanks, Jack, I needed this.’
    ‘Bored again?’
    Her expression clouded. She confronted what sat between them. ‘Why haven’t we caught up?’
    He hesitated. ‘I thought you needed space. Dan —’
    ‘It’s over between me and Dan.’ She was deliberately blunt, peeved that he hadn’t sensed that she and her former fiancé had no future together.
    Now his pause felt awkward. It took everything she had not to leap in and fill the gap but she waited until he responded. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. I thought you were trying.’
    ‘We did for a while, but there was no magic.’

    ‘There was for Dan,’ he said quietly. ‘Did you know we met?’
    ‘Met? After the operation was over, do you mean?’
    ‘Yes, after I returned from Australia. Early in 2004.’
    ‘Why?’ Her fury ignited.
    She could almost see Jack Hawksworth’s smoky grey eyes darkening. She knew he was shrugging when he answered. ‘I felt I owed it to him when he rang and asked if we could meet.’
    ‘What did he want?’ she demanded, although she already knew the answer.
    ‘Just to talk, nothing sinister. He admitted how much he loved you and couldn’t bear to lose you.’
    ‘But I didn’t hear a word from you?’ she asked.
    ‘It didn’t seem right for a while with all that he was trying to come to terms with. I knew that you were trying to make a go of it.’
    ‘Dan and I barely lasted a few months, Jack,’ she said, disgusted now. ‘I can’t believe this.’
    ‘Look, that’s your business, Kate. I met Dan because he asked me. It was a one-off to help out a guy who sounded low. I’ve been working with DPS for the last few months. I haven’t seen anyone. Geoff’s in the same building and I haven’t caught up with him for a beer in so long he must be wondering if I’ve dropped off the planet.’
    ‘Where are you based?’
    ‘I’ve been working in Ipswich mainly.’
    ‘I thought you’d never work for the Ghosts,’ she said, a fresh tone of accusation in her