Darkside by Belinda Bauer Read Free Book Online Page B

and sighed. Now she understood why her mother called so often.
    When she switched back from The Antiques Roadshow she'd missed The Exorcist's head-spinning scene and rewound. Then she watched the demonic girl's neck twist and creak in sickening circles - while all the time she yearned for a child.

Twenty-one Days

    The heating in the stable was on the blink and short flurries of overnight snow seemed to have come through the TV aerial because even the few available channels were now only visible through a white swirl of static. After cursing the tepid water and aborting a shave, Marvel decided he needed to yell at someone, so called Jos Reeves a good hour before he was due to arrive at the lab.
    'Well,' said Reeves calmly at the other end of the line - and Marvel itched as he heard the man light up a cigarette before continuing - 'we've got seven hairs, dozens of fibres and we rushed through the saliva on the pillow.'
    Marvel didn't acknowledge the rush. 'Is it hers?'
    'Yes. Looks like you have your murder.'
    'Good,' said Marvel, devoid of tact. 'Prints?'
    'No fingers, no feet.'
    'Fuck,' said Marvel. 'Semen?'
    'Nope. No blood, no semen. Some urine though.'
    'She had a bag. It burst.'
    'Oh dear,' said Reeves.
    Marvel was now irritated anew by the fact that he'd chosen to call and yell at one of the few people he couldn't intimidate. Jos Reeves was so laid back he was supine. Not for the first time, Marvel wondered about the contents of the cigarette he could hear Reeves sucking on now and then. He wished he'd called Reynolds instead and demanded something unreasonable. Watch his head get all patchy. He told Reeves to keep him updated when they had results on the hairs and fibres and hung up while he still had a reasonable reserve of vitriol.
    Marvel walked across the wet concrete courtyard and knocked officiously on Joy Springer's door. Even though it was 7am and still dark, the old woman was up and dressed and had a hand-rolled cigarette clamped in her drawstring mouth. Another setback in his quest for the upper hand.
    'There's no hot water,' he snapped.
    'Well it's not cold , is it?' she snapped back.
    Marvel was wrong-footed. 'It's lukewarm,' he said feebly.
    'Lukewarm in't cold. Did you let it run?'
    'No,' he said grudgingly.
    'You got to give it a chance to come through, bay. Specially when there's a freeze on.'
    Marvel glanced past her and saw the bottle on the kitchen table. It looked like breakfast.
    Joy Springer saw his gaze and moved forward to hustle him backwards. She clutched her big old woollen cardigan with leather buttons together at her wrinkled throat and gestured at the open door with one gnarled hand. 'And now you'm be letting my heat out.'
    Marvel withdrew gracelessly and went back to his quarters, wishing he could start the morning again. He let the water run and it finally came through hot, but only if he almost closedthe tap to a trickle. Finally he boiled the inadequate travel kettle and shaved with the proceeds.
    He banged on Reynolds's door half an hour before they'd agreed, but his DS was ready to go.
    'I'm arresting Priddy,' Marvel said by way of good morning.
    Reynolds knew better than to openly disagree. 'OK,' he said neutrally as they walked to the car.
    'If it was burglary gone wrong then the killer knew the nurses' routines and he knew what he was looking for, in which case it's got to be one of the nurses or a friend or family. If it was murder, then it's personal and ditto.'
    Marvel glared at Reynolds, daring him to protest. When he didn't, his own theory lost some of its shine and he dumped the clutch irritably.
    'I suppose we can always ask him for a DNA sample once the results on hairs and fibres are in,' said Reynolds with a mild-mannered shrug. 'Confirm it then.'
    Marvel gripped the steering wheel more tightly. Trust Reynolds to ruin everything with his slavish devotion to the niceties of evidence. Nobody played a hunch any more.
    *

    Marvel could go and screw himself.
    That was the