No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary Read Free Book Online

his brother was fine, and smart, and manipulative. He’d been wary of Sol ever since.
     • • • 
    Back at the station, he handed round the coffees, earning a ‘Cheers, mate’ from Ron Carling.
    Carling was unhappy about the case they’d brought back from Snaresbrook. ‘If we can’t catch this bastard, it’s going to be months of work and nightmares . . .’
    Ron had two young boys, Noah remembered. ‘Let’s hope we catch him, then.’
    ‘Have you even looked at the statistics for solving a case this cold? You saw the bodies, you know what I’m talking about. No sleep and effing nightmares, for months.’
    ‘How’s it going with Missing Persons?’ Debbie asked.
    ‘How do you think? We don’t even know if the poor little sods were boys or girls . . .’
    ‘They’re boys.’ Marnie was in the doorway. ‘Probably brothers. The elder was about eight. The little one was four or five. We don’t know their nationality yet, but the clothes and books were bought in the UK, so let’s start here, in London. Fran says they died four, maybe five years ago. She’s sending over her initial findings. DC Tanner will make copies. Make sure you read them.’
    She nodded at Noah. ‘DS Jake will be in charge of exhibits. We need to look at the labels from the food tins. Fran hasn’t seen the brand before. It’s the best clue we have right now.’
    Ron said, ‘So we’re on this, then. Even though it’s so cold it’s going to give us frostbite.’
    Marnie turned her steady gaze on him. ‘A cold case is something we’ve investigated and failed to solve. We haven’t investigated anything to do with these boys’ deaths yet.’
    ‘You know what I mean. Five years, for fuck’s sake . . .’
    Marnie glanced at the family photos on Carling’s desk. ‘Someone’s been looking for these boys – missing these boys – for at least that long. Let’s see if we can’t bring them some peace.’ She nodded at the flat whites. ‘Is one of those for me?’
    ‘Yes.’ Noah carried the cup to where she was standing. ‘I’ll get on to the labels, see if I can find a match online.’
    ‘Good.’ Marnie nodded at Ron. ‘Try Missing Persons again now that we’ve got an approximate time frame and an idea of their ages. If Fran’s right, it could give us a match quite quickly. There can’t be many young brothers who’ve gone missing together in the last five years.’
    She paused, looking at the team. ‘They’re our boys, but I want names. DS Jake?’

10
    Noah closed the door to the office and waited for Marnie to sit behind her desk. She didn’t, standing with her back to him, her eyes on the brick-wall view from the window.
    What was she thinking?
    He’d always liked her silences, trusting her need to not always be talking, but now he wondered what she thought about when she went quiet like this. Debbie Tanner had told him about the day five years ago when Marnie’s foster brother had taken a kitchen knife to her parents before sitting on their stairs, waiting for the police to come and wash blood and tissue from his fingers so they could take prints at the station.
    Noah couldn’t start to imagine what madness like that did to a person. Ever since Debbie had shared the story out around the station like so many home-baked biscuits, he’d wanted to say something to Marnie, to express his sadness and the pain he felt on her behalf. He couldn’t say anything, of course. For one thing, it would expose Debbie to more trouble than she deserved. Not that Noah liked the easy way she’d shared the tragedy, but she didn’t mean harm; she cared for Marnie in her way. Noah doubted she was capable of deliberate malice.Of course that didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of what Tim Welland called ‘malicious ignorance’, hiding behind the refusal to acquire facts, or tact, or both.
    Marnie sat at her desk, nodding for Noah to sit too.
    ‘What else did Fran say?’ he asked. It would be in the report Debbie