Relentless by Simon Kernick Read Free Book Online

and I've not done badly with the opposite
sex over the years. The idea of being scarred for life scared me one
of quite a few scaring me at that moment.
    The doctor put dressings on the wounds and gave me some
painkillers. When he looked at me it was with a mixture of
distaste and trepidation. He saw a patient in need, but also a
suspected murderer.
'I didn't do anything wrong,' I told him. 'I'm innocent.'
    It was hardly an original line, and I guess, like the cops with
me, he'd heard it plenty of times before. He didn't reply. Instead
he turned to the white police officer and told him that I was now
fit to be questioned.
The black police officer reattached the handcuffs, then took
me by the arm, his hand scraping against the wound on my
forearm. I flinched, and he gave a perfunctory apology. I could
tell he didn't mean it.
'Have you got a mirror?' I asked the doctor. 'I need to see
what my face looks like.'
As soon as I said it, I regretted doing so. It looked like I was
more interested in my own injuries than what had happened to
Kathy, which wasn't true. I just needed to know. The doctor
nodded curtly and found a small round mirror on his desk which
he held up in front of my face.
I flinched again, more noticeably this time. It was bad, very bad. My hair looked like it had been styled by Edward Scissorpiands,
my face like it had been used to clean a slaughterhouse
jr. Smudged and uneven flecks of blood, sweat and dirt
jvered it. Further dark rivulets of blood, resembling thick
aiders' legs, had solidified on my neck where they'd run
awn from beneath the gleaming white dressing that covered
jawline. My eyes had become grey and haunted, the pupils
tie more than retreating pinpricks. I looked exactly like I
It.
As I was led away, I saw from the clock on the whitewashed
that it was five o'clock in the afternoon. In the space of two
surs, my life - so ordinary, so mundane, so desperately missed iiad been torn irreparably apart. Two hours earlier, I'd been a
lal working man living a pleasant, easy life. Now, my wife
; missing, and very possibly dead; there were people after me
    for a reason I had no knowledge of; and I was about to be
charged with murder.
What I didn't know was that this was only the beginning.
Things, if you can believe it, were about to get one hell of a lot
worse.
    'Do we know what happened to Calley?' Bolt asked Mo as they
drove up the M25 in traffic that was surprisingly light for the
time of day.
Mo shook his head. 'There are very few details at the moment.
I called his house just to make sure that he was going to be
there when we turned up, and another cop answered it. That
was just before five, and then I called you. I explained who
I was and why I was phoning, and he told me they'd found
Calley's body in some woods a couple of hundred yards
behind his house, hanging from a tree by his belt and looking
like he'd had some help getting up there. When I asked what
made them think that, he said there were definite signs of a
struggle.'
'Less than forty-eight hours after his biggest client dies in
mysterious circumstances. Do you think it's a coincidence?' Bolt
was interested in Mo's opinion. They'd worked together two
years now, and after Bolt himself, Mo was the most experienced
officer in his young team.
    'There's no doubt it looks suspicious,' he answered. 'Have you
found out what work Calley did for our victim yet?'
'That's one of the things I was hoping to find out today,' said
Bolt. 'When I asked him on the phone yesterday, he gave me the
usual client confidentiality bullshit, but Calley specialized in
investments, stuff like that. He was a financial lawyer, so I'm
guessing he helped our man hide his money from the Inland
Revenue.'
Mo chuckled. 'A financial lawyer. Now there's a job that
sounds lucrative.'
'Too right. But it sounds like one that could make you some
enemies as well. We're going to have to dig a little deeper into
his business dealings.' Bolt sighed. 'You know, I had plans