The Death of the Elver Man by Jennie Finch Read Free Book Online Page A

check you’s back safe,’ she said. ‘I don’t like it. I don’t think he should be sending a woman out there alone at all.’
    The assumption that she was somehow weaker, more vulnerable than her male colleagues, coming straight after Garry’s comments on her ‘unsuitable appearance’, drove all the sense from Alex’s head. She was sick of people telling her this was not a job for a woman. She’d had enough of that whilst training and still heard it from her family when she phoned home every week.
    ‘Rubbish,’ she said angrily. ‘I’ll pop out this evening. I’ve got my map and I want to get this sorted at once. Thank you Lauren.’
    Lauren stood up, stung by her tone, and walked to the door. She stopped and turned but Alex glared at her and said, ‘Thank you Lauren. Good night.’
    Lauren shrugged and left, leaving Alex feeling more miserable than ever, guilty and slightly apprehensive. She looked out of the window and saw clouds gathering in the distance. Well, there was nothing for it, she had to go or lose face entirely. She would apologize in the morning, she thought, as she watched Lauren climb into her specially modified car and drive away into the gathering gloom. There was no time to go home and change either, she realized, cursing her own temper. Stamping on the clutch and banging the gear stick she set off to meet this mysterious new parolee as the rain began to fall around her.

Chapter Three
    He wasn’t sure why he’d come back to this place. Sure, he had some good memories – holidays and sunny times when he’d been a kid, the early years with the warmth of a family and times spent with his sweetheart in this front room or the little garden out the back. Still, it was not a good idea going back to places where he was known. It was just he didn’t have many choices in his life now. This was the only place he could think of where he might get some news, call in a few favours. He was supposed to be Andrew Michael Hinton, but as soon as he got the bad news about his health he knew he had to be Kevin’s dad, at least this once in his life.
    He stared out of the window and scowled at the clouds mounting into grey, sullen hills on the horizon. He hated the rain, hated being cold and he’d been cold a lot of the time recently. Dartmoor was a dour and bleak place for those confined within the walls of the Victorian prison. He turned from the window and searched the ceiling, trying to locate the source of a steady dripping sound. The cottage was in a poor state of repair and the roof was leaking. There wasa movement outside and his attention fixed on the muddy track leading to the cottage’s front door. A battered blue motorcar turned in and wallowed slowly over the potholes towards him. He knew who it was before she got out of the car. Alex’s eccentric Citroën was already a standing joke in local criminal circles.
     
    Alex slid to a halt some way from the front door and leaned back into the seat cushions. Despite being only too familiar there was still something slightly unsettling about the slow descent of the car body as the suspension deflated. For months she had fought the urge to get out and check the car was clear of the wheels before moving off and several younger probationers had taken to hanging around the car park first thing in the morning or in the evening to watch her arrive or drive off. That showed you how little there was to keep them entertained she thought grimly as she opened the door and stepped out into the rain. Her left foot landed in a pothole, the water oozing into her impractical ‘court’ shoes.
    ‘Bugger, bugger, bugger!’ she muttered to herself as she tried to twist free of the clinging mud without falling face first into the surrounding ooze. She pulled herself upright, slammed the car door shut and staggered up to the cottage door. Actually ‘cottage’ was a rather flattering description, she decided. Several windows were boarded up, the roof sagged