Read Online Double Dealing (Detective Sergeant Catherine Bishop Series Book Two) by Lisa Hartley - Free Book Online Page A

funeral apart from the minister, who had said a few perfunctory words and then left them to it. She had stared down into the grave, unable to untangle the emotions she was feeling. Grief, yes, but more than that. Disbelief. Horror. Anger; a violent, white-hot fury. Knight had stood beside her, his face expressionless, skin almost as pale as the white shirt collar that just showed beneath his thick black overcoat.
      She was grieving for a love that had almost been, a future that had been snatched away. Stronger still was the fury. She wouldn’t live like this anymore. Claire wasn’t coming back, and she didn’t deserve Catherine’s devotion. She had made her own choices and set herself on a path that could only have ended in disaster, then paid with her life.
      Catherine reached for the bedside cabinet, picking up her mobile phone. She looked again at the name and closed her eyes for a second, remembering. Claire’s smile, the delicate, thrilling touch of her hand . . . No. Edit. Delete contact. She replaced the phone and turned onto her side.
      It was over. She was alone.
     

16
     
     
     
     
    She hadn’t heard Thomas come in, but he obviously had at some point as he was standing by her bed, wearing a t-shirt and some old jogging bottoms. Catherine rubbed bleary eyes.
      ‘What’s wrong?’
      ‘Haven’t you heard your phone? The landline’s been ringing as well.’ He held up her mobile.
    She reached a reluctant hand from under the duvet and rolled onto her stomach.
      ‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Thomas said with a shiver. ‘And the heating.’
    She tucked her hair behind her ears and touched the phone’s screen.
      ‘Catherine Bishop.’
      ‘Hi Catherine, it’s Raj Dhirwan.’
    A uniformed inspector calling her at home. It didn’t bode well.
      ‘Morning Raj, what’s up?’
    ‘I’m just going off duty, but I thought you’d want to know – we’ve had a call about a body.’
    Catherine sat up, fully awake now.
      ‘A body? Where? Who is it?’
      ‘It’s female, that’s all I can tell you. You’d better get over here.’
    Catherine thanked him and scrambled out of bed with one thought running through her mind: Lauren Cook.
     
     
      DI Knight was waiting in his car when Catherine arrived at the station. She hurried across the car park, her unfastened coat blown straight back by the icy wind like black wings. Knight called to her over the noise of the idling engine.
      ‘Catherine, there’s no point going inside. The DCI told me to wait out for you. Get in, we may as well travel together.’
    She nodded, climbing into the car. Knight had the heater going full blast but still had a black woollen beanie hat pulled low over his ears.
      ‘Wasn’t the bloke we arrested for the cash point muggings wearing that when we brought him in?’ she asked, fastening her seatbelt.
    He shook his head.
      ‘Found it in the lost property box.’
      ‘Just need a pair of tights over your face. So where are we going?’
    Knight pulled out onto the main road.
      ‘Somewhere called Moon Pond? The DCI said you’d know where it is. Popular with courting couples, he said.’
      ‘Courting couples? Where did he wake up, the nineteen fifties?’
      ‘You know it then?’
      ‘Yeah, next left.’
      ‘Have you been there as part of a courting couple?’
      ‘Certainly not. Any fumbling and groping I did was somewhere a bit warmer than the back of a clapped-out old banger parked in a field of geese.’
    Knight flicked the indicator on.
      ‘Geese?’ he queried.
      ‘I’m assuming. Carry straight on for a couple of miles. What do we know about her?’
      ‘Her?’
      ‘Raj said the body is female, that’s why he phoned me.’
      ‘Because of Lauren Cook?’
      ‘It’s a bit of a coincidence, don’t you think?’
      ‘I don’t have any details. It was called in at about six this morning.’
      ‘Who’d be out at Moon Pond at that time of day, especially at the