Read Online The Last Winter of Dani Lancing: A Novel by P. D. Viner - Free Book Online

something to the air and then steps back while Tom draws out the slim volume and reads.
    “Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art.”

    As the front door closes Patty gives an involuntary shudder. It’s time. She’s excited but there are other emotions too. Darker ones, that she holds just below the skin, willing them down until the time is right. She opens her bag one final time and checks the contents. Tickets, notebook, keys, whistle and pepper spray just in case. She feels the weight of the small canister in her palm and wonders if she will use it today. A big part of her hopes she will.
    She’s not told Jim her plans. Not told him she’s going to Durham or that she’s done something the police couldn’t do: track down the elusive Seb Merchant, Dani’s ex-boyfriend. Secret ex-boyfriend that her parents never met, never heard her mention once. Patty only knows about their relationship from fellow students. His name has come up time and time again. Most of them say he’s trouble.
    He was missed by the police in the initial trawl for statements, as he wasn’t a student with Dani—he’d been a student five years before but had dropped out halfway through his second year. He stayed in Durham, and each year he made noises as if he’d start his degree again but he never returned to college. No one knew howhe made his money; a few suggested he was independently wealthy. The police had finally put him on the list of people to talk to but they couldn’t find him. Patty has.
    She feels something tingle, deep down. This is the breakthrough—she knows it. He has something, something to tell her that will reveal the truth at last. And. And. There is a possibility he is Dani’s killer. And … and …
    “What would you do?” asks Alice Bell near the end of that thirty-four minutes.
    “I don’t understand,” Patty says coldly.
    “You say you are investigating Dani’s death.”
    “Murder.”
    “Dani’s murder. You are looking for her killer, yes?”
    “Yes.”
    “So what would you do if you found him?”
    Patty is impassive. She watches the woman before her, the soft kind eyes and mouth that twitches a little—sharing the pain. Patty will not answer her, instead they will let the final minutes drain away into nothingness. But she knows her reply.
    I will find him. I will kill him by cutting his heart out. I swear
.

    “Should be a bloody florist,” the young man says, cocking his head toward the pile of bedraggled bouquets swept into a corner of the garden. Jim looks at his own yellow roses lying by her plaque. He will leave them here and they will rot and turn to mush. Who decided flowers were a suitable tribute for the dead?
    “Instead of a copper?” Jim asks.
    Tom kicks at the gravel, sending a shower pinging against the fountain in the center of the garden.
    “More public respect, more useful, better hours.”
    “Really.” Jim shakes his head. “No florist is going to find who killed Dani.”
    Tom feels himself flush with shame. “No. Not likely.”
    The two men stand in silence. Tom knows what Jim wants—some assurance that Dani’s killer will be found. He wishes he were anything but a policeman right now. Both men stand and think of Dani. At some point tears come for them both. They lose all feeling in their feet from the cold, yet neither wants to be the one to suggest leaving. Any connection with the girl they love is better than none.
    Finally it’s Jim who makes the move.
    “A drink, maybe a bite to eat?” Tom asks, hoping to keep the link alive.
    “Maybe another day. I think I should get back to Patty.”
    “ ’Course. Yeah.” Tom nods and starts to wiggle the toes he knows are in his shoes somewhere. He wonders if this is the last time he’ll see Jim. Then together they walk to the car, hobbling slightly on their frozen feet.

    “Patty,” Jim calls as he walks through the front door. He’s bought an extra large portion of chips from the Sung Lee and two giant