Read Online Dark Country by Bronwyn Parry - Free Book Online

not calling her
     out on them more publicly. But then, it hadn’t really mattered, untilnow. ‘We were co-owners of a hotel for a while. I bought her out years ago.’
    But even as he gave her the brief, bare-bones explanation, the full reality of the shit he was in started to hit him. His
     long history with Marci would provide more than enough circumstantial evidence of a motive for murder. She was the perfect
     target; the only thing most people would wonder about was why he’d taken so long to get rid of her.
    Gil jammed a hand through his hair, turned to stare out the window, away from the sergeant’s scrutiny. Christ, he needed to
     think, get his head around the possibilities, the timing. How had Marci’s body ended up here in Dungirri, almost seven hundred
     kilometres from Sydney, in such a short time, when no-one –
no-one
, not even Liam or Deb, and definitely not Marci – had known he was coming here?
    Tony Russo might have already been planning some move against him, but Tony couldn’t have laid a finger on Marci while Vince
     was still around, and he couldn’t have anticipated his father’s shooting, unless he’d arranged it, or pulled the trigger himself.
    But if this wasn’t Tony’s work, then it could be that Marci had tried to sell what she thought she knew. There were more than
     a couple of people she might have gone to, and if any of them had found out what Gil had done – if they
ever
found out what he’d done – then framing him for Marci’s murder was only the beginning.
    Whoever it was, they’d moved fast for everything to have happened within twenty-four hours. To a jury it would look quite
     plausible that Gil had come to Dungirri to dispose of thebody somewhere out in the wilderness of the scrub, a wilderness he’d once known well.
    Unless he could find some other evidence, then the sergeant’s alibi was the only thing that stood between him and maximum
     security at Long Bay or Goulburn.
Except …
His hands curved into fists. What her colleagues could do to her was nothing compared to what Russo or others would do if
     she got in the way of their plans. None of them would blink at discrediting or eliminating a straight, honest female cop.
    Something more than claustrophobia tightened around his chest.
    That straight, honest cop was watching him, waiting for more of an explanation. But for all the gutsy attitude and the weapons
     on her uniform belt, she was just one woman. If they got to her, as they’d got to Marci …
    The image of Marci’s body flooded Gil’s vision again, and he swallowed hard. Even if it meant cutting the lifeline, he had
     to give the cop an ‘out’ and make her think twice about that alibi.
Protect her from them
. He didn’t consciously think the words, just acted on them and started talking, damning himself.
    ‘The truth is, Blue, that there’ll be hundreds of witnesses who can testify that Marci spoke frequently about our “relationship”.
     There’ll also be a pub full of people who can tell the court that we argued in my office a few nights back and that I carted
     her, kicking and screaming curses at me, out of the pub. There are probably witnesses who saw me go into her place yesterday
     morning, and come out half an hour later.’
    ‘But you didn’t kill her or set up her murder.’ He couldn’t read in the flatness of her voice whether she believed him or
     not.
    He wouldn’t go as far as confessing to murder to keep her out of their sights. He looked at her without moving. ‘No, I didn’t.’
    She pushed herself away from the wall. ‘I’ll be back in a couple of minutes to book you in.’ Nodding at the folder on the
     table, she continued, ‘Choose a lawyer, Gillespie. You’re going to need one.’

FOUR
    The late afternoon sunlight shafted in through the office window. Kris checked her watch, then the times logged in the custody
     records. Time of arrest, time of arrival in Birraga, time of Kent Marshall’s arrival.
    It