Read Online Grind Their Bones by Drew Cross - Free Book Online

classes over the internet while he was away on business, followed by a few hands on night classes at a local catering college, and now I’m starting to get pretty good.’
    I glanced up as she mentioned his name, trying to gauge her general mood after the previous night’s histrionics. She looked despondent, but mercifully the tears stayed well away this time. Ironically, for somebody in my chosen profession, I’ve never been much good at comforting distressed people. I prefer to catch the animals who cause the distress in the first place, and then see to it that they pay for their actions with years of their lives spent in a lonely cell.
    ‘Well you should be proud of yourself, Emily, this is as good as I’ve eaten in any swanky restaurant.’ I forced a smile this time and looked across at her. ‘I definitely didn’t get the cooking gene from Mum, I could burn water, but thankfully Lee’s more in your league in that respect so I don’t starve. Do you want to talk about what’s going on at home?’
    I took another forkful of tender tuna and herbs to hide my discomfort as the silence started to stretch out.
    ‘No, not just yet, if that’s okay? I’m happy being here for a break and getting away from it all for a few days for now. Not that I’m planning on treating you like an hotelier.’ She took a quick sip of her wine and glanced at me before continuing. ‘Thank you for this, for letting me stay, I mean. I couldn’t face any more questions from Mum and Dad right now, and I knew you wouldn’t pry like they do, not with everything that you’ve got going on.’
    I raised my own glass in acknowledgement, smiling again to let her know she was welcome. The deep red liquid looked like blood in the dim light, and I thought of the monster in human form still out there who apparently toasted his dinner companions in much this same way, and I silently promised them that I’d catch him no matter what.
     
     

Chapter 23
     
    The Grey Man letters were never opened and read at the scenes. They were always sealed in ordinary everyday envelopes of the variety that could be purchased in any high street stationers, and so far they had all been utterly devoid of anything that could be of evidential value in identifying the killer, beyond the obvious fact that they were handwritten. However, there was always that small chance that he’d slip up, so the forensics team conducted their examinations of the documents before they were released to me. I’d tried to hard to find ways to keep myself occupied while I awaited receipt of the latest one, but patience is not one of my virtues, and I was slowly driving Lee mad with a string of unanswerable questions about the case.
    ‘What are the possible motives for him killing Doctor Hardwick?’
    I was pretty much just thinking aloud, but Lee sighed deeply and stopped what he was doing, turning his chair away from the computer to answer me.
    ‘Well, we now know how much debt the doctor had managed to amass, so there could be a motive in there somewhere, but it seems highly unlikely. The smart money’s got to be on the profile and the press release pissing our psycho off, and prompting a visit either because it was too close to the truth, or because it was deemed to be offensive by the killer somehow.’
    He massaged two days worth of stubble with his thumb and forefinger and looked past me into the distance.
    ‘So we’re agreed that the key to this one’s in that profile somewhere?’
    I waited for him to nod his assent and then carried on.
    ‘And we’re both agreed that the profile’s got to be wrong…?’
    He nodded again, more impatiently now.
    ‘It’s completely out of leftfield Zara, especially for a guy who’s been so accurate on almost every other notable occasion. What are you driving at, exactly?’
    He started to look interested despite his apparent frustration.
    ‘What if it was deliberately wrong?’
    We locked stares and I paused to let the suggestion sink