Read Online Kill My Darling by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Free Book Online Page B

it.’
    â€˜I know,’ Slider said. ‘Just tell me what you did. Did you touch her or move her in any way?’
    â€˜No, of course not,’ he said quite sharply. ‘I know better than that.’
    â€˜Not even to check if she was dead?’
    â€˜Didn’t need to. I could see she was. I just grabbed Toby and came back here to phone the police.’
    â€˜Did Toby touch the body?’
    â€˜No, he wouldn’t go near it, just stood growling and whining. He was upset. See him now, sleeping – that’s not like him, this time of day. Normally he’d be raring to go. I suppose dogs can feel shock, same as us.’
    â€˜So you didn’t recognize the girl?’ Slider pursued.
    â€˜Course not. Why should I?’ he said sharply.
    â€˜No reason. I just thought you might have seen her walking round here before. A lot of people come here for walks, don’t they?’
    He seemed disconcerted by the question. ‘She wasn’t dressed for walking,’ he said in the end.
    â€˜So you’ve never seen her before?’
    â€˜I said so, didn’t I?’
    â€˜And have you seen or heard anything suspicious, the last two or three nights? Cars coming down here late at night, for instance, or anyone acting strangely.’
    â€˜There’s people coming down here all the time,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t notice anyone, particularly.’
    â€˜But movement or noises in the middle of the night?’
    He shook his head.
    â€˜Were you at home Friday and Saturday nights, and last night?’
    â€˜I was out Friday night,’ he said. ‘I went down the pub.’
    â€˜Which pub?’
    â€˜The Bells.’
    That was the Six Bells on Duck’s Hill Road, the nearest – in fact, only just round the corner.
    â€˜And Saturday night and last night?’
    â€˜I stayed in,’ he said, and added, as if as an afterthought: ‘It’s cheaper.’
    Atherton made a restless movement behind him, and Slider agreed – there was nothing for them here. Most people didn’t notice cars going past, whatever the hour, and would probably only notice someone shifting a dead body if they attempted to bring it into their own front room. He drank off his tea, and stood up. ‘Well, thank you, Mr McGuire. If you do remember anything that might help us, anything at all, please give us a ring.’
    McGuire stood up too, looking at Slider with a desperate sort of appeal in his eyes, as if begging not to be left alone with his memories. ‘She – that girl—?’ Slider paused receptively, but all he said was, ‘Do you think she suffered?’
    Of course she suffered – she was murdered , Slider’s brain shouted impatiently. What do you think? But outwardly he showed nothing, and seeing the man’s haunted eyes, he did the best he could for him. ‘We believe death was almost instantaneous,’ he said. Between the ‘almost’ and the ‘instantaneous’ lay the cavern full of horror, but there was nothing he could do about that. And perhaps McGuire, hung-over as he was, wouldn’t notice.
    At the street door, Atherton said, ‘Well, that was fun.’
    â€˜You have to go through the motions. But the chances of him knowing anything, given that she’d probably been there two days, were slim.’
    â€˜It amazes me that no one found her before. Unless she was hidden somewhere else and then moved last night.’
    â€˜Thanks, we don’t need any more intriguing possibilities.’
    â€˜So – what now?’
    â€˜Back to the factory, start tracing her last movements,’ Slider said. ‘Until and unless Freddie comes up with anything different, we’ll assume she was killed on Friday night and taken straight to the woods. You have to start somewhere.’
    Raymond had followed them to the door and, blinking in the sunlight, said, ‘What about me,