Read Online Rainstone Fall by Peter Helton - Free Book Online Page A

my sister. But should I tell her?’
    ‘That’s up to you, of course.’
    ‘I’ll think about it.’
    Annis and I got ready to leave.
    ‘About the money, I will pay you, of course. It might take me a while but I’ll pay.’
    ‘Who said anything about money? Don’t worry about that now,’ Annis reassured her.
    There’s always a faint chance that it was a case of mistaken identity.
    On the windscreen of the Land Rover waited a folded envelope shoved into a little sandwich bag. I snatched it from under the wiper. Looking up at the house I could see Jill silhouetted against the light. I waved and we got into the cab.
    Annis just sat for a second or two, letting out a deep breath through puffed-up cheeks.
    I prised open the sandwich bag.
    ‘What have you got there?’ she wanted to know.
    ‘I think it’s from him.’ The envelope had Honeysett written across it in large computer-printed letters. I quickly ripped it open and pulled out the single sheet of paper. Return to Mill House and wait for instructions .
    Nothing else. I looked around. People with shopping bags from the Co-op round the corner walked along Julian Road. There was no one in Harley Street just now. Blank windows and drawn curtains everywhere. Whoever we were up against was confident and on the ball and was here, had walked past this house a few minutes ago, might even be watching. I tried to look confident and unconcerned in case we really were being watched.
    Annis started the engine. ‘Should we get Tim in on this? We could pop in.’
    ‘Not yet. Not until we know what it’s all about. Just get us back to Mill House.’
    ‘Okay. But this is serious shit, Chris. It really scares me.’

Chapter Six
    The last bulb that ought to have been illuminating the yard had apparently burnt out. We splashed from the Land Rover to the door from memory.
    ‘What’s that awful smell?’ Annis asked in the hall.
    I raced ahead to the kitchen whence the smell emanated and in my eagerness to knock the casserole off the heat managed to burn my fingers twice. At last I got hold of the oven gloves and lifted the lid on the pheasant. One for the forensic students. I’d scatter its ashes later. In the meantime I opened the back door to air the place.
    Listening on the stairs I could hear the faint bleep of the answering machine in the attic office. Out of breath from rushing upstairs I listened to all the messages but Louis’s kidnapper had not left one. I fixed my little voice recorder on to the cordless office phone with a couple of rubber bands (I’m terminally low tech) and sat it on the kitchen table by the fruit bowl. Drinking mugs of tea and coffee we sat and stared at it, willing it to ring and dreading it at the same time. Annis distractedly chewed through a few apples and I tested my dental work on a concrete pear.
    Two hours later we were still sitting there, waiting. From time to time one of us would ask a question or make a remark but it always faded into bleak silence after a minute or two. We had talked ourselves to a standstill. What was keeping him? Was it a him? Was it one person or several? I didn’t suppose it was all that easy to snatch a teenage boy off the street. Could it all be a sick joke? Could the ex-boyfriend be behind it, whatever Jill had said about him? And what if he didn’t get in touch by phone? We’d both drunk too much coffee by now and I had started coughing from chain smoking. Even Annis had absentmindedly puffed through one or two. I didn’t care to remind her that she’d given up years ago.
    I walked to the front door and checked first inside then outside for another envelope. There was nothing but darkness and the smell and sound of soft rain falling. The electronic warble of the phone back in the house made my heart miss a beat. I slammed the door shut and ran back to the kitchen. Annis stood, holding the phone out to me. I started the voice recorder and quickly checked the clock on the wall: it was half past ten. I