Little Boy Blue - [12]
‘Your ten o’clock is here,’ she said testily.
He didn’t respond, didn’t trust himself to. Instead, he gathered up his files, nodded at her and walked purposefully away towards the meeting room.
19
The silence in the room was suffocating. Helen had given Moira and Mike Elder the basic facts of their son’s death, avoiding the more distressing details. She’d shouldered this unpleasant duty many times before and knew that if you hit people with too much too soon, you lose them. Assaulted by the shock, bowing under their grief, the bereaved just implode. It wasn’t fair to treat them like that and, besides, it served nobody’s purpose – she needed facts, not tears.
But, to Helen’s surprise, Jake’s parents had barely reacted at all to her carefully chosen words. Moira had shot a brief look at her husband, then joined him in staring at the floor. Their gaze remained doggedly turned in that direction and, though Helen provided a few gentle prompts, the couple stayed resolutely silent.
‘We have a full team working on this. As I said, your son was discovered at a nightclub in Banister Park and, once you’ve formally identified him, we can make arrangements for you to visit it, if you feel that would be helpful. Relatives sometimes find that it’s important to see the place where -’
‘What sort of club was it?’
Mike Elder’s voice was cracked and harsh. For a moment Helen wondered if it was a trick question – the news was already out there in radio bulletins and on the internet – then pushed that thought aside. They had probably driven all the way from Taunton in silence, their minds trying to grapple with their unexpected tragedy. It was no surprise that they were still processing the details.
‘It was an S &M club,’ Helen replied gently. There was no point dressing it up – they’d find out soon enough anyway.
Mike sniffed loudly, while his wife fiddled with the buttons on her cardigan.
‘It wasn’t a club he visited regularly, just somewhere he used now and then.’
‘I bet he did.’
Now it was Helen’s turn to be silent. Four words – four simple words – but they were said with such bitterness that for a moment Helen was speechless. She had encountered many emotions in the relatives’ room – despair, denial, fury – but she had seldom seen such distaste. She felt anger flare in her but, aware that the eyes of the Family Liaison Officer were on her, swallowed it down.
‘Can I ask you what you mean by that, Mike?’ she said.
‘I’m sure by now you know what my son was’ was the curt reply.
‘Obviously we’re aware that Jake worked as a professional dominator. That’s one of our main lines of enquiry, to see if he might have been attacked by someone he knew through his work.’
‘His work,’ Mike repeated, shaking his head ruefully, before casting a sardonic smile at his wife.
‘Can you tell me how much you knew about Jake’s professional life?’ Helen continued.
‘Too bloody much, but nothing that would help you.’
Helen was beginning to see why Jake had never got on with his parents, but resumed her questioning as patiently as she could.
‘His life in Southampton, then? Did you ever visit his flat? Meet up with him?’
‘This is our first visit to Southampton.’
Finally, Moira had spoken.
‘He moved away from Somerset when he was a young man. He threatened to come back and visit us, but… but he never made it.’
Was the use of the word ‘threatened’ deliberate? Helen was so bewildered by this interview that she couldn’t tell.
‘And you weren’t tempted to visit him here?’
‘It’s a long way to come and we can’t leave the animals,’ Moira replied quickly, trotting out her excuse with practised ease.
‘I see.’
‘Do you?’ Mike Elder now said, suddenly turning to look directly at Helen. ‘I can tell from your tone what you’re thinking, but you’ve got no right to look down your nose at us.’
Helen stared back, refusing to break eye contact. He was right, however – Helen was allowing her feelings to affect her judgement and was behaving in a manner that was unprofessional and unkind.
‘I’ve nothing but sympathy for you and your wife, believe me,’ she said quickly.
‘That may be, but it doesn’t change things. You might feel our son’s “lifestyle” was acceptable, but we didn’t. I don’t blame the boy entirely – we should have been tougher on him when he was small,’ he resumed, his wife flinching slightly as that barb landed. ‘But he made his choices and had to live by them. He was never interested in my opinion, but, for the avoidance of doubt, I’ll give it to you anyway. I thought what he did… was perverted. For the life of me, I could never understand why he wanted to surround himself with degenerates and freaks – he could never explain it himself, just said it was “who he was”. He thought we should accept him, but why should we accept something like that? He chose his path, we chose ours and, believe you me, they never met.’
It was said with something approaching pride and for a moment Helen thought she might actually slap him. She had never heard someone damn their own flesh and blood in such blunt terms.
‘We haven’t seen him in nearly ten years and we’re not going to be much help now, so let’s just get this over with, shall we? I don’t want to be here any more than you do.’
Detective Helen Grace is on the trail of a twisted serial killer in this riveting thriller in the gripping * international bestselling series."Ruby wakes up in a strange room. Her captor calmly explains that no one is looking for her. No one wants her. Except him."When the body of a woman is found buried on a secluded beach, Detective Helen Grace is called to the scene. She knows right away that the killer is no amateur. The woman has been dead for years, and no one has even reported her missing. But why would they? She s still sending text messages to her family.Helen is convinced that a criminal mastermind is at work: someone very smart, very careful, and worst of all, very patient.
THE FOURTH DI HELEN GRACE THRILLER BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR M J ARLIDGE 'Helen Grace is one of the greatest heroes to come along in years' JEFFERY DEAVER In the dead of night, three raging fires light up the city skies. It's more than a tragic coincidence. For DI Helen Grace the flames announce the arrival of an evil she has never encountered before. Because this is no firestarter seeking sick thrills, but something more chilling: a series of careful, calculating acts of murder. But why were the victims chosen? What's driving the killer? And who will be next? A powder keg of fear, suspicion and dread has been laid.
The international bestseller that "grabs the reader by the throat" (Crime Time).First in the new series featuring Detective Inspector Helen Grace.Two people are abducted, imprisoned, and left with a gun. As hunger and thirst set in, only one walks away alive.It's a game more twisted than any Detective Inspector Helen Grace has ever seen. If she hadn't spoken with the shattered survivors herself, she almost wouldn't believe them.Helen is familiar with the dark sides of human nature, including her own, but this case-with its seemingly random victims-has her baffled.
Детектив-инспектор Хелен Грейс расследует серию преступлений, в каждом из которых похищены два человека. Похититель ставит свои жертвы перед страшным выбором – убить другого или умереть самому. Как долго продолжится эта смертельная игра, зависит только от Хелен. Ведь этими похищениями маньяк шлет послание лично ей.
From the international bestselling author of Eeny Meeny comes the second thriller in the truly excellent series * featuring Detective Helen Grace."A man s body is found in an empty house.A gruesome memento of his murder is sent to his wife and children."He is the first victim, and Detective Helen Grace knows he will not be the last. But why would a happily married man be this far from home in the dead of night?The media call it Jack the Ripper in reverse: a serial killer preying on family men who lead hidden double lives.Helen can sense the fury behind the murders.
Писательница Агата Кристи принимает предложение Секретной разведывательной службы и отправляется на остров Тенерифе, чтобы расследовать обстоятельства гибели специального агента, – есть основания полагать, что он стал жертвой магического ритуала. Во время морского путешествия происходит до странности театральное самоубийство одной из пассажирок, а вскоре после прибытия на остров убивают другого попутчика писательницы, причем оставляют улику, бьющую на эффект. Саму же Агату Кристи арестовывают по ложному обвинению.
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Летними вечерами в дачном поселке собиралась дружная компания хороших знакомых – пока к ним не присоединились новые соседи. Это неприятные, грубые люди – сильно пьющий художник Денис, его вульгарная супруга Иричка и ее тихая, незаметная сестра Зина. Как-то вечером, когда компания сидела во дворе, нарядная Иричка прошла мимо, небрежно помахав присутствующим, а вскоре ее труп нашли в ближайшем овраге…Полиция начала расследование, но соседи решили не оставаться в стороне и попросили Олега Монахова, называющего себя ясновидящим и волхвом, присоединиться к поискам убийцы в частном порядке…
Политическая ситуация на Корейском полуострове близка к коллапсу. В высших эшелонах власти в Южной Корее, Японии и США плетется заговор… Бывших разведчиков не бывает — несмотря на миролюбивый характер поездки в Пхеньян, Артем Королев, в прошлом полковник Генштаба, а ныне тренер детской спортивной команды, попадает в самый эпицентр конфликта. Оказывается, что для него в этой игре поставлены на карту не только офицерская честь и судьба Родины, но и весь смысл его жизни.