Paul Finch

Dead Man Walking


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       PART 3

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       Copyright

      Published by Avon an imprint of

      HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      77–85 Fulham Palace Road

      Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2014

      Copyright © Paul Finch 2014

      Cover photographs © Shutterstock

      Cover design © Andrew Smith 2014

      Paul Finch asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780007551286

      Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780008116880

      Version: 2014-10-21

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

       Chapter 22

       Chapter 23

       Chapter 24

       Chapter 25

       Chapter 26

       Chapter 27

       Chapter 28

       Chapter 29

       Chapter 30

       Chapter 31

       Chapter 32

       Chapter 33

       Chapter 34

       Chapter 35

       Chapter 36

       Read an extract from Hunted

       About the Author

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

       Chapter 14

      ‘Kill the lights!’ Heck shouted, as he charged along the landing, snapping his own torch off in the process. He met Hazel at the top of the stairs. She’d heard the shot and tried to grab hold of him, but he thrust her in the direction of the bedroom. ‘In there with Gemma, lie low …’

      Before she could reply, he was galloping down the stairs and across the darkened lounge towards the open front door.

      For half a second, he expected a black-clad figure to emerge through it, pistol levelled. But Heck reached it first, banging it closed with his shoulder, then scrabbling around for a lock. Rather to his surprise, his fingers alighted on a central bolt, which he rammed home with no difficulty. When he felt around the top of the door, there was one there too, which also moved freely and easily.

      Heck threw himself to one side, flattened against the jamb.

      Even through the thick farmhouse walls, he could hear the whistling. Though he’d been half expecting it, and though he’d heard it so many times before, Strangers in the Night had never sounded so menacing. Yet the song was fading – as if the whistler was already departing the scene. Half a minute later, sweat trickling down his face, Heck risked glancing from the window. Nothing moved out there, though the crumpled form of Dan Heggarty lay where he’d fallen, a dark pool spreading sluggishly around him.

      Heck switched his torch back on, but kept its beam lowered as he crossed the lounge to the stairway passage, passing the staircase itself, and darting from one ground-floor room to the next. Most were dank and uninhabitable, draped in webs and crammed with all manner of aged junk. But currently he was more concerned about their doors and windows, and in the main these were securely locked, including the back door.

      Overall, the house looked secure, though there was no guarantee of that.

      He trotted up the stairs and back along to the bedroom. ‘It’s me,’ he said as he entered. The two women were well away from the window, crouched in separate corners. They waited expectantly while he squatted down. ‘I’m pretty sure Heggarty’s dead.’

      Gemma nodded. ‘His body’s still out there … it hasn’t moved.’

      There was a brief contemplative silence.

      ‘So …?’ Hazel had again been struggling to choke back sobs, but now sounded shocked. ‘You’re just going to leave him?’

      ‘Do you want to go out?’ Heck asked her. ‘The bastard’s probably working on the basis at least one of us will try.’ He mopped a sweaty hank of hair back from his brow. ‘He’s obviously been watching this place closely. Cragwood Vale, Fellstead Grange … he must have done that in order to identify Annie as a possible target.’

      ‘And?’ Hazel wondered again, sensing something else was coming.

      ‘Think about it,’ Heck said. ‘There are two bolts on the front door. They work properly. There’s no sign that door was broken open any time recently. Nor with the back door. I’ve checked all the windows too. They aren’t in brilliant condition, but no one has smashed any of them to get in here.’

      Hazel shook her head. ‘What are you saying?’

      ‘I’m saying whoever this guy is, when he first got in here a couple of days ago, he didn’t have to break and enter.’

      ‘Annie may have left the door unlocked.’

      ‘She may have done,’ Gemma said, picking up on Heck’s thought process. ‘But how likely is that, living all the way out here on her own? Especially given that she was in bed when this attack took place.’

      Hazel looked horrified. ‘You mean