Darkness Looking Back, The Read Online Free Page A

and a man came out, and the man kissed
    the driver of the Beemer goodbye. He then walked down the drive to where a
    black Maserati was parked under a street lamp.
    'Fucking hell,' Paxton muttered. 'They've got the entire EU in their garage.'
    'Can I ask what you're doing here?'
    Paxton jumped a mile. The expression on the woman's face as he turned around told him he'd been right to worry about the neighbours. And on top of everything else, she'd potted him talking to himself.
    'I was just . . . taking a walk before bed,' he said lamely.
    'Oh really? You drove over here to go for a walk?' She looked over his shoulder at the Nissan by the kerb.
    Shit. Paxton sighed and dropped the pretence. 'I'd have thought there were better things to do on a Tuesday night than to watch your neighbour's house.'
    'What about when one of them's been murdered by God knows who and you live right next door? I think it's a bloody good way of spending a Tuesday night.' She was probably in her late forties, with short dark hair. 'And I think my excuse is a whole lot better than yours. I saw you go right up the driveway.'
    'You didn't worry about going out to confront a strange man hanging round the site of a murder?'
    He watched that sink in. She glanced back at the lit windows of her house for a split second before she returned her attention to him, on the defensive.
    Paxton sighed again. 'I'm really sorry. I know it looks bad. But I wasn't intending to be nosy. It's just . . . this whole thing brings up bad memories for me.'
    This wasn't increasing her comfort levels. 'Bad, as in . . . ?'
    'I had a friend who was murdered like this just six months ago.' He didn't mention that their acquaintance had only begun post mortem.
    Her belligerence vanished, smoothing the wrinkles from her forehead. 'Really? That's awful.' Then the frown returned, this time of puzzlement. 'I don't quite see why you'd want to be hanging round the scene of another murder. If I were you, it's the last place I'd ever want to come. How can you bear to be reminded?'
    'That's just it. It reminds me an awful lot of what happened to Mark.'
    A flicker of alarm. 'You think it could be the same killer?'
    'No. That bloke's dead now . . .'
    'Really?' She'd said it so many times Paxton almost started a count. 'That's a relief for you, I guess. Did they get him in jail?'
    'No, he killed himself. Hanged himself.'
    There was a split second of silence. 'Wait a minute. Six months ago . . . That was that serial killer! The Eastern Strangler.'
    Paxton felt his customary jolt of surprise that what happened then wasn't just part of his own life, remembered by him and Stirling and Lena. It had been national news, and transfixed the entire city. The woman was staring at him, appalled. 'Oh my God. Was your friend the man who died in the park?'
    Paxton nodded, resigned. 'Yeah.'
    'Oh my God.'
    'So you can see why this has kind of got me worried. Like you, I guess.' He was well aware of the gaping holes in this reasoning, but she didn't appear to notice.
    The woman was shaking her head. 'Yeah. It's horrible. Poor Charlotte . . .'
    'Were you friends with her at all? How well did you actually know her?'
    Now she hesitated, then said, 'I wasn't actually friends with her, no. And I think she hated me . She knew I was aware of what she got up to whenever her husband was away.'
    Paxton was startled. 'You mean she was playing around?'
    'Was she ever.' The woman was smiling darkly now, relishing her role as the insider. She folded her hands in front of her skirt, getting comfortable. 'Shouldn't really speak ill of the dead, but . . . it's Ian I feel sorry for. It's a horrible thing to say, but he's the loveliest guy, and he just had no idea. As soon as his back was turned — boom! Wasn't one for moping all by herself, that's for sure. She caught me glaring at her once, as she was getting out of a car with one of them . . .' She smiled again at the memory. 'There was one man in particular, drove a blue BMW. He