Darkness Looking Back, The Read Online Free Page B

was there just a couple of days before she died.'
    She paused, thinking it over. 'I did wonder if he might have had something to do with it . . .'
    'Didn't you tell this to the police? Have they interviewed you?'
    'Not yet. We've just come back from visiting my daughter down in Christchurch. We went down on Friday night — that's when I saw his car at her place — and we few back this afternoon. We weren't even here when it happened. We got back to hear the news. Carol from number eighty-one came and told us. She was horrified — she was right next door when it happened.'
    'This has to go to the police. This could be exactly the information they're looking for. Do you have any idea who this bloke is?'
    'I wondered if he was a colleague. He was always very well dressed, looked like a banking type. He might have been her boss . . .' A front door closed nearby, and she turned. 'Oh, here comes my husband.'
    A shape was descending the steps of their house, coming to join them.
    'I wondered what was taking you so long.' Now that Paxton could see him better he saw a thinning-haired man in short sleeves.
    'Ron! This man here's just been saying the same thing you were telling me. We really should ring the police about that boyfriend of Charlotte's.'
    'If that's what you want to call it . . . Well, it might come to nothing, but you never know. Might teach the bugger to keep it in his pants, if nothing else.'
    'Are you still on holiday tomorrow?' asked Paxton.
    They both stared at him. 'Yes. Why?' the woman asked.
    'The police will be wanting a formal statement, first thing.'
    He made to go, then paused. 'And don't tell them I sent you.'
     
    'I JUST CAN'T understand it. Why would anyone want to kill her? For Christ's sake, she always went out of her way to help people!' Ian Hiscocks gave a bitter laugh. 'It was her job!'
    He was just barely holding it together. Stirling watched Hiscocks's hands on the kitchen table as he spoke, flapping about like dying fish. They weren't conducting the interview in the living room for obvious reasons. Stirling wondered if Hiscocks had even set foot in there. If he'd ever set foot in there again.
    'Your wife was a mobile mortgage broker with ASB?' Vicky Nielsen kept things easy, made him focus on one simple thing at a time.
    'Yes.'
    'And there's no one who might have been jealous? Did she mention having problems with anyone?'
    'No! There's no one. She always had plenty of time for everyone . . .'
    Hiscocks's voice finally broke, and Stirling had to look away as the man started to cry. He was neither a good-looking man, nor an ugly one. He had sandy hair and an average build, and eyes an olive green, though these were by now turning red.
    Nielsen took a packet of tissues from her pocket and held them out to him. Hiscocks took them, unable to thank her, and blew his nose. It was a wasted effort. The tears were still coming down hard.
    'She was the only woman . . . I ever loved. We'd been together fourteen years.' Neither Nielsen nor Stirling said anything, knowing he wasn't actually talking to them. Grief was an individual thing. Despite the common guff about sharing one's grief, it was something no one else could take away for you. In the end it was yours alone, to hold close or let go.
    Instead of remembering Charlotte Hiscocks's face on that blood-soaked floor, Stirling saw Nicola's. He felt the other man's anguish, understood it completely. Strongest of all was the fervent relief that he wasn't the one in his chair.
    Hiscocks was shaken by a fresh bout of sobs. 'Why her ? What did Charlie ever do to anyone?'
    Nielsen rose from her seat. She went over and crouched beside Hiscocks, placing a hand on his shoulder. 'That's what we're going to find out. All right? We're going to find out who did this — that's our job. What you have to do is just keep on putting one foot in front of the other. Okay? Take it slowly, I know it's not easy, and just do one day at a time.' She rubbed his arm soothingly,