Nightshade: The Fourth Jack Nightingale Supernatural Thriller Read Online Free Page B

can try the patience of a saint at times, especially boys. It’s only now that I’ve got kids of my own I realise the hell that Jimmy and I put our parents through. But Jimmy was great with my boys. He loved kids, Mr Nightingale. He sponsored a couple of kids out in Africa and every Christmas he went around the local hospitals and children’s homes dressed as Father Christmas, giving out toys.’
    Nightingale nodded thoughtfully. ‘So why do you think he did it?’
    ‘I don’t know, Mr Nightingale. That’s what I want you to find out. I’ve got money. Jimmy left the farm and everything to me. He had more than a quarter of a million pounds in the bank and it’s all mine now. At least it will be when the solicitors have finished whatever it is that they’re doing. So I can pay you, Mr Nightingale. Money isn’t an issue. I just want to know why Jimmy turned into a serial killer.’
    ‘Spree killer,’ said Nightingale.
    ‘Sorry, what?’ McBride frowned in confusion.
    ‘Serial killings happen at different times,’ explained Nightingale. ‘When the killings occur at the same time, it’s called a spree.’ He sighed. ‘Look, Mr McBride, sometimes people just snap. People can do terrible things. Maybe something had pushed your brother over the edge and he just wanted to hit back.’
    ‘At children?’
    ‘Maybe kids had been making his life a misery. Maybe they’d been, I don’t know, vandalising the farm. Hurting his animals. I don’t know.’
    ‘I spoke to the local police. Jimmy hadn’t reported anything to them. And he would have mentioned it to me.’
    ‘Okay, then maybe he just went crazy. People sometimes just lose it. Schizophrenia. Depression.’
    ‘Jimmy was a bit depressed, but you find me a farmer who doesn’t bitch and moan. It goes with the job. But he wasn’t crazy. My brother was definitely not crazy.’
    As they spoke Nightingale began to recall more details of the case. It had been on the front pages of the tabloid newspapers and led the TV news since it had happened. ‘What about the devil-worship stuff? The police said they found all sorts of stuff on his computer. Videos of animal sacrifice, end of the world stuff.’
    ‘My brother didn’t have an internet connection, Mr Nightingale. He used his computer to do the farm accounts and that was it. My kids have been nagging him for months to get online so they could Facebook him but he couldn’t be bothered. He doesn’t even have a TV on the farm. He’s a big reader.’ McBride forced a smile. ‘Was a big reader, I mean.’
    ‘The police definitely said they found Satanic information on his computer. I remember reading that.’
    ‘I’m not arguing with that,’ said McBride. ‘I’m just saying it wasn’t Jimmy that put it there. And that’s why I came to you. I Googled and it said you were a bit of an expert in things like that.’
    ‘Things like what?’
    ‘You know. Black magic. Possessions. You’ve a reputation for working on cases that are a bit out of the ordinary.’
    ‘So what do you want me to do, Mr McBride?’
    ‘I want you to find out why he did it. That’s all I want. I want to know the real reason he took his shotgun to that school and went on a killing spree. Because it wasn’t about devil-worship, I know that for a fact.’
    ‘If he was a devil-worshipper he’d hardly advertise the fact, would he? And you must have seen the pictures in the papers. There was a whole Satanic altar thing in his barn. With blood and offerings and all sorts of shit.’
    McBride nodded. ‘Sure, I saw the pictures. And I saw the TV coverage, too.’ He leant forward so his face was just inches from Nightingale’s. ‘But here’s the thing. I went to see Jimmy, two days before the killings. I was in that barn with him. And none of that stuff was there then. None of it.’
    Nightingale frowned and stared at McBride for several seconds without speaking.
    ‘You heard what I said?’ said McBride.
    ‘I’m trying to get my