The Darkest Goodbye (William Lorimer) Read Online Free

would you? One black and one white,’ she said. She’d take whichever one Murdoch refused, she thought, desperate not to get into his bad books and even more terrified that he had known she was watching him.
    The scene of crime officers were sitting in the van, pulling on their oversuits, when Kirsty crossed the road for a second time. A sense of relief washed over her as she unlocked the Honda and set down the cardboard tray on the passenger seat. She would not be on her own with Murdoch for the rest of the morning, Kirsty thought, clambering back into her white protective clothing. And, she told herself, what she had seen would be pushed to the back of her mind until such time as she could decide what she ought to do.

C HAPTER F IVE
     
    A s he glanced in the rear-view mirror, Detective Superintendent William Lorimer smiled. There was not another car in sight. He slowed down as the Lexus took the bend, eyes on the unfolding panorama of mountains etched against this clear September sky. Queen’s View, it was called, but any discerning traveller could heave a sigh of pleasure at the regal vista that spread itself before him. A momentary glimpse of Loch Lomond shining between the hills, then it was gone, the ribbon of road taking the detective superintendent downhill once more.
    The landscape was changing with the seasons, he noticed; it was as if the very earth was preparing itself for winter with its coat of bracken curling into brown fronds and grasses dried yellow after the summer’s heat. Swathes of willowherb lined the banks, their feathery seed heads soft and white after the vermillion that had stained the late summer hedgerows. Skeletons of Queen Anne’s lace towered above, grey and dry now, their umbels picked clean by foraging birds. Soon the light would wane as the equinox balanced night and day and he would find himself travelling to and from work in the darkness for many months to come.
    ‘I never tire of this place,’ Maggie sighed as they left Stockiemuir behind.
    ‘Need to come back for a climb one of these days,’ Lorimer agreed. ‘Some weekend,’ he suggested.
    His wife smiled and nodded, still gazing at the passing landscape. It was a rare occasion for them both to be away from their respective jobs in the city. Maggie’s school had allowed her a day’s leave of absence to attend the funeral of her old Uncle Robert, Lorimer wangling time off from his own caseload of work. It was just a pity that it had coincided with young Kirsty’s first day at Stewart Street, he thought. Still, she’d be there for long enough and he would see her tomorrow.
    As they travelled on through the Stirlingshire countryside, Lorimer glanced at his wife. More than twenty years of marriage had dealt kindly with the woman by his side, her fine features and dark hair belying her age. Yet those years had not been without heartache, the loss of children robbing them of a longed-for family. Perhaps that was one of the things that had kept them close together, Lorimer mused; they’d had each other to cling to when life had dealt each harsh blow. And Maggie had endured the lot of a policeman’s wife, putting up with his long hours and frequent absences with a patience that never ceased to amaze him.
    ‘Last of that generation,’ Maggie sighed, breaking into her husband’s thoughts. ‘End of an era, I suppose.’
    ‘Aye,’ Lorimer agreed, but said no more. It was hard to be sad on a day like this when the sun shone down from a clear blue sky on to the burnished trees, an autumn fire of scarlet and gold arching overhead. Maggie’s Uncle Robert had been Alice Findlay’s only brother and now that last link with his late mother-in-law would be gone. He thought about Alice for a moment, remembering her smile. They had rarely seen Alice’s elder brother, a farmer who lived more than an hour north of Glasgow, except at weddings and funerals. And now it was time to bid the old man farewell.
    ‘You’ve got cousins, though,