The Snow Killer Read Online Free Page B

waited for the line to go dead before he put the phone back on the wall and walked into his room. He stopped in the doorway of his bedroom, “Fuck, I need to tidy up.” The room was a mess, a typical poor-man’s bachelor pad: noodle pots, dirty laundry, and dust. Everything had a layer of dust: as if the dust was trying to protect the room from Danny. He went downstairs and knocked on his neighbour’s door. A little girl answered. He bent down to talk to her.
    “Oh, hi there Jenny, do you know if your mummy has any cleaning products I could use? I have a friend coming round today and my room isn’t very tidy.”
    “I’ll go ask her.” The little girl beamed at him. Emily used to smile at me like that. The girl returned and asked him to come inside. “Mummy said they’re under the sink. She also said good luck, but I don’t know why. Is your friend a boy or a girl, Danny?”
    Danny laughed at the child’s naivety. “It’s a girl. A lady called Diane.”
    “Ooh, a grown-up, lady. Is she pretty, Danny, is she?”
    “I don’t remember.” Danny mumbled as he searched under the sink for surface polish and a duster. Jenny grew bored of watching him and went off to the living room to play with her dolls. A voice startled Danny and he hit his head on the inside of the cupboard.
    “So who’s the girl, eh, Dan?” Hannah stood leaning in the kitchen doorway.
    “Ouch,” He rubbed his head, “err, she’s just a friend. Actually, I barely know her. Met her randomly the other day.” Because that doesn’t sound weird at all… Danny continued to search the cupboard.
    “Ah, it’s a date then, right? Where you taking her?” Hannah shifted her arm free of the doorframe and put her hands in her pockets. Such tight jeans…
    “I’m not, I mean – we are going to The Rose and Crown.” He placed the cleaning products on the counter and shut the cupboard door.
    “Did you hear about the girl the other day?”
    Danny’s entire body went rigid. He picked up the polish to stop his hands shaking.  Oh my god. No. It can’t be in the news already. Hannah doesn’t even go to that part of town. Act causal. You have no idea what’s going on. Even though you do. Say something before she realizes you’re not talking. “No. What girl?”
    “Derek, you know the barman there, well his sister’s little girl is in Jenny’s class at school, and she’s been telling everyone about a girl that went to the pub the other day, and the next morning they found her body frozen in the snow. Head smashed open. Apparently the police think she must have fallen over and hit her head or something. She wasn’t mugged or anything. Poor girl, underage drinking in the pub, the amount of alcohol in her system – no wonder the poor thing hit her head – she probably couldn’t see straight.”
    They think it was an accident . “Have the police looked in to it?”
    “Well, not as far as Derek’s sister knows. But, it’s been really bad for business because now all the kids are afraid to go there just in case it wasn’t an accident, and it’s some freak after pretty girls. Not that they should be drinking in a pub anyway. I mean, it’s all well and good drinking in the privacy of your own home, but fake I.D’s and all that.”
    “Yes, well, at least no one else has been hurt or anything.”
    “Yeah…” Hannah lost interest in the conversation. Like mother like daughter. “Did you get everything you needed?”
    “Oh, yeah, cheers, Han. I better go clean now; don’t want to be caught dusting, do I?” He forced a laugh and walked out of the kitchen. “I’ll just bring these down when I’m finished.”
    “Don’t worry about it. You never know – you might need to keep the place clean now there’s a girl in the picture.” Hannah put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s great to see you socializing, Dan.”
    “Thanks.” He walked in to the corridor, and gave a shy wave goodbye, then headed up to his room to start