Guilty as Sin (13 page)

It was me who planted Danielle's hairs in Gary McCann's house and car. I had been fitting a carpet in his dining room and living room and had the perfect opportunity. I couldn't believe it when he called me and asked me to do the job. I guess he didn't know who I was. I knew who he was, though. Stupid bastard even left his car keys hanging by the front door. It was easy. Too easy.

As the cell door slammed shut and the viewing window slid across into the closed position, Darren Parker laid back and closed his eyes.

The cell felt strangely like home. It was cold, dark and hard. Like so many things. Like life itself. He had come to terms with the fact that he would never see Danielle again.

He was a man who regretted very little. What was the point in regret? The past could never be changed. What didn't kill you only made you stronger. Some simple things took an incredible amount of strength.

Calmly, he raised his knee and ran his finger around the back of the sole of his shoe. The blade slipped out easily and he began to run it between his fingers. With one last breath he raised his head and brought the blade across his throat.

*

The pleasant swirling and deep comfort gave way to the rotten stench of real life as the sound of the doorbell woke Culverhouse from his slumber.

As though opening them underwater, he blinked and batted his eyes in an attempt to focus through the slumberous fluid which coated his eyeballs. Groaning half in mock-annoyance, he pushed himself up from the sofa and arched his back before rising to answer the door.

He glanced at his watch. 12:05. Five past midnight. Considering some choice pleasantries with which to furnish his unwelcome late-night visitor, Culverhouse swept aside the chain and pulled open the door.

“Hello, Jack.”

About the author:

Adam is a professional author and ghost-writer. This novel, G
uilty as Sin
, is the second in the Knight & Culverhouse series. Adam lives in the Bedfordshire countryside and enjoys reading, travelling and meeting new people.

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