The Darkest Hour (40 page)
W
ERNER JUMPED OVER
the low rail on the balcony and dropped the ten feet to the shore. He scrambled down the shingle and ran into the Thames, wading to his chest, slashing with his hands, trying to find his balance in the strong tide. He wondered if he’d missed Rossett in the fog and stopped, twisting his head this way and that, looking for a sign.
The flat black river offered sharp contrast to the thick white fog, and Werner listened to the night now that the shooting had stopped. He heard the soft lapping of the water around him, and in the distance a horn sounded.
It reminded him of Hamburg, his home, before the war. He heard another horn, and then saw Rossett, four feet behind him, closer to the shore, drifting facedown.
Werner grabbed him and dragged him to the land, calling out for assistance. When it came, he was already pumping the other man’s chest on the sand.
He wasn’t a murderer.
TONY SCHUMACHER
is a native of Liverpool, England. He has written for the
Guardian
and the Huffington Post, and he is a regular contributor to BBC Radio and London’s LBC Radio. He has been a policeman, stand-up comedian, bouncer, jeweler, taxi driver, perfume salesman, actor, and garbage collector, among other occupations. He currently lives outside of Liverpool. This is his first novel.
Facebook.com/tonyshoey
Twitter: @tonyshoey
www.tonyshoey.com
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
HC.com
.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE DARKEST HOUR.
Copyright © 2014 by Tony Schumacher. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-233936-2
ISBN 978-0-06-236238-4 (international edition)
EPub Edition September 2014 9780062339386
14 15 16 17 18
OV/RRD
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
