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Back Harbour Street Save as PDF
Chapters (47)
  1. Contents
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Chapter Four
  6. Chapter Five
  7. Chapter Six
  8. Chapter Seven
  9. Chapter Eight
  10. Chapter Nine
  11. Chapter Ten
  12. Chapter Eleven
  13. Chapter Twelve
  14. Chapter Thirteen
  15. Chapter Fourteen
  16. Chapter Fifteen
  17. Chapter Sixteen
  18. Chapter Seventeen
  19. Chapter Eighteen
  20. Chapter Nineteen
  21. Chapter Twenty
  22. Chapter Twenty-One
  23. Chapter Twenty-Two
  24. Chapter Twenty-Three
  25. Chapter Twenty-Four
  26. Chapter Twenty-Five
  27. Chapter Twenty-Six
  28. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  29. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  30. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  31. Chapter Thirty
  32. Chapter Thirty-One
  33. Chapter Thirty-Two
  34. Chapter Thirty-Three
  35. Chapter Thirty-Four
  36. Chapter Thirty-Five
  37. Chapter Thirty-Six
  38. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  39. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  40. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  41. Chapter Forty
  42. Chapter Forty-One
  43. Chapter Forty-Two
  44. Chapter Forty-Three
  45. Chapter Forty-Four
  46. Chapter Forty-Five
  47. About the Author

Vera ignored the outburst and continued. ‘Now we’ll have to trace Margaret’s relatives, because there’s no valid will. Her husband. I call Pawel that, because I’ve looked and I can’t find any trace that they were officially divorced.’ She looked up and this time she did catch his eye. ‘Any idea where he might be?’

He shook his head slowly.

‘We’re tracing other people who were around at the time,’ she said. ‘That mother and son who ran the Coble. If you don’t talk, there are folk who will.’

He shrugged and still he didn’t speak, but this time she sensed something unexpected in his reaction. Pleasure? A certain wry humour? ‘Pawel went back to Poland,’ he said. ‘He found a woman who suited him better and he went back home.’

‘If you know anything about his disappearance, and you don’t talk, you’re playing a dangerous game.’ She felt as she had with Ryan at the Dewars’ breakfast table: that she wanted to slap some sense into him. Demand some answers. Both knew more than they were letting on. ‘You could be charged with murder, man. All these secrets and lies. The truth won’t hurt Margaret now.’

He shrugged again, the eternal teenage boy.

‘You’ll have to come into the station and make a statement,’ she said. Not because she thought they would get more information from him – Malcolm was too stubborn for that – but because it was the only way she had to retaliate.

He shrugged once more and followed her in his car back to Kimmerston. On the way she thought that she would get a search warrant. Even after all this time there might be traces of Pawel Krukowski in Kerr’s yard.

Chapter Thirty-Two

When Joe Ashworth arrived at the Haven there was no sign of Susan Coulson. The house seemed quiet and empty. The road through Holypool hadn’t been gritted and he’d skidded turning into the track. Everything was white. Frost on the grass and on every tree and twig. A white mist rising from the low pasture. No tyre tracks marking the frosty drive. Walking to the front door, he saw that there was nobody in the office, but then he noticed a light in the kitchen. Jane and Laurie were at the table, bent towards each other, looking like conspirators. Or lovers. They didn’t notice that he was there. He stood watching for a while and then Jane Cameron looked up and saw him and he felt awkward, like a voyeur.

She opened the kitchen door to let him in. ‘Well, Sergeant Ashworth, you’re becoming a regular visitor.’ She poured him coffee and set it on the table. ‘We’re making a list. Our last shop before Christmas.’