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Back The Dead Place Save as PDF
Chapters (43)
  1. Dedication
  2. Author’s Note
  3. Epigraph
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. About the Author
  42. Also by Stephen Booth
  43. About the Publisher

Before they got in the car, Cooper showed the card to Fry.

‘What do you think it means?’ she said. ‘“Watch over the bones. They must forget.”’

‘I’ve no idea, Diane.’

She looked around the clearing, staring at the statue and the dense plantations of trees.

‘Ben, do you think he’s been here? Our mystery caller?’

‘Someone certainly has.’

‘Well, it’ll have to wait. Everything’s set up for the execution of a search warrant at Hudson and Slack.’

‘When are we going to do it?’

‘The DI’s putting things together right now.’

‘This afternoon?’ said Cooper.

‘As soon as we can get there.’

A few minutes later, Casey dropped them off on the gravel in front of the house. He didn’t look sorry to be seeing the back of them.

‘If you want to find out any more about Alder Hall and the Saxtons, you ought to ask Fair Flora herself,’ he said.

Cooper frowned. ‘We’ve just seen her, sir. But I’m not sure that talking to her would do much good.’

The property agent laughed. ‘I didn’t mean the statue.’

‘Didn’t you?’

‘No, of course not. I meant the real person.’

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Melvyn Hudson glared at Diane Fry with barely restrained fury. For a funeral director, he had quite a temper below that dignified exterior.

‘I have no idea what all this nonsense is about,’ he said. ‘But you can’t hold up our work. We have a funeral to do in ten minutes’ time.’

‘Everything you need to know is on the search warrant, sir,’ said Fry coolly. ‘And we have no intention of interrupting your business for a moment. Please carry on as normal. Our people will try to cause the minimum of disruption.’

‘Minimum of disruption? With police crawling all over our premises? How do you think this looks to our clients? There’s a family coming here this afternoon to bury their loved one.’

‘Let’s hope so, sir,’ said Fry.

‘What do you mean by that?’

Hudson was starting to get very loud. Fry looked at the team assembling outside the doors.

‘If you’ll show these officers where records of your funerals are kept, we’ll get on with the job as discreetly as we can,’ she said. ‘The sooner we get started, the quicker we’ll be finished. And then we can get out of your way, sir.’

‘It’s an outrage,’ said Hudson, starting to go red around the ears. ‘Damn it, it’s an outrage. This is not the sort of scene a bereaved family expect to see when they deal with Hudson and Slack.’