Crossing the Line (Kerry Wilkinson) (41 page)
Read Crossing the Line (Kerry Wilkinson) Online
Authors: Kerry Wilkinson
‘Jess?’
Jessica shook her head. ‘When I asked him in interview, he said he couldn’t remember. We’re not
going to get near to talking to him again today, if ever. They’ve taken him to a secure hospital.’
Cornish shuffled through her papers. ‘There’s no CCTV at either end of the alley in which
Dewhurst was killed and plenty of cut-throughs that aren’t covered either. We’ve got no footage of
Max arriving at the scene, let alone anyone else. All we have is some of Dewhurst on the traffic
cameras nearby.’
Cole drummed his fingers on the desk. ‘So that’s it, then?’
He didn’t sound so sure.
Izzy was as forceful as ever. ‘I’ll keep on at the transport companies – he obviously got to the
centre somehow but by the time we arrived at the scene, he was lying on the floor himself, out of
breath, barely able to move.’
Jessica felt everyone looking at her. ‘Perhaps he’s stronger than we think? It’s amazing what
someone can do when they’re pushed hard enough.’
44
Jessica sat at the traffic lights watching the red burn through the windscreen.
‘What do you want for your birthday, then?’ Adam asked.
‘I’m not having a birthday this year. It’s getting out of hand, all this ageing.’
‘How long is it until the big one?’
‘Long enough.’ As the light turned green, Jessica accelerated away, glancing down at the
speedometer. ‘This would be a lot easier if I had my glasses.’
‘Where’d you leave them?’
‘If I knew that, I’d be wearing them, wouldn’t I?’
Adam laughed. ‘Georgia got that flat, by the way. She’s going in two weeks, so you can have the
house back on your days off.’
‘I don’t mind, she’s—’
‘It’s me you’re talking to, remember. You don’t mind her being there but you kind of do because you
also like your space, but then you feel bad about not wanting her there, which means you don’t say
anything – you just moan to Izzy about it. I know.’
‘Smart-arse.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment. Anyway, are you feeling better?’
‘I’m fine – I think there’s been a bug going around.’
‘How’s your wrist?’
‘Getting there.’ Jessica indicated to go around the roundabout, following the signs for the
superstore even though she knew the way. ‘How is she about Humphrey?’
‘All right but I’m not sure she’ll be Internet dating anytime soon.’
‘Caroline texted me to say she’s off to Copenhagen with Hugo for one of his shows. If she gets out
of the country without murdering some pretty blonde Danish fan of his it’ll be a miracle.’
‘They’re the weirdest couple I’ve ever known – worse than us.’
‘I’m not sure Hugo realises they’re a couple. He’ll probably find out on their wedding day when he
realises everyone’s got a suit on and she’s in a white dress.’
Jessica pulled into the supermarket car park and stopped towards the back where it was darkest. It
felt like habit now. ‘Did you think about that other thing?’
Adam nodded. ‘I called that Shane guy of yours – he invited me down to help out with his kids at
the church hall, so I’m going to give it a go. I’ve never thought about adoption before.’
‘If it’s any consolation, I don’t know either. I just remember the look in his eyes when he was
talking about them.’
Adam drummed his hands on the dashboard. ‘Okay, let’s get going, You’ve been up since silly a.m.
and I’ve got tea to cook.’ He reached into the back seat for the bags for life but when he turned around he seemed confused. ‘Why are there bolt cutters in the footwell?’
He picked them up to prove the point.
Jessica stroked his arm and smiled. ‘I needed them for something at work but it’s all sorted now.
Come on, let’s go. I’m bloody starving.’
EPILOGUE
The PC scuffed her feet along the cobbles, eyes on the ground. ‘Eight years on the force and this is
what it comes down to: Joy Bag Fucking Jane. This is what they’re going to be calling me for the next
twenty years.’
The man next to her didn’t look up. ‘Oh, stop moaning – at least they’re not accusing you of nicking
all the pens. Just because I’m efficient enough to keep one on me, everyone’s going around calling me
PC Pen-Thief.’
‘Oh, pipe down, that’s nothing compared to Joy Bag. Maybe if you learned to spell, you wouldn’t
get so much shite.’
The man stopped, crouching to pick up a tissue and putting it in a see-through bag. ‘Why are we
even here? I thought they’d searched this area once? Some scumbag drug dealer gets himself shot and
we’re here a day later sweeping the alley for a second time.’
‘The guv says he wants to make sure we did a thorough job – some bollocks about that Winward
fella having an accomplice. If you ask me he did us a favour.’
Jane was about to take another step forwards when PC Pen-Thief put an arm across her. He
crouched, peering at the ground.
‘What’s down there? I can’t see a bloody thing in this light.’
PC Pen-Thief picked up the twisted metal frame with his gloves and dropped it into an evidence
bag. ‘Unless I’m very much mistaken, it looks to me as if someone’s dropped their glasses.’
AFTERWORD
Manchester City Council don’t like me very much. How do I know this? Basically, they’ve gone out
of their way to completely screw me over.
I wrote this book and Jessica 9 –
Scarred for Life
– back-to-back in the spring and summer of
2013. You’ll understand why when you read the next novel; they feed into one another, with not one
but two of my favourite ever characters making their first appearances. (That’s cheap plug #1.)
Anyway, I pottered my way through the rest of the year, writing the first two books in the Andrew
Hunter private investigator series (cheap plug #2: book one,
Something Wicked
, is already out as an ebook), as well as doing a few other odds and ends. Then I got to the end of the year and Manchester
City Council completely stitched me up.
How? They went and plonked a massive great Ferris wheel in the middle of Piccadilly Gardens.
When I saw it, my heart sank. That wasn’t because the attraction didn’t appeal – who wouldn’t want
to be freezing cold, sixty metres in the air, with a wonderful view of the, er, car park and, er, bus
station and, er, Burger King? No, it was because I’d already written the opening chapters of
Crossing
the Line
, set in Piccadilly Gardens without the wheel.
I had a few options. Tampering with the wheel in an effort to get it shut down seemed like an
extreme idea, so that left me wondering whether I should rewrite the opening. I could have moved the
politician scene to a different spot, or even written the wheel into the action. That only causes another problem, though. The wheel’s on a two-year contract as a bit of a test to see if it’s popular, meaning it could be temporary anyway.
So, ultimately, I changed nothing. These books are fiction and
Crossing the Line
could be set either before the wheel went up or after it comes down. Or it could be in an alternative reality where it
never went up in the first place and Manchester City Council really like me. This afterword is just to
let you know that I know that you know.
COMING SOON
SCARRED FOR LIFE
The next book in the Jessica Daniel series
DI Jessica Daniel is not having a good week. Her wallet’s been nicked, the refurbished incident room
is already falling apart, and a new football-mad constable is driving her crazy.
She also has bigger things on her mind. A student’s body has been dumped in a wheelie bin at the
back of a university building, with a vague link to an Olympic medallist and a theory that it could
have been an induction that went wrong.
There’s the tattooed shop raider who has her team stumped; someone attacking lone women; a chief
inspector who seems to have a problem with her; and someone putting letters through her front door
insisting that she’s caught ‘the wrong man’.
Worlds are colliding for Jessica – and, if she’s not careful, someone close to her might not make it
through in one piece.
By Kerry Wilkinson
RECKONING
The Silver Blackthorn Trilogy
One girl. One reckoning. One destiny.
In the village of Martindale, hundreds of miles north of the new English capital of Windsor, sixteen-
year-old Silver Blackthorn takes the Reckoning. This coming-of-age test not only decides her place in
society – Elite, Member, Inter or Trog – but also determines that Silver is to become an Offering for
King Victor.
But these are uncertain times and no one really knows what happens to the teenagers who
disappear into Windsor Castle. Is being an Offering the privilege everyone assumes it to be, or do the
walls of the castle have something to hide?
Trapped in a maze of ancient corridors, Silver finds herself in a warped world of suspicion where
it is difficult to know who to trust and who to fear. The one thing Silver does know is that she must
find a way out . . .
CROSSING THE LINE
Kerry Wilkinson’s debut,
Locked In
, the first title in the detective Jessica Daniel series, was written as a challenge to himself and went on to become a UK Number One Kindle bestseller within three
months of release.
Since then, his Jessica Daniel series has sold over three-quarters of a million copies and he
became the first formerly self-published British author to have an ebook Number One and reach the
top 20 of the UK paperback chart.
Crossing the Line
is the eighth title in the Jessica Daniel series.
Kerry is an occasional sports journalist and can frequently be spotted cycling the hills of
Lancashire while trying not to be knocked off. Please drive safely around him. He was born in
Somerset but now lives in Lancashire.
For more information about Kerry and his books visit:
Twitter:
twitter.com/kerrywk
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/JessicaDanielBooks
Or you can email Kerry at [email protected]
By Kerry Wilkinson
The Jessica Daniel series
LOCKED IN
VIGILANTE
THE WOMAN IN BLACK
THINK OF THE CHILDREN
PLAYING WITH FIRE
THICKER THAN WATER
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
CROSSING THE LINE
The Andrew Hunter series
SOMETHING WICKED
The Silver Blackthorn Trilogy
RECKONING
First published 2014 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2014 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-4472-4788-3
Copyright © Kerry Wilkinson 2014
Cover design ©
www.blacksheep-uk.com
Photo of Castlefield, Manchester © Alamy
Silhouette of woman © SuperStock
The right of Kerry Wilkinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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