Alex was smiling at her. Saying nothing. His face looked younger, softer. One wouldn’t call him a handsome man but there was something craggy and masculine that made his an attractive face. Martha smiled back.
‘There is one other thing.’ He spoke quietly. ‘I feel worried about your stalker. These incidences can escalate all too easily. I took the liberty of asking an offender profiler to examine the incidents you’d told me about and he feels that we should take it seriously. He also feels sure that the perpetrator is someone you’ve had professional dealings with. That’s enough for me, Martha,’ he continued. ‘We’ll need details of every case you’ve conducted since you came to Shrewsbury.’
‘What? There must be thousands.’
‘Only the ones where you’ve played an active part in the verdict,’ he said.
‘That does narrow the field a bit. But it must still be hundreds, Alex.’
Alex raised his eyebrows and Martha was silent. She had suspected this herself, that her job had led someone to home in on her. ‘Then I’ll organise Jericho,’ she said finally.
Randall stood up then. ‘Well, that’s it, Martha.’
She stood up with him. ‘Goodbye, Alex.’
He was gone and she sat back in her chair, thinking.
She still had her own ghosts to lay to rest, plenty to tackle yet in her life. Many cases of tragedy to deal with in the future but she would never forget these three lives which had been wasted so wantonly. Perhaps like the deaths in the First World War she should tell herself that all had not been in vain and that young lives had not been wasted without some benefit.
But in her heart of hearts she was not convinced.
She stood up and looked out of the window, straight across the town, at the spire of St Mary’s, scene of the first hang gliding tragedy in 1739. What future deaths would she need to unravel? Which would Alex find had led to someone victimising her for more than a year? And what about her personal life? Was she destined to follow the example of Martha Dias, also buried at St Mary’s?
Here lies the body of Martha Dias,
Who was always uneasy and not over pious.
She lived to the age of three score and ten,
And gave to the worms what she refused to the men.
Would that be her epitaph?
She sighed, felt vaguely and momentarily depressed then caught sight of her mobile phone flashing.
It was a text from Sam, simply hoping that she was ‘all right’ and that ‘Bobby was fine’. She smiled. No need for the mistletoe code.
So as usual, she must move on into her own personal and professional future, her two children at her side. She texted Sam back telling him they were all fine too.
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About the Author
Born in Yorkshire and brought up in south Wales, PRISCILLA MASTERS is the author of the popular series set in the Staffordshire moorlands featuring Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy. She has also written four medical standalone mysteries.
Slipknot is the second in the series featuring coroner Martha Gunn, set in the medieval town of Shrewsbury. Masters has two sons and lives in Staffordshire. She works part time as a nurse.
By Priscilla Masters
Joanna Piercy series
Winding up the Serpent
Catch the Fallen Sparrow
And None Shall Sleep
Scaring Crows
Embroidering Shrouds
Endangering Innocents
Wings Over the Watcher
Grave Stones
Martha Gunn series
River Deep
Slipknot
Other
Night Visit
Disturbing Ground
A Plea of Insanity
The Watchful Eye
Buried in Clay
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
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London W1T 6DW
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2007.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2013.
Copyright © 2007 by PRISCILLA MASTERS
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1583–1