[DC Laura McGanity 05 ]Cold Kill Read online

  Jack had no sympathy. David Hoyle was a lawyer, he knew where the line was, and he shouldn’t have crossed it.

  Jack took some deep breaths and looked at the floor. He shouldn’t feel like this. He could hear the soft murmurs of people around him, but they seemed distant, as if he was sitting in a bubble. He looked up instead, tried to focus on the view through the large window, past clusters of trees and towards a line of cottages on a distant brow. It was going to be all right, he told himself.

  Then his thoughts were broken by the sound of music from the back of the room and the rumble of people rising to their feet. He recognised the tune. It was the one Laura had wanted for her entrance.

  Jack felt a tap on his arm. It was Joe Kinsella, who smiled and said, ‘It’s time.’

  Jack rose slowly to his feet, winced as his leg ached, and then as he looked round, his nerves melted away.

  Laura was in an ivory-coloured dress, neat and simple, her shoulders bare, the train short, clutching a hand-tied bouquet of white calla lilies and roses, the colour provided by her stream of dark hair. Her dimples flickered in her cheeks. As beautiful as she looked the first time he’d met her.

  As she reached him, he held out his hand and squeezed hers.

  ‘I love you,’ he whispered.

  Tears sprang to her eyes before she gave his fingers a small squeeze and then they turned to the Registrar.

  Jack knew then that everything was going to be all right.

  Read on for

  In Conversation with Neil White

  1. If you were stranded on a desert island, which book would you take with you?

  Although To Kill A Mockingbird first came to mind, because it is the only book I have wanted to start reading again as soon as I’d finished it, I would choose Shoeless Joe by WP Kinsella. It’s a whimsical tale of unfulfilled dreams set in Iowa, although the film adaptation is probably better known, Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner.

  2. Where does your inspiration come from?

  If you mean my inspiration to write, it comes from other great books. When I read a really good book, I just think that I would love to write a book as good as that. If you mean for my plots, it just comes from real life. It’s a real tragedy that there are so many people willing to do horrific things to other human beings, but I am intrigued by their motivations, their thought processes, and how they can live with their guilt.

  3. Have you always wanted to become a writer?

  As an adult, yes, and I remember saying during my law degree years that the law would be what I would do until I could be a writer, so it was always an ambition. It was only after I left college and went to work that I decided to give it a try. My goal was to write a book that I would want to read, and as I enjoy reading pacey crime fiction, I was always going to try writing a thriller.

  4. What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?

  I worked once in a packing factory, and my job was to bash the tops onto washing-up liquid bottles. I had a wooden mallet, and the person opposite would put the tops in the bottle, and I would bash them, bang, bang, bang, bang. All night. If we wanted some variety, he would have the mallet and I would put them in.

  I was once a security guard on Bridlington seafront, guarding the waltzers and dodgems at night. I lasted just four nights, when I realised that I wasn’t cut out for security work. Two couples bounded onto the waltzer in the dead of night (I was huddled in one of the cars, trying to keep warm), and my efforts to challenge them ended with the four of them sitting in one of the waltzer cars I was guarding, rolling cannabis joints, as I held my torch over them so that they could see what they were doing.

  5. When you’re not writing, what are your favourite things to do?

  Apart from spending time with my family – I have three boisterous boys – I enjoy reading books and watching films. I am a big rugby league fan, and a season ticket holder at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, and so I spend a lot of time watching it.

  6. What is a typical working day like for you? Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, how did you cope with it?

  I try and produce a certain number of words a day, because that helps me to move the plot forward. If I get stuck on the plot, I go back to the beginning and rewrite, because I find that by the time I get to where I had got stuck, a reminder of what I’d done before helps me unblock the jam. If I ever feel that I just don’t know what to write, I have a night off and watch a film. Sometimes you just have to take yourself away for a while.

  7. Do you have any secret ambitions?

  My secret ambition is to see more of the world. I have always said that I want to see rugby league in Australia, and one day I’ll manage that, but there are so many great places to see, and so little time to see it.

  8. What can’t you live without?

  If I assume that good health and family is a given, chocolate and alcohol would be high up the list, along with television and sport. I know that makes me sound like a lazy couch potato, but as it’s confession time, you might as well have the truth.

  9. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

  I wanted to be a policeman when I was a child. I have always loved the criminal law, and as a child it was programmes like Crown Court and Petrocelli that I seemed to enjoy the most. Even when I was studying, as my friends considered high-flying commercial careers, I imagined myself in a police station.

  10. Which five people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party?

  Johnny Cash, and I would insist he brought his guitar.

  Muhammad Ali, just so that I could tell him how much he captivated me as a child.

  Enid Blyton, to say thank you for The Famous Five.

  Richard Harris, just in case things weren’t lively enough.

  Sharon Stone. Well, it is my party.

  DEAD SILENT

  Neil White

  Digging for the truth can be fatal…

  Twenty years ago, hotshot barrister and handsome TV presenter Claude Gilbert murdered his wife, buried her alive and then killed himself. At least - that is what everyone believes. But as Gilbert disappeared on the night of the murder and his body was never found, the mystery has remained unsolved. Until now…

  When Lancashire crime beat reporter Jack Garrett is contacted by someone claiming to be Gilbert’s girlfriend, alleging that Gilbert is alive and determined to prove his innocence, Jack eagerly leaps on the chance to clear a decades-old enigma.

  But as Jack sets off on the trail of Gilbert – and the news scoop of his career – he quickly finds that the truth is stranger than the headlines. Jack and girlfriend PC Laura McGanity quickly realise that they are now pawns in a twisted game, and things are about to get nasty…

  A heart-stopping novel from one of the rising stars of British crime fiction, guaranteed to captivate fans of Peter James and Mark Billingham.

  ISBN: 978-1-84756-128-2

  Out Now

  Acknowledgments

  I write in a very solitary way. I don’t often seek advice during the writing process, and instead just lock myself away until I’m done. Once I re-emerge, squinting in the daylight, I am so grateful that there are people who can make some sense out of what I’ve put on the page. My editors, Claire Bord and Helen Bolton, have been fantastic, as I knew they would be, and they and the rest of the Avon team work very hard on my behalf.

  My wonderful agent, Sonia Land of Sheil Land Associates, has been a source of sound advice and support, as always, and long may that continue.

  As much as I enjoy the professional help, I am lucky to enjoy the support of a small band of people who do what they can to help me. In particular, I would like to say thank you to Angela Melhuish for setting up and monitoring my Facebook fan page, and to Liz Wilkins and Belinda Cohen for telling people about me on the internet forums.

  For everyone else, I know who you are and I won’t forget.

  About the Author

  Born above a shoe shop in the mid-1960s,
Neil spent most of his childhood in Wakefield in West Yorkshire as his father pursued a career in the shoe trade. This took Neil to Bridlington in his teens, where he failed all his exams and discovered that doing nothing soon turns into long-term unemployment. Re-inventing himself, Neil returned to education in his 20s, qualified as a solicitor when he was 30, and now spends his days in the courtroom and his evenings writing crime fiction.

  To find out more about Neil go to www.neilwhite.net.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Other Books by the same author:

  Fallen Idols

  Lost Souls

  Last Rites

  Dead Silent

  Copyright

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  AVON

  A division of HarperCollinsPublishers

  77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

  London W6 8JB

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  COLD KILL. Copyright © Neil White 2011. 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Neil White asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978-1-84756-129-9

  EPub Edition © MAY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-00-743590-6

  About the Publisher

  Australia

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  www.harpercollins.com.au/ebooks

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  http://www.harpercollins.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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  London, W6 8JB, UK

  http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

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  http://www.harpercollins.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Read on for In Conversation with Neil White

  Dead Silent

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Other Books by the Same Author

  Copyright

  About the Publisher