Whisper For The Reaper by Jack Gatland (best book series to read TXT) 📕

‘I was on Hurley Lock Footbridge when they fought.’ She glanced at De’Geer as she spoke. Anjli looked to him also, curious why Ellie had deferred to him.

‘It’s a place for teenagers to meet,’ he explained. ‘It’s a romantic place. Many have their first kisses there. We had our first kiss there.’ He smiled at Ellie, who smiled back. Anjli nodded at this; she’d been told that De’Geer and Ellie Randall had a history.

‘I came back to the campsite via the Thames entrance,’ Ellie continued. ‘Thought nothing was wrong. About an hour later someone found the phone, and then… then they found Craig.’

‘Was there anyone around that seemed off?’ De’Geer asked. ‘Anyone who didn’t look like they should be there?’

‘Why, you suddenly care now?’ Ellie snapped.

There was a moment of silence before she continued.

‘Sorry, it’s just I told the coppers back then, and they did nothing.’

Anjli frowned at this. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean I saw something that day and I told the coppers but they ignored me,’ Ellie continued. ‘When I came back, walking along the Thames, I looked to the woods by the makeshift bridge that was by field three. I could see Craig and some man.’

‘What were they doing?’

‘Sitting,’ Ellie shut her eyes as she brought the image back in her head. ‘I didn’t say anything, as we weren’t talking. Brother and sister stuff, you know. But when they found the body, I told the police, and they ignored it.’

‘What did you tell them?’

‘That I saw Craig and the man together, talking, and then the man flipped a coin or something,’ Ellie opened her eyes. ‘Then I saw Tracey, my best friend by the main gate and I forgot all about it.’

‘Well, this time we’ll use it,’ Anjli pulled out a card, passing it to Ellie. ‘If you remember anything, let me know, okay? Can you remember what the man looked like?’

‘White, with brown hair?’ Ellie was reaching now. ‘Honestly, it was years ago, and it was at a distance. Sorry I can’t help any more.’

‘That’s more than enough to go on with,’ Anjli said as she rose. De’Geer, seeing this, followed suit. Walking to the front door, Ellie glanced shyly at De’Geer.

‘You’ve definitely grown,’ she smiled. De’Geer nodded.

‘Not the scrawny kid I was,’ he agreed.

‘If you’re ever around, we should catch up,’ Ellie opened the door as De’Geer and Anjli walked through. ‘You know, a drink or something.’

’Now I know where you are, I’ll remember it,’ De’Geer smiled and, with Anjli following, he walked to his motorcycle, pulling on the helmet.

‘That was a little cold, wasn’t it?’ Anjli asked. ‘I mean, you were childhood sweethearts, torn apart by trauma, and now you’re ignoring a blatant come on?’

‘We were childhood sweethearts,’ De’Geer sadly replied. ‘And we shared our first kiss on the Hurley Lock Bridge.’ He climbed onto the bike, starting it up.

‘But I wasn’t with her that day, and I sure as hell wasn’t at Hurley Lock Bridge with her.’

‘Oh,’ Anjli replied before realising. ‘Oh.’

Climbing onto the pillion, Anjli took one last look at the house. Ellie Randall was watching from the window as De’Geer revved the motorcycle and sped off towards Hurley once more, his mind now focussed on teenage love and betrayal.

11

Moving Pictures

When her dad had told her she was going ‘undercover’, Jess hadn’t exactly known what he meant, but had nodded and agreed to do whatever she could to help the investigation.

Unfortunately, that meant doing what her dad had asked for; go undercover at the Henley College where Nathanial Wing had studied, find his classmates and gather whatever she could from them. Apparently Wing’s parents had been very vocal about the police and were refusing to speak to any of them. This was the only way to get any advantage.

The problem with this was the same issue that allowed Jess to be in Hurley in the first place; it was half term. The college wouldn’t be open. Still, undeterred, she caught the 239 bus from outside the Malthouse and travelled the five miles to Henley-Upon-Thames, deciding that as the college was closed, she’d look into the web company that Wing had apparently been interning at, Bardic Design. In Adam Court, off Bell Street, it was a small boutique firm with only about three full-time staff. Someone there should be able to help.

When she arrived, however, she found it was smaller than she had even imagined, with one woman sitting at a reception desk, and a lone man, no older than thirty working at a computer in a glass walled back room.

‘Can I help you?’ the woman asked, smiling as she looked up at Jess.

‘Actually, yeah,’ Jess walked up to the reception desk, trying to match the woman’s smile. ‘I was hoping someone here could speak to me about Nathan Wing.’

The smile faltered at this.

‘Ah, Nathan,’ the receptionist said. ‘So sad. Expected, but sad.’

‘Expected?’ Jess frowned. ‘You knew he was going to do this?’

‘He was troubled, let’s leave it at that,’ the receptionist replied, now all business. ‘What’s your business with Nathan, anyway?’

‘I knew him,’ Jess lied. ‘That is, I met him a couple of times.’

‘Let me guess,’ the receptionist sighed. ‘He owed you money.’

‘Why would you think that?’

‘He owed everyone money,’ the receptionist replied, looking back to the other office where the man still worked at the computer. ‘Clive didn’t even pay him, and yet we ended up being owed a couple of hundred. But I shouldn’t talk ill of the dead,’ she looked back to Jess. ‘Nobody’s paying you back, love. Class it as lost money.’

‘Did he have any other friends?’ Jess asked. ‘I was at least hoping to speak to people who knew him.’

’Try the college,’ the receptionist suggested. ‘Or if not there, the Regal Picturehouse on Boroma Way. There’s a downstairs cafe that they all liked to meet up at.’

Jess thanked the receptionist and made her way down Bell Street, towards the Picturehouse while she considered what she’d learned. Nathanial Wing was a debtor. Could someone