by James Raven
‘Well, I’m glad they’re alive,’ he said. ‘But what they went through doesn’t bear thinking about. They’re going to need a lot of counselling.’
‘They’re actually in this hospital, Jeff. They’ve apparently said that they’d like to see you at some point because they didn’t get a chance to thank you.’
‘I’d like to see them too. If Mrs Hamilton hadn’t done what she did, I wouldn’t be here now.’
Angel told him that a bunch of other people were also keen to see him, including Fiona Marsh, Dave Vaughan and Mike Beresford.
‘The Chief Super said he’d like to get a formal statement from you later today if you’re up to it. Mrs Hamilton has told him how Kane died and it’s being treated as a clear case of self-defence.’
‘What about Tom Fowler?’
‘The charge against him has been dropped and he’s being released as we speak.’
‘I should never have charged him,’ Temple said. ‘I should have realized he was being set up. If it had gone to trial there’s a good chance he would have been convicted. The so-called evidence was stacked against him.’
‘Well, thank God that didn’t happen, Jeff. So you shouldn’t let it play on your mind.’
Temple winced from a sudden pain in his gut and Angel took his hand and squeezed it.
‘I can’t believe I let Kane fool me like he did,’ he said. ‘How the hell did I not spot that Amanda Cross was really a bloke?’
‘You weren’t the only one, Jeff. I spoke to Fiona. She was taken in too. She showed me a copy of the artist’s impression that was worked up and he’s got an effeminate face.’
‘Even so.’
‘Don’t beat yourself up about it. If you’d spotted it early on, you’d have probably thought that he was just another weirdo and not made the connection to Kane.’
Temple knew that she was right, but it bothered him just the same.
‘Be grateful that you got there in the end, Jeff,’ she said. ‘Neither Grant Mason nor Ethan Kane can hurt any more people. It’s all over, thank God.’
EPILOGUE
But it wasn’t all over. Two days later, another grim discovery was made by the forensic team searching Mason’s house.
They found a cardboard folder that had been concealed behind the exposed insulation on the underside of the loft roof.
Inside was another map of the New Forest. It was older than the one that had been pinned to Mason’s wall.
On this map there were names and dates next to nine religious crosses and they were spread all over the forest.
The most recent date was just over two years ago, not long before Mason had joined forces with Ethan Kane.
The earliest date was eighteen months before that – shortly after Mason had moved to East Boldre.
The day after this second map was found, the search for more graves began.
By the same author
Rollover
Urban Myth
After the Execution
Random Targets
© James Raven
First published in Great Britain 2015
ISBN 978 0 7198 1867 7 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1868 4 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1869 1 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1693 2 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of James Raven to be identified as
author of this work has been asserted by his
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988
