Jennifer sat on her heels, trying to assess the damage.
“Flex your hand,” she said. “Can you ball your fingers?”
She took Olivia’s left hand. The arm felt limp; the bones shattered. There was no movement in the hand.
“My arm’s smashed, you idiot. I think my back’s broken. I can’t move anything.”
“What happened?” said Jennifer, surprised at the cold and clinical sound of her voice.
“If you honestly don’t know, then ask Silk.”
“You were intending to kill all three of us with your bomb,” said Jennifer.
“Wrong. I was intending to kill all four of you.”
“Derek isn’t with us, so once again, he has slipped through your fingers. That makes three, Freneton. Three times you’ve tried to kill him in the most violent way, and three times you’ve failed.”
She was expecting a reaction, but Olivia’s face was as steely hard as ever. It occurred to Jennifer that the woman was probably feeling no pain, that her injuries were so bad her nervous system had shut out all response.
“You have the luck of the devil, Cotton, but one day …”
“Dream on, Freneton, there won’t be a one day. This is it. You’re going to die, here on this rock. A successful suicide, balance of the mind disturbed. You couldn’t stand the failure and you snapped.”
“You think this is the end, Cotton?” Olivia was trying desperately to lift her head, trying to force her arms to react and grab at the girl. But nothing happened.
“You’re a police officer, DC Cotton. It’s your duty to help me, your duty to call emergency services, call a helicopter to medevac me. It’s your duty. Did you learn nothing from your training? You know that a fundamental role of a police officer is to render all possible help to the public, to protect them from danger. You must help me, Cotton. Now!”
To Olivia’s ears, she was shouting her orders, but in reality her voice was little more than a slight disturbance to the air. Jennifer had to lean close to hear anything.
“You’re right, Freneton,” she said. “It is my duty to protect the public from danger. And I’ve never come across anything or anybody more dangerous than you.”
She leaned forward and reached one arm under the crash helmet, lifting Olivia’s head from the rock on which it was resting. Her other grasped the front of the helmet.
“Cotton, I—”
There was a crack as Jennifer twisted the crash helmet sharply to the right. She let go, allowing it to fall, and looked down at the now lifeless body. Olivia’s pale eyes were still open, staring sightlessly. Jennifer reached out and closed them with her fingers.
She started as she heard another crack, this one from footfall on a shifting loose rock. She turned her head to see Henry making his way towards her.
“I take it she’s dead,” he said. “Surely she couldn’t have survived a crash like that.”
“Yes,” replied Jennifer quietly as she stood and stepped away from the body, “she is.”
She held out her arms and he took her in his, her head pressing into his shoulder.
“It’s over,” he heard her whisper.
Henry gently kissed her hair. “Did she say anything?”
Jennifer pushed her face harder into his shoulder, not wanting to move.
Finally she sighed and shook her head. “No, nothing. She was dead.”
Henry nodded, understanding. Separating himself from her arms, he knelt next to Olivia’s body. He took some tissues from a packet in his pocket and wiped the surface of the crash helmet.
“Can’t be too careful,” he said, his eyes catching Jennifer’s.
She held his gaze for a few moments before her face relaxed.
“I hope you were as thorough with the bomb,” she replied, holding out a hand to help him up. “Come on, let’s get back to your new girlfriend.”
“Yes,” said Henry. “Let’s do that.”
Afterword
I hope very much that you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, I should be extremely grateful if you could spend a few moments posting a review on Amazon or Goodreads (or both!). It needn’t be long; one word will do — preferably a favourable one! Genuine reviews, however short, are worth a lot.
And equally as important, please recommend Remorseless to your relatives, friends and colleagues. While word of mouth is very helpful to the cause of any author, it is particularly so for self-published authors for whom marketing is that much harder. If you tell a few people about this book or any of my other books, and they in turn tell others, the word will spread.
You can find more information about all my books and other book-related stuff on my website at davidgeorgeclarke.com. If you are on FaceBook, Instagram and/or Twitter, I’m there too:
FB: David George Clarke - Author
Instagram: @davidgeorgeclarke
Twitter: @dgclarke_author
Books by David George Clarke
The Rare Traits Trilogy
Rare Traits
Delusional Traits
Murderous Traits
The Cotton and Silk Thrillers
Irrefutable Evidence
Remorseless
Non-Fiction
Hong Kong Under The Microscope
A History of the Hong Kong Government Laboratory 1879–2004
Acknowledgments
As with my previous books, this novel could not have been completed without the brilliant help and encouragement of many people.
Once again, two of my former colleagues in the world of forensic science, Dr Bob Bramley and Dr Sheilah Hamilton, have scrutinised the text for scientific and procedural accuracy. My heartfelt thanks go to you both.
Anne Mensini, Sanford Foster and Luci de Norwall Cornish read early drafts, raising many salient points about the plot as well as helping to fine tune my grammar and style. I can’t thank you all enough.
Thanks are also due to my son-in-law, Simon O’Reilly — the fastest copy editor in the East — for his eagle eye.
A number of others have also kindly read through the book in draft form and all were very positive and helpful in their comments. Thanks go to my sister Jill Pemberton, my stepdaughter Zoe O’Reilly, Wendy Bearns, Jill Harrison and Cedric Harben, and of course to my wife Gail who has once again been a sounding board for ideas, a critical and constructive reviewer of drafts, and an enthusiastic supporter of the project.
I have designed my own cover once again, and there were, as ever, several versions on the way as it progressed from my original idea to its present form. Many thanks for comments and suggestions to Gail, Daniel, Zoe and Lea.
Finally, I am indebted to my two professionals: Linda Davy for her usual incisive proofreading and Susanna Moles for a wonderfully detailed copy edit. You have both made a profound difference; thank you!
A Final Word
Do you have kids or grandchildren, a favourite godson or goddaughter, a class of kids you teach or support in some way? My wife Gail is an author and illustrator who has published six beautifully illustrated children’s books. They are written in rhyme that children from 4–9 years just love reading or having read to them.
Patrick’s Birthday Message
Searching for Skye — An Arctic Tern Adventure
Cosmos the Curious Whale
The Chameleon Who Couldn’t Change Colour
Sharks — Our Ocean Guardians
Ndotto — An Elephant Rescue Story
You can find more details at Gail’s website
www.gailclarkeauthor.com
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