The Hanged Man

by Simon Kernick

  She looked at me, tears filling her eyes, her face battered by defeat. ‘We could have made a life,’ she said. ‘And I wanted to, Ray. I really did. It didn’t have to end this way.’

  But, of course, it did. Everything in my life eventually crumbled. Those I loved always went away in the end.

  With a barely suppressed sob, Tina walked away from me down the hall and I felt my heart sink as she disappeared from view.

  With a deep sigh, I went over to Anthea Delbarto and lifted her chin up with the pistol’s suppressor. This time the fear and panic were coming off her in waves as she realized that, like Mr Bone, she too was staring into the abyss, a place where I hoped all her sins would return to haunt her.

  ‘I’d like you to suffer longer,’ I told her, ‘but I haven’t got the time. This is for my mother and brothers.’

  And then I pulled the trigger a final time.

  The house was already well ablaze, extinguishing any trace of Tina’s DNA, when I heard the police cars pulling into the lane on the other side of the front gates, their arrival announced by the sirens and flashing blue lights.

  And it was with a strange sense of relief, as if I no longer had to prove myself, to anyone, that I stood up to meet them.

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  Epub ISBN: 9781473535206

  Version 1.0

  Published by Century 2017

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  Copyright © Simon Kernick, 2017

  Cover © Arcangel and Colin Thomas

  Simon Kernick has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  First published in Great Britain by Century in 2017

  Century

  The Penguin Random House Group Limited

  20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 2SA

  www.penguin.co.uk

  Century is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

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

  ISBN 9781780894478