Free Web of Deceit by Katherine Howell Page B

to his shoulders, hiding his injuries.His eyes and mouth were closed, his brown hair combed back, his skin pale. He looked younger than he had under the train.
    Audra started to sob. Ella watched Chloe stare at him, her eyes wide and uncomprehending.
    ‘Is this your husband?’ Murray asked gently.
    ‘No.’
    ‘It’s him,’ Audra said. ‘Oh God.’
    ‘It isn’t,’ Chloe said. ‘It’s not. It looks like him but it’s not.’
    ‘Chloe –’
    ‘It’s not him! He’s stuck in traffic!’ Chloe smacked her palms on the glass. ‘It’s not him! Take him away! Don’t make me look!’
    ‘Chloe, it’s Marko.’ Audra put her hands to her sister’s cheeks and turned her head to face her. ‘It’s him, baby.’
    ‘No, no, no, no.’
    ‘It’s him.’
    ‘No.’ Chloe reached for the window as she sank to the floor. Her fingers leftdamp streaks on the glass. ‘No.’
    Audra dropped to her knees beside her. Chloe wailed in her embrace. Ella blinked back tears and saw Murray doing the same. The man inside the room hesitated, then drew the curtain closed.
    ‘Marko!’ Chloe screamed, then gasped and clutched her belly. Audra grabbed her arm. Chloe folded over onto herself and gasped again.
    Ella’s heart constrictedand she turned to Murray, but he was already on his phone.
    *
    ‘Find who did this,’ Audra said to Ella as the paramedics loaded the sobbing Chloe into their ambulance. The baby was fine as far as they could tell, and Chloe’s pain had eased, but nobody was taking chances.
    ‘We intend to,’ Ella said. Beside her, Murray nodded.
    Audra grasped their wrists. Her fingers were coldand hard as steel, her eyes even harder. ‘Find who did this,’ she said again. ‘And make them pay.’
    After the ambulance left, with Audra in the front seat, Ella and Murray got into their car.
    ‘Marriage vows declare you’re together until death separates you,’ Ella said, her scalp tight and her skin clammy from all the tension. ‘You think this Fletcher might’ve decided to help mattersalong?’
    Murray called Brad Langley, and put him on speakerphone to summarise what Chloe had told them about Meixner and about Fletcher.
    ‘A previous attempt and on medication?’ Langley boomed. ‘Sounds clear-cut to me.’
    ‘We need to talk to this Fletcher and to Canning too,’ Murray said.
    ‘The wife know about Meixner telling police he’d been followed?’
    ‘No, she didn’t,but she’s pregnant, so he probably didn’t want to worry her.’
    ‘Or he knew she’d recognise it as a sign that he needed to go to the nuthouse.’
    Ella saw Murray’s jaw tighten.
    ‘How’d she take the news?’ Langley asked.
    ‘Not well,’ Murray said. ‘She’s gone to hospital.’
    Ella couldn’t resist. ‘I’m sure she’ll feel better once we catch her husband’s killer,’ she said loudly.
    ‘As I said, previous attempt and medication –’
    ‘Yes, I heard you,’ Ella said.
    The line went silent. She squeezed her nails into her palms to stop herself digging the hole any deeper.
    ‘So,’ Murray said, in a conciliatory tone, ‘we thought Canning first, then Fletcher.’
    ‘Sounds like a job for tomorrow when you’re on shift.’
    Ella couldn’t stand it. She got out ofthe car, shut the door, and walked into the centre of the empty street. Langley’s penny-pinching attitude made her furious. Yes, they were on overtime, but this could be a murder just as easily as a suicide. Marko and Chloe and the baby deserved every effort. Finding the truth was what mattered. What better reason to spend money was there?
    The high cloud in the night sky glowed with thecity’s lights. Out there somewhere was the man who may have pushed Marko into the path of the train. Almost six hours had passed already. It was plenty of time for that man to be getting rid of evidence, working out his alibi, putting lots of kilo-metres between himself and the scene, and they couldn’t afford to let him have any more.
    Murray got out of