Free Hard Fall: A gripping, noir detective thriller (Thomas Blume series of Hard-Boiled Mysteries, Book 1) by P.T. Reade

waves. I made the decision as he stared at me to just let it ride. To hell with Atkinson. I didn’t need him to crack this case. He’d basically given me everything anyway. I just had one last place to investigate.
     
    I shrugged and turned my back to him. I opened his door and looked out into the pouring rain. I paused and without turning back, I added: “If you did in fact have something to do with Billy…if he is the reason behind Jack Ellington’s disappearance —it’s not too late for you to help…to do the right thing. If not, your entire reputation, your medals and awards? All of it is built on a cheap lie.”
     
    I fully expected a shouting match or maybe even a swift kick to help me out of the door, but I got neither. There was only the sound of distant thunder and a sense of things coming to a close as I stepped through the rain towards my car.
     
     

TEN
     
    The storm was angry.
     
    Billy Bennett lived on a rundown farm 25 miles from London. It had one primary exit, off a small country lane near a village called Felmont. But there was also a second road, a small dirt track that wound through the woods and eventually fed out onto a tiny lane that was 15 miles away from the nearest main road.
     
    It was this dirt track that I took, slowly meandering down it in the pouring rain 45 minutes after leaving Atkinson’s house. On two occasions, I felt the back tires lose traction, spinning in the mud. As the farm came into view — a few flat fields and a hillside filled with corn — I saw a gate up ahead. It was simple steel gate, bolted to posts. A Master Lock hung from a chain in the center.
     
    I hated the idea of leaving my car because I was pretty sure getting it back out of this road without getting stuck in the increasing mud would be next to impossible. But I had come this far, and if my hunch was right there was no going back.
     
    I got out and gave myself a moment to adjust to the rain. It was at its heaviest now, a full storm cascading from above like the heavens were throwing everything they had at me in a last ditch effort. Even though it was daytime, black clouds cast shadowy swathes across the countryside and rumbles of dissention shook the air. I steadied myself, pulled up my hood, and then climbed the rain-slicked gate. I slid over the other side and looked up to the farm, yearning for the comforting weight of a weapon.
     
    I trudged up the rest of the road, and as I came around a slight bend, I could see Billy’s house. It sat about 50 yards from the base of the corn field. The lay of the land was not in my favor. I‘d planned on Billy not being home, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. If he was in, he’d have a very good chance of spotting me coming up the road, even through the dismal weather.
     
    That meant that I’d have to head into the woods and sneak up on the eastern edge of the property. I left the road and started walking into the bare forest. Sickly trees all around gave me some cover from the rain, but not much. I wondered if it had been an orchard in another lifetime. My shoes were already plastered in mud and dead leaves, and I could feel the weight of it with every step I took.
     
    The ground started to drop as I neared the edge of the property. The place was ramshackle and looked more like a junkyard than a farm as I got closer to the house. I could see a shed several yards away from Billy’s house. There were also two broken-down trucks and an ancient, long-faded tractor. I headed for the shed, planning to use it for cover as I snuck up on his house.
     
    With my eyes on the buildings, I misjudged the lay of the land.
     
    “Shit!”
     
    My foot suddenly slipped, and before I knew it, my ankle was on fire, and I was on the ground, sliding quickly. I tried to correct myself, reaching out for a nearby tree, but that only resulted in causing me to tumble. I felt mud slide down my back, and my right leg was momentarily pinned beneath me.
     
    I came to a