Free ON DEVIL'S BRAE (A Psychological Suspense Thriller) (Dark Minds Mystery Suspense) by Faith Mortimer

who is.” As he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkled, reminding Cassandra how attractive he was.
    Feeling dithery, she looked round for her boots and saw them lying on the floor beneath Angus’s coat hook. As she slipped them on, she raised her eyes to the coat hanging before her and realised it was as dark as the coat the mystery hill walker was wearing. She started and glanced back to Angus, who was watching her from the doorway. Everything he was wearing was dark, right down to his black jeans and socks.
    Her fingers trembled as she tied her shoelaces. Was it Angus out walking that afternoon? Was he playing some insane joke on her?
    Puzzled, Cassandra said a quick goodbye before she sped down the lane to her cottage. The smoke rising from the chimney was a welcoming sight and the smell familiar as she opened the garden gate. Latching it behind her, she hurried towards the front door but stopped a few feet away from it.
    Lying on the doorstep was something furry. She hesitated, letting her eyes adjust to the evening light. As she took a step closer, she realised it was a dead hare. She knew it was dead, because apart from the blood, its head was separated from its body.
    Her first thought was how disgusting to find such a helpless animal lying dead in her doorstep and wondered if a fox or a dog from the farm was responsible. Then she remembered. Wasn’t the mystery walker holding a similar animal?
    Trembling with shock, Cassandra glanced at her surroundings. The dark shadows seemed to mock her with their silence. Surely it wasn’t possible? Who would kill a hare and deliver it to her door? And why? What possible reason could anyone have for leaving such a macabre calling card?
    Her thoughts went back to the afternoon at Angus’s place and to his dark jacket and scarf hanging by the door. Would he have had time to stalk her on the mountain and get down before her? Was there a quicker way back to the hamlet?
    She decided there was no way he could have beaten her down. She had run, for heaven’s sake! And unless he was a total fruitcake, why would he have given so much of his time to offer her tea and advice? There you go again, woman, imagination running riot and overtime. The fruitcake wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous Angus, it was Cassandra Potter!
    Be sensible , Cassandra told herself. Okay, so you know you’re depressed, but you’re strong, and it’s high time you pulled yourself together. After disposing of the dead hare, she set about making supper. A mundane task would help take her mind off things. But try as she might, the day’s events unsettled her, and Cassandra’s thoughts returned once more to Stacy Hodges and her family.

    Chapter 13 Summer 2012, Liverpool
    Once they heard the coroner’s report, Rosie insisted she drive Susan and Cassandra home. “We’ll get a takeaway and a bottle or two of red wine, and I’ll keep you company tonight. We can watch a DVD if you like or just sit and have a quiet natter,” she said, linking her arm through her friend’s and smiling warmly at Susan. “Come on, let’s go.”
    But the media had different ideas. They were baying for blood. A child was dead and someone had to pay. It didn’t matter that Susan hadn’t delivered the actual blow to Natalie; they considered she was responsible in another way. Rosie took one look at the reporters before they swarmed towards them and dragged both sisters off towards her car. They left a jeering pack behind them on the courtroom pavement.
    Cassandra sat huddled in one corner of her car seat and thought about what their late mother would have said. She never understood any of it, and from Susan’s so-far tight-lipped response to Cassandra’s remarks about their mother, no doubt Daphne would have expected as much from her elder daughter. Why would either of her daughters want to get mixed up in anything as dirty or obscene as child abuse? Why would they have associated with such vulgar people?
    Stacy Hodges was one such