Читать книгу Sanctus and The Key: 2 Bestselling Thrillers - Simon Toyne, Simon Toyne - Страница 58

‘Hello … er … Miss Adamsen. This is Inspector Arkadian. I just wanted to say again how sorry … for your loss … e-mailed some photos to a Detective Berringer … Newark PD …’

Liv pressed the phone hard against her ear as the static rose, swamping parts of the message.

‘He’ll call you in the … formally ID the … He can deal with everything his end … don’t hesitate … call me if you have an …’

The message ended and her eyes jerked to the man sitting behind the wheel. If Arkadian had sent pictures for her to ID, it meant he didn’t think she was coming. So why would he send someone to collect her? The second message started to play.

‘Hi, my name is Detective Berringer with the Newark City Police Department …’

She didn’t wait to hear the rest.

He’d said his name was Gabriel. He’d said he was a cop.

No.

He’d never said he was a cop. He hadn’t shown her his badge when he’d introduced himself. He just said Arkadian sent him and she had assumed the rest. Stupid. She’d been suckered by her own exhaustion and by the fact that he was nice-looking and polite. So who the hell was he?

‘Everything OK?’

She looked up and met his eyes in the mirror.

‘Yeah,’ she said, suddenly aware that her face must look a picture of concern. ‘Just work. I hopped the flight here in a bit of a hurry. Didn’t have time to finish off a few things before I left. My boss is real pissed at me.’

His eyes flicked back to the road as a van hissed past in a cloud of spray. A squeal of tyres and the interior flooded with red. The van in front had braked hard. Too hard.

Gabriel followed suit. The Renault’s wheels squealed across the greasy surface of the road. There was a violent jolt as its front bumper smashed into the back of the van. Liv was thrown forward hard against her belt. There was a sharp crack and for the briefest of moments, before the airbags deployed, she thought she’d been shot.

Then everything went into slow motion.