The Killer Inside. Cass Green

      

      THE KILLER INSIDE

      Cass Green

       Copyright

      HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

      Copyright © Caroline Green 2019

      Caroline Green asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      Cover design by Sim Greenaway © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

      Cover photographs © Stephen Mulcahey/Arcangel Images, Shutterstock.com

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

      This is entirely a work of fiction. Any references to real people, living or dead, real events, businesses, organizations and localities are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books

      Source ISBN: 9780008287245

      Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN: 9780008287252

      Version: 2019-07-29

       Dedication

       Dedicated to The Sibs: Helenanne Hansen and Charlie Green

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Summer 2019

      Summer/Autumn 2018: Elliott

      Elliott

      Irene

      Elliott

      Irene

Elliott

Elliott

Irene

Elliott

Elliott

Elliott

Elliott

       Irene

       Elliott

       Irene

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Irene

       Elliott

       Irene

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Irene

       Elliott

       Irene

       Elliott

       Spring 2003: Liam

       Autumn 2018: Elliott

       Irene

       Summer 2003: Liam

       Autumn 2018: Elliott

       Irene

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Winter 2018: Elliott

       Autumn 2003: Liam

       Summer 2019: Elliott

       Autumn 2003: Liam

       Summer 2019: Irene

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Summer 2019: Liam

       Elliott

       Elliott

       Spring 2021: Irene

       Elliott

       Acknowledgements

       Keep Reading …

       About the Author

       Also by Cass Green

       About the Publisher

       SUMMER 2019

      There are three people alive inside the whitewashed family home at one pm on this sunny afternoon in late July. And because not much happens on this quiet road in this quiet seaside town, the first gunshot could perhaps be mistaken for a misfiring exhaust.

      But at this time of the afternoon, there is only a young man walking an elderly West Highland terrier on the road and he is lost in the music pumping through high-end, noise-cancelling headphones. Oblivious to the shriek of the seagulls and the rhythmic smash of surf against rock, he doesn’t hear the sharp retort of the gun or the screaming in its aftermath either.

      By the time the second shot comes – at 1.34 pm – he is long gone. The only witness to the violence is a seagull perched on the back wall, which tumbles into the air in outrage at the sound.

      It is less than a minute later when the gun fires for the third time.

       SUMMER/AUTUMN 2018

       ELLIOTT

      That festival was a big deal in our part of the world.

      Just up the road from the seaside town we called home, the End of the Summer event was usually a low-key, family-run affair with a number of acts you’ve probably never heard of.

      But this year was very different. For some