Only Darkness. Danuta Reah

      DANUTA REAH

      ONLY DARKNESS

      

       Copyright

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublisher 1999

      Copyright © Danuta Reah 1999

      Danuta Reah asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780006513155

      Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780007476558 Version: 2016-10-04

       Dedication

      For my mother, Margaret Kot, who died

      before this manuscript was accepted for publication.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

1

2

3

4

5

       6

       7

       8

       9

       10

       11

       12

       13

       14

       15

       16

       17

       18

       19

       Keep Reading

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

       1

      It was a Thursday in December, the night that Debbie saw the killer.

      She had just finished her evening class and was on her way out of the college. It was late – about nine-thirty. The students had kept her talking after the class was finished, and by the time she had dumped her books in the staff room and grabbed her coat, Les Walker was standing in the entrance lobby waiting to lock up after her.

      He jingled his keys as she approached and tapped his watch meaningfully. ‘Not got a home to go to?’

      ‘Doesn’t seem much point now,’ she said, looking at her watch in response to his gesture. ‘Sorry. Are you on again first thing?’ Debbie hated keeping people waiting. ‘Have I stopped you from going home?’

      Les shook his head. He didn’t seem too put out. ‘No, it’s gone ten by the time we’re finished here. Got to check all the rooms on the top yet.’

      He opened the heavy entrance door. A gust of wind pushed it in against him, and a spatter of rain hit the floor. ‘Wild night,’ he observed. ‘Got your car in the top car park? We’ve not locked it yet.’

      ‘No.’ Debbie looked apprehensively at the shiny dark of the pavement. ‘I’m on the train.’

      ‘You be careful then.’ Les was serious now. ‘Remember those girls …’

      Thanks, Les, I needed that. ‘That was way over outside Doncaster.’

      ‘Not got him yet. He’ll do it again. That kind of nutter, he’ll keep on till he’s caught. They want hanging, doing something like that, I’ll tell you …’

      The sound of feet on the steps outside silenced him, and Rob Neave, the security officer, pushed his way through the door. His hair was plastered to his face with the rain, and water was dripping from his jacket. ‘Finished over here?’ he said to Les. He acknowledged Debbie with a nod.

      ‘Just got the