Dead Memories (D.I. Kim Stone #10)(101)

‘Where is it you fucking bitch?’ Kim screamed, rolling her slightly to the right.

Nothing.

‘Aaarrrgghhhhh…’ Kim cried out as she rolled her to the left and her injured thigh got caught between them.

But there it was, resting beneath her hip bone.

Kim grabbed for it giving Mallory the opportunity to swing her arm back and strike Kim on the side of the head.

Her vision clouded for a second, which was all Mallory needed to buck Kim off her, but Kim still had the knife clutched firmly in her palm.

Mallory squirmed and scooted out from beneath her delivering another elbow blow to her head.

Kim rocked sideways as Mallory got to her feet and took a step towards the rope. The woman didn’t have the knife but she could untie the knot.

‘Oh no you don’t,’ Kim screamed, lurching forward. She aimed the knife and thrust it into the back of the woman’s knee.

Mallory cried out in agony as she fell to the ground.

Kim instantly reached down to re-secure the rope. It snapped in her hand.

Kim grabbed onto it with both hands as the momentum of Alison’s weight falling pulled her and the rope across the rooftop. She managed to secure both palms around the rope and was slammed against the wall.

‘I’m not letting go,’ she screamed out as the rope burned into the skin on the palms of her hand. Every muscle in her arms and shoulders felt like it was being ripped from her bones.

‘I’m not fucking letting go,’ she cried out again and prayed that Alison could hear her.

She would allow the rope to pull her over the edge before she let it go.

She screamed out in pain as she felt as though her shoulders were leaving their sockets.

‘I’m not. I’m not… I’m not,’ she said to herself as Mallory managed to stagger back to her feet.

The woman reached down and pulled the knife from her knee and limped forward, crying out with every movement.

‘Stay back, Mallory,’ Kim cried, knowing there was nothing she could do.

She couldn’t defend herself and hold onto the rope that held Alison.

Blood was oozing from the wound in her knee but Mallory barely seemed to notice as she advanced on Kim.

‘And now I’m going to finish it,’ Mallory said, just three paces away from her.

Kim held tight to the rope.

She would not let go of Alison.

She met Mallory’s hate-filled gaze defiantly.

‘I’m not letting her—’

Kim’s words were cut off as the roof door burst open.

The noise distracted Mallory for as long as Penn needed to sprint towards them and throw her back across the roof.

Never had Kim been so pleased to see anyone in her life.

‘I’m not losing her, Penn,’ she said, as the rope bit into the cuts on her hands. ‘I swear I’m not letting her go. I’ve got her.’

Penn placed his hands on the rope above hers.

‘I know, boss, and now I’ve got her too.’





One Hundred Thirty-Six





Even by Hollytree’s standards they were providing quite the floor show.

Six squad cars, four ambulances and a fire engine that had been called when Alison was spotted dangling over the edge of the building. Thankfully, Bryant’s second attempt to break the window had been successful and he, Stacey and a kid named Brad had hauled her to safety.

‘You okay?’ Bryant said, as they watched the first ambulance containing Mallory Preece leave the scene.

Two squad cars followed and Penn was close behind, insisting on attending the hospital to ensure the woman was properly guarded during emergency medical treatment to her knee.

‘I look ridiculous,’ she said, holding up her bandaged hands. A local injection had numbed the pain for now but had done nothing for the agony in her shoulders. Thank God Penn had arrived when he had, helping her to hold on to Alison until Bryant pulled her in.

‘You stole my car,’ he observed, drily.

‘Borrowed,’ she corrected. ‘I always intended to give it back. I mean if I was gonna nick something I’d go for—’

‘Hey, leave her alone, she does okay.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘Seriously, though, you couldn’t give us some kind of clue?’

She shook her head. ‘The message said come alone and I couldn’t risk Alison’s life. Enough people have died this week.’

‘Guv, how many more times are we going to have this conversation?’

She smiled. ‘Oh, lots, I should think,’ she said, pushing herself up from the rear of the ambulance.

‘I swear, one of these days…’

‘Yeah, yeah, where is she?’ Kim asked.

‘Ambo on the left,’ he said, following her.

‘Hey,’ she said, opening the ambulance door. She wasn’t surprised to see Stacey sitting beside the behaviourist.

Alison’s face had regained some colour but a sheen of terror remained in her eyes.

‘Getting any feeling back?’

A slight nod confirmed that she was. ‘A lot of tingling,’ she said in a husky voice. She swallowed and a tear formed. ‘If you hadn’t come…’

‘But we did, Alison,’ Kim said, reaching over and taking a glass shard from her hair. ‘We all did.’