The Moor (DCI Ryan Mysteries, #11)(77)

“Ready, darling?”

At the top of the platform, Leonie kissed her husband and gave him the thumbs-up.

“I love you,” he said. “I’m sorry about—”

“I’ve already forgiven you,” she said, putting a protective hand on the bump she carried. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

If he thought it was an odd choice of words, Marco put it out of his mind and prepared to do a routine he’d practised many times before. Leonie made her way carefully down the ladder, pausing occasionally to catch her breath.

She wanted to see the full effect, from the ground.

The drumroll began, a deafening crescendo leading up to the moment when he would take his first leap. On the other side of the tent, on the opposite platform, his fellow acrobats began to swing the rope-bars, keeping time so he could judge the best moment to push off.

The drumroll stopped.

*

From the gangway, Ryan and Phillips waited for Marco to perform the last part of his routine. It was an impressive sight, and there was a hush amongst the crowd as they waited for the drumroll to stop. When it did, they watched him take the first leap, swinging back and forth to gain momentum and then, at exactly the right moment, Duke rallied the crowd to begin a countdown.

“FIVE!”

Marco’s legs pumped, to gain the height he needed.

“FOUR!”

Leonie reached the ground, sweating from the added exertion, and then hurried around to watch her husband’s last flight.

“THREE!”

The flame-thrower threw up an enormous fireball and there was another gasp from the crowd.

“TWO!”

Ryan’s eye strayed across the arena, to where Leonie’s face was briefly lit up by the light of the fire. The expression she wore was caught somewhere between love and madness.

“Frank—” He grabbed Phillips’ arm, but there was nothing he could do.

“ONE!”

Another huge fireball was timed to fill the gap just below the spot where Marco would perform a flip in mid-air, before catching the next rope-bar that was swinging towards him. But, this time, he never made it that far. As soon as he detached from the first swing, he felt his harness snap, and the distraction was enough to throw his coordination off. He flipped, but when he stretched out his hands to grasp the next swing, he found only air.

And then he was falling—twisting and tumbling into oblivion, with the safety harness plummeting to the floor by his side.

*

The crowd’s cheers turned to cries and then screams of terror. Mothers shielded their children’s eyes and scrambled to leave as panic spread. Duke ran out into the arena, calling for people to leave in orderly lines, trying to reassure them—telling them that an ambulance had been called.

But there was nothing anyone could do for Marco, now.

Ryan and Phillips pushed their way through the crowd, moving against the flow of people who were rushing to get out, and made their way into the arena where they found Duke in a state of shock.

“What happened?” Ryan demanded.

“The safety harness failed,” Duke said, sweating beneath his top hat. “It must have done, it’s the only thing I can think—”

“Who’s responsible for it?”

Duke wiped the sleeve of his jacket over his forehead to stem the flow of sweat that was dripping into his eyes.

“Marco checks it himself, or Leonie does. He says she’s the only other person he trusts to do it right.”

Ryan thought back to her maniacal face and scanned the arena, but there were too many people.

“Do you know where she is?”

Duke shook his head.

“Oh God, I hope she didn’t see that—”

“Never mind that, now,” Ryan said. “What’s the quickest way out of here?”

“Exit C,” Duke muttered. “Everybody forgets it’s there.”

“Frank, you stay here with the body, I’ll find Leonie.”

“Careful, lad. Remember what Gregory said.”

Ryan nodded, and then took off at a run.





CHAPTER 43


“Where are you off to?”

Yates caught Lowerson as he was heading out of the door, at the end of his shift.

“Don’t you want to come over for some…dinner, or something?”

She gave him a winning smile.

“Ah, I’d love to, but I can’t tonight. I’ve got a few errands I need to run.” He was surprised at how easily the lie rolled off his tongue, and his neck began to redden as his conscience battled against it.

Yates was disappointed but shrugged it off. There would be other days.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then.”

After a quick check to make sure nobody was there to see, she leaned in to brush her lips against his, and was pleased when his arms came up to wrap around her waist.

“’Night, Mel.”

“’Night, Guv.”

He rolled his eyes to make her laugh, then slung his blazer jacket over one shoulder and headed off to keep his appointment with Rochelle. He’d always been a straight-up sort of person; the kind of man who did things strictly by the book. But bringing in a new informant required some bending, he realised, and it was proving difficult to know where to draw the line, especially now that his relationship with Yates had just become a lot more complicated.