The Rain Over Leeds
Chapter Nine — The Last Secret
← Liam Barrantine / The Rain Over Leeds
For the first time that night, Pennington looked genuinely afraid.
Salters explained what he had discovered.
Mercer had known that Pennington would eventually confront him. The threats, the meetings and the strange journey through Leeds had not been accidental. Mercer had been manipulating him.
He had wanted Pennington to panic.
He had wanted him to commit the murder.
And Mercer had made one final mistake of his own.
He had assumed that Pennington would behave predictably afterwards.
He had not anticipated Frank Salters.
The dead man had been guilty of many things.
Pennington was guilty of murder.
But the deeper story was uglier still.
The murder had been the final act of a relationship built upon fear, resentment and secrets that had survived for years.
Salters stood and put on his coat.
"Why did you leave the address?" he asked.
Pennington looked at him.
"I didn't."
Salters stopped.
The room seemed suddenly colder.
"Mercer did."
Salters understood.
The address had never been Pennington's mistake.
It had been Mercer's final message.
He had wanted somebody to find Pennington.
He had wanted the truth to come out.
Even after death, he had arranged the direction of the investigation.
About Liam Barrantine
Liam Barrantine is 56 and lives in North Yorkshire with his family. He holds a degree in criminology and worked for many years as a forensic investigator, an experience which informs the procedural detail and the slow unravelling of evidence in his fiction. He has a particular interest in murder mysteries, the mechanics of a crime, the inconsistencies in witness accounts, the small things that do not fit. The Rain Over Leeds is his first novel.
Author Page
Reader Comments
Leave a Comment or a Book Review
We would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter, or even a complete book review.