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Dark Waters: The addictive psychological thriller you won’t be able to put down
Mary-Jane Riley
A darkly compelling psychological thriller, full of twists and turns, perfect for fans of Louise Jensen, Cass Green and Alex Lake.Secrets lie beneath the surface…Two men, seemingly unconnected, are discovered dead in a holiday boat on the Norfolk Broads, having apparently committed suicide together.Local journalist Alex Devlin, planning an article on the dangers of internet suicide forums, starts digging into their backgrounds.But Alex’s investigation soon leads her to a much darker mystery – one that will hit closer to home than she could possibly have imagined, and place the lives of those she loves in terrible danger.
Dark Waters
MARY-JANE RILEY
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Copyright (#uefcda61b-480a-591a-8ce3-26e5b31140dd)
KillerReads
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Copyright © Mary-Jane Riley 2018
Cover design by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com (https://www.shutterstock.com/)
Mary-Jane Riley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
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.
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.
Ebook Edition © March 2018 ISBN: 9780008285104
Version: 2018-02-19
Dedication (#uefcda61b-480a-591a-8ce3-26e5b31140dd)
For The Tillster
Table of Contents
Cover (#uda0a34b1-13c8-555a-8e43-b733d41ed39a)
Title Page (#u2171c8c2-c4b0-5fb3-8bdf-4b4a535ff078)
Copyright (#ue1891245-1287-5596-85f2-56f1ce2c4fc6)
Dedication (#u7d723a02-d9a8-5a53-832f-a0bf20d3fd2a)
The Norfolk Broads (#u1c8a59af-ba00-50c6-af2b-2ddd35248877)
Three Weeks Earlier (#udb5200b4-cfcb-5829-a0db-47f622dd1021)
Chapter 1 (#u1bfde7f6-eaf5-5cb4-9e37-3e109b007e1b)
Chapter 2 (#uc9d1d815-4f3d-5177-a092-f8b74a2cbc8a)
Chapter 3 (#u7f653edc-2613-5960-8b6c-914cb56153b2)
Chapter 4 (#u11204267-7c76-501e-9c56-f11884346fbe)
Chapter 5 (#ufad3e61c-c2d1-513b-bd6b-362ecf1d6deb)
Chapter 6 (#ud8cf3261-f9da-540d-801c-995dc1d22328)
Chapter 7 (#ub66bdf57-29a9-5326-bcf1-be24e7737e7b)
Chapter 8 (#ua5dee300-1ce8-5fb8-90eb-e0570d69fab7)
Chapter 9 (#uc80e0d48-669d-5308-85ee-5606d86f0e52)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 39 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Keep Reading... (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
The Norfolk Broads – a haven of peace and tranquility simply waiting to be discovered and explored. And a boating holiday on the Broads opens up a world of beauty, cruising through reed marshes, woodland and meadow. Find hidden waterways teeming with wildlife. Moor close to welcoming riverside pubs, quaint villages, and market towns. Choose a Harper’s Holidays cruiser and start unwinding today!
Three Weeks Earlier (#uefcda61b-480a-591a-8ce3-26e5b31140dd)
Decomposition sets in.
First, both hearts stop beating and the cells and tissues are starved of oxygen. The brain cells are the first to die – all that ‘being’ ended.
Blood drains from the capillaries, pooling in lower-lying parts of the body, staining the skin black. Rigor mortis has been and gone by now, the muscles becoming stiff three hours after death, but within seventy-two hours rigor mortis has subsided. The bodies are cool. They are pliable again.
As the cells die, bacteria begins to break them down. Enzymes in the pancreas cause each organ in each of the bodies to digest itself. Large blisters appear all over the bodies. Green slime oozes from decomposing tissue, and methane and hydrogen sulphide fill the air. Bloody froth trickles from the mouths and noses.
And all this time the insects are enjoying themselves. One fly can lay three hundred eggs on one corpse, and they will hatch within twenty-four hours. The hatching maggots use hooks in their mouths to scoop up any liquid seeping from the bodies. They are efficient, these maggots. Their breathing mechanism is located on the opposite end to their mouths so they can breathe and eat at the same time.
Within a day the maggots reach the second stage of their lives and burrow into the putrefying flesh.
The pleasure cruiser has been tied to the wooden mooring post on Poppy Island for at least three days. There has been no movement. The curtains are drawn. The doors and windows are closed. Somebody will find them soon.
1 (#uefcda61b-480a-591a-8ce3-26e5b31140dd)
Gary Lodge and his wife, Ronnie, both noticed the boat as they motored past the island on the second day of their holiday. It looked brand new, its white paintwork gleaming in the sunshine. Although it was the middle of the day, the curtains were closed. They didn’t remark on it to each other, though – Gary thought the people on board had probably been on the razz the night before (though when he thought about it later he realized there was no pub on the island and no way off it except by boat). Ronnie thought it was a case of daytime nookie; though, if it had been her, she would have left the curtains open.
Three days later, the Lodges, after lazy days of boating, drinking and sweaty sex, travelled back down the Broads.
‘Isn’t that the same boat?’ said Gary.
‘As what?’ Ronnie was enjoying the cool breeze on her face.
‘You know. As when we came by the other day. It had its curtains closed then. Still does.’
Ronnie smiled, put her arms around Gary and nuzzled into the crook of his neck. ‘Probably, babes. I don’t know. We’ve had a good time though, haven’t we?’ She didn’t want to think about other people, she wanted to keep hold of this loving feeling she had towards Gary – all too rare during their mundane everyday life that seemed to be filled with work and just getting by.
But Gary didn’t react to Ronnie’s amorous advances. He started to turn the wheel of the boat.
She looked up. ‘What are you doing now?’
‘Just want to have a look,’ he said, guiding the boat across the water and behind the other cruiser. ‘Tie her up, will you?’
Ronnie frowned. The loving feeling evaporating into thin air. She wanted to tell him to jump off the boat and tie the frigging thing up himself. He’d thought himself some sort of Captain Birdseye, but without the beard, the whole bloody holiday. But she didn’t say anything. She swallowed her irritation, sighed, grabbed the rope and jumped out onto the bank. That was one thing she wouldn’t miss: all this jumping on and off.
‘Okay,’ she called when she was done.
‘Done the right knot?’
