Deacon nodded, his head suddenly heavy. “She’s alive. They’re keeping her in hospital for a couple of days but she’ll be fine. Thanks to Daniel.”
Now French wanted a solicitor. While they waited Superintendent Fuller took Deacon to his office, sat him down with a cup of tea in a strong mug and got the details from him.
“Thanks to Daniel,” he agreed when the story was told, “and to you. She’s a lucky woman. She has some good friends.”
Deacon scowled into his tea. “Her friendship with me damn near cost her her life.”
Like a housewife in a crisis, Fuller pressed him to another biscuit. “You can’t legislate for people like French. All you can do is deal with them when you meet them. None of this was your fault. Not what happened to Mrs Farrell, and not what happened to Millie French.”
Deacon’s heart swelled with gratitude in a most unexpected way. There was possibly no one else he would have believed. But Fuller was an experienced police officer, and wouldn’t have lied about that even to make him feel better. “Thank you.”
Deacon finished his tea and headed for the door. With his hand on it, however, he paused and turned back. “I need to borrow some kit out of stores. I left most of mine scattered round the mill and I’m not going back hunting for it tonight.”
“What do you need?”
“A torch. And a nice big wrench.”
There was something in the way he said it that piqued Superintendent Fuller’s curiosity and made one eyebrow climb. “What do you need a wrench for? At this time of night?”
Deacon considered. “You know that motorbike that Charlie Voss fell off?”
Fuller nodded, uncomprehending.
Deacon smiled nastily. “I’m going to take it apart.”
The author of over twenty acclaimed novels, Jo Bannister started her career as a journalist after leaving school at sixteen to work on a local weekly newspaper. Shortlisted for several prestigious awards, she was Editor of the
County Down Spectator
for some years before leaving to pursue her writing full-time. She lives in Northern Ireland and is currently working on her next novel.
The Depths of Solitude
is the fourth book in a series featuring Brodie Farrell, Daniel Hood and Jack Deacon.
Echoes of Lies
True Witness
Reflections
THE DEPTHS OF SOLITUDE. Copyright @ 2004 by Jo Bannister. All rights reserved. . No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
eISBN 9781466808300
First eBook Edition : January 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bannister, Jo.
The depths of solitude : a Brodie Farrell mystery / Jo Bannister.—1st St. Martin’s Minotaur ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-33712-4
EAN 978-0312-33712-4
1. Farrell, Brodie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women private investigators—England—Fiction. 3. Missing persons—Fiction. 4. Friendship—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6052.A497D46 2004
823’_.914—dc22
2004051052
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby Limited
First St. Martin’s Minotaur Edition: December 2004