A bloodstained coat

A BLOODSTAINED COAT An absolutely gripping crime thriller with an astonishing twist STEPHEN WILLIAMS Raine and Hume Series Book 2 Joffe Books, London www.joffebooks.com First published in Great Britain in 2023 © Stephen Williams This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this. The right of Stephen Williams to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. We love to hear from our readers! Please email any feedback you have to: [email protected] Cover art by Nick Castle ISBN: 978-1-80405-928-9 CONTENTS Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Acknowledgements Love Free Bestselling Fiction? The Joffe Books Story Also by Stephen Williams A Selection of Books You May Enjoy Glossary of English Usage for US Readers Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Join our mailing list and get a FREE Kindle book from a bestselling author every week! Click here to join our mailing list and also get a free box set of short stories! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @joffebooks For Josephine All of me, all the time. Prologue Thank you for choosing this book. Join our mailing list and get FREE Kindle books from our bestselling authors every week! CLICK HERE TO GET MORE LOVELY BOOK DEALS Six months ago Julie didn’t know where she was. Air shredded out of her in painful gasps, and she clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to quieten her breathing. She turned her head and listened intently for any sound that meant they were near. Surely her escape would have been noticed by now. She wrapped her arms around herself and crouched under a table. At least, she thought it was a table. The room around her was pitch-black. All she could see were the flashes and starbursts behind her eyes, caused by the drugs they had made her take. She knew she should feel cold, in just boxers and a vest, but her skin was on fire. She rubbed her hands against her flesh, trying to brush away the prickles that ran under her skin like insects. There was the scrape of metal against concrete somewhere to her right. Or maybe her left. She couldn’t seem to get a fix on where the sound came from. The building was vast. She had stumbled up and down staircases in the dark to get here, her bare feet ripping on the concrete, her hands scraping the walls. She thought the building must be derelict. There was an emptiness about it. An echo-ness. Slowly, she crawled across the floor, her knees points of pain on the bare surface, trying to find a hiding place. When she reached a wall, she began moving along it, the fingers of her right hand outstretched in the dark. She flinched at a sudden clang as if someone had knocked over a piece of metal pipe. Julie wept silently, the tears streaming down her face, creating tracks in the dirt. They were close. Maybe even in the next room. Hunting her. If they came in now with their torches and headlamps, they’d see her immediately. Frantically she crawled faster, her fingers searching for an escape. A door, an alcove or even another table. Something she could use. Julie’s heart was beating so fast now it was painful, flashes of shock pulsing through her veins like marbles. Any moment now, she was sure, the arc of a torch beam would slide across her. Then the wall ended, and she was grasping at air. Quickly, she shuffled through the gap, almost immediately hitting her head on something solid. She reached out her hands to find flat hardness on three sides. She was in a small utility room. Turning, she felt for the door, pushing it shut. The snick of the latch as it closed made her wince. If they heard the noise, then they would know where she was. And if they caught her, they would kill her. No doubt about it. She pressed her ear against the door, but the only sound was the whooshing of the blood in her veins. Julie ground her fists into her eyes, trying to make her brain work. She might only have a few minutes before they found her. Julie scrabbled around, searching for anything she could use as a weapon. Or something she could jam the door shut with, although what good that would do, she didn’t know. If the building was abandoned, they could just break it down. Any noise they made wouldn’t matter, because there would be no one to hear it. After a few manic moments, she stopped. It was pointless; there was nothing here. The room was empty. Beyond the door, she could hear muffled voices. She couldn’t tell how far away they were, but they must be close. A calmness enveloped her. After so many months of pain and fear and loneliness, suddenly there was nothing to do. There was nowhere to run. They would either find her or not. If they opened the door, they would see her and kill her. If they didn’t . . . well, that was her only chance. Stay hidden. That’s all there was to it. She