The Whispering Dead (Gravekeeper #1) - Darcy Coates Page 0,77
No one will ever know what happened to you.”
It struck her that this must be the same train of logic he’d had on the bridge. She knew nothing about the strange man except what she’d glimpsed, but it was easy to guess that he was on the fringe of society. The perfect target for Gavin. The ideal opportunistic crime, one he had likely spent months wishing he could replicate.
Worst of all, Gavin was right—if she disappeared, very few people would notice.
His words made her realize something else, though. Gavin was stalling. He wanted to kill her, in the same way a starving coyote slinks ever closer to its prey, but when it came to the moment of action, he hesitated.
I can work with that.
She tensed up, pretending to struggle against him, and he predictably pushed her down even more firmly. She kept up the struggle for another second, then abruptly went boneless. From where he rested his weight on her back, Gavin couldn’t miss the change.
“Hey, little mouse.” He released her hair and slapped her face. She stayed limp. “Did you seriously faint on me?”
He hesitated for a moment, then snorted, and the weight left her back. It was all Keira could do to keep the grin off her face. Gavin hovered over her for a second, then she heard him move toward the river bank. He was going to look for his knife.
That was a bad choice.
Keira was off the ground before Gavin could even turn. She slammed into him, forcing him back, and they tumbled into the stream. Gavin’s shriek choked off as his head plunged under the water.
Her cuts burned in protest, but Keira ignored them as she snatched her own knife out of her back pocket. She pushed her open palm into Gavin’s throat to twist his head back and hold it still. They came to rest with Gavin lying almost completely in the water, staring up at Keira in horror. His hands were gripping the front of her jacket, half to fight her and half as an attempt to pull himself out of the stream.
Keira pressed her knife into his throat, just below her hand, and he exhaled a gurgling whimper. Because of the way she held him, he couldn’t pull away from the water without cutting open his own throat, and he couldn’t jerk away from the knife without submerging himself.
She gave him a second to appreciate his predicament before speaking. She kept her voice steady and enunciated slowly to be sure he understood.
“You got a couple of things right. I am wild. And I’m good at disappearing. I’m seriously tempted to use both of those traits tonight; by the time they find your remains, I’ll be long out of here.”
His eyes were wide circles, and his lips shook as he opened them, but the only sound he made was a strained, terrified whine.
“But you were wrong about something else. I didn’t arrive in Blighty by accident. I have work to do here. And I know things.” She leaned close enough to see his pupils contract with fear. “I know your secret. I saw what you did to the man on the bridge. Murderer.”
His mouth worked, opening and closing again like an oxygen-starved fish.
“You thought no one saw and that no one would ever know. But I saw. I see everything.”
“Please.” His voice was strangled with tears. “It wasn’t—I didn’t—”
“Yes, you did. You were going to set traps in the forest, but you were tired of killing just animals, weren’t you? So you pushed him. You left his bottle on the bridge and walked home thinking that no one would be any wiser.”
He made a strange noise, something between a sob and a whine. “I’m sorry. It was dumb. I was so stupid— I never meant to— I never should have—”
Disgust coiled through Keira’s stomach. She’d just accused him of taking a life, and yet all Gavin could talk about was himself. He didn’t regret his actions. He only regretted being caught.
She could pay it forward. If she pushed his head just a little more, he’d be underwater. It might even be the same stream he plunged his acquaintance into—the riverbanks weren’t as wide at that point, but she was fairly sure it would travel to the other side of Blighty, merging with its counterparts to form the large, steady flow that washed under the stone bridge.
Keira’s hand twitched down, and the water rose over Gavin’s ears. Just a little farther and his nose